In reality, customers expectations are now higher than ever and with every new, great experience, they raise higher again.
Here's 5 facts you should consider when managing or thinking about your customer experience.
1. If you focus too much on top level numbers, you won't improve experiences.
Many businesses are number driven, but think about what the "I" stands for in KPIs. In modern customer experience, numbers are indicators, they should point you to the place to dig deeper into your data to find out what is causing the changes you are seeing. Focusing, and worrying about numbers alone will not improve them, making interventions to the things that matter to customers will and is key.2. Customers expectations are not derived from experiences with your business alone.
Customers interact with multiple organisations and people every day, experiences on websites or with self serve machines contribute to expectation levels. Customers take these experiences and quite rightly expect at least the same or better from other places. The type of business, product, service or interaction makes no difference, if someone else can do it well, so can you.3. Getting basic human behaviors right will see customers forgive you some of your mistakes.
Customers are human, they are not all the stereotype blueprints that will ditch you at the very first sight of an issue. When customers can see you are actively listening to them, trying to improve and making progress, they will often stick with you. But the forgiveness will only go so far, use up too much of the good will you have gained and customers will start to notice your competitors.4. If your not understanding how your customers feel, you're missing essential insights.
Customer experience is all about how you make customers feel, and it always has been. A range from Irradiated through Disappointed to Neutral, passed Satisfied and on to Delighted will give you a good range to work against. You then need to know why customers feel this way and take action on what they tell you.You can create your own free Voice of customer system by using my simple guide found here. (Coming soon!)
5. Be careful when segmenting customers by their age.
Customers are human, they are not all the stereotypical millennial's that everyone would have us believe will ditch you at the very first sight of an issue. The term millennial's is just a fancy label placed on an age range, a stark contrast to the modern theory that companies should market to a segment of one. Grouping customers by age range and then assuming what they want because they are in that range is a dangerous game.About the author
James Scutt | JamesScutt.com
James is an eminent Customer Experience XM leader and strategist with a unique value proposition spanning sales, operations, technology, culture change and the hospitality industry. A Non-executive Director and keynote speaker, James is the founder of CustomerXM.org & CXaccredited.com