In a previous post we touched on the findings from Forrester’s recent 2011 Customer Experience Index Report. It essentially underscores a major problem plaguing brands today: poor customer experiences. If you don’t have the time or inclination to actually read the 20-page study, one need only scan the results for the Twitter hashtag #fail to come to the same brutal, yet not surprising conclusion: there are not many brands doing it well.
The extremely low Customer Experience Index (CxPi) scores and plethora of rants against brands signal a wake-up call for marketers increasingly challenged by fickle consumers, a multitude of options and dwindling brand loyalty. Though it seems logical if not obvious, many forget that the best experiences (whether online or offline) are customer-in.
To help marketers increase their scores and improve relationships with customers, we’ve created a marketer’s checklist, “7 Principles of Extraordinary Customer Experiences.”
1. Easy is easy.
The customer experience can be one of two things: difficult or easy. Give a customer a navigation puzzle to solve and they’ll be navigating away from your site. The good news: It’s simply a matter of delivering an experience that is so honest it comforts them, so holistic it astounds them and so automatic it absorbs them. The bad news: that’s a tall order. Delivering on that order comes down to two things: getting customers to the right product or service, then seamlessly closing the sale.
- Create simple choices.
- Make it easy to find the product.
- Close the sale with prominent Calls to Action.
2. Inspire.
Respect, no love your customer. Love them back as much as they love you. Because they do. Pay it back by celebrating your product or service, making it heroic and highlighting your brand in a motivating, meaningful way. Celebrate your unique offering and the only place you’ll see the competition is in the rearview mirror. Celebrating your product/service means 4 things:
- Embrace attitude: inject your brand into the experience.
- Make the product hero.
- Keep the experience alive: build one that lives, breathes and hence, sells.
- Ensure authenticity: keep it real.
3. Educate.
Digital is the most versatile medium ever. Motion, sound, imagery, art, both recorded and in real time, they all live here. You can use them to educate people about your products and hence sell better. Digital can sell products and services in ways no other method or medium can.
- Educate at every step.
4. No matter where I am, make it contextual.
Sites, video, mobile and social—they all boil down to experiences with your brand. Some customers will come to immerse themselves in it, and dream a little while browsing. Caught in the moment, they may be intrigued enough to buy if shown the right product at the right moment in the right environment.
- Content—in context—is king.
5. Facilitate connections.
Make it easy for your customers to strike up conversations, communicate with one another, and share information. People thrive on the mutual connection they feel with a brand, and through it, with one another. Allow customers to share content from your site with others in a way that fits their digital universe. These exchanges are happening. Don’t just observe them, facilitate them. Better yet, own them.
- Use connections to drive conversion
6. Keep it relevant.
We’re living in a “me” world. The ultimate customer experience is intensely relevant to the individual. People know what they like. People know what they need. People know what they want. So you’ve got to deliver an experience as custom as their unique needs. Keep it relevant and you’ll deepen ties with your brand. The payoff? Deeper relationships, stronger ties, and the validation those naturally produce.
- Drive orders with relevance
7. Make it accessible and portable.
“Consumers don’t see the difference between marketing channels. They just see the brand and then use the channel that’s most convenient for them at that time” (eMarketer). Customers expect easy access to content, communities, and shopping wherever and whenever. Content must react to their lifestyle, not the other way around.
- – Transact where the customer is.
The marketplace is crowded and the competition increasingly fierce. The key to delivering an extraordinary customer experience is placing the customer at the center your marketing strategy—through content that educates, inspires and connects in whatever medium and through whatever channels your customers live.
