The explosion of the internet, advances in telecommunication and the widespread use of smart devices have all empowered costumers beyond anyone’s imagination. Touch points now include social networks, chats, apps as well as traditional phones, mail and face to face. Empowered customers expectations are constantly on the rise and influenced across industries. In highly competitive markets, it has become an accepted fact that Customer Experience (CX) is pivotal to building brand equity and improving profitability.
Here are 5 top ways you can make sure your CX strategy is still meeting the needs of your empowered costumers.
1. Allowing for Customisation of Products or Services
This can represent quite a challenge in some sectors such as insurance, where traditional legacy underwriting systems might not facilitate the ability to create a new product rapidly, and time-to market may be the deciding factor between winning and losing the business. However, a number of providers are allowing people to customise products and services online, such as mobile, internet and cable TV packages, as well as car, home and health insurance – thereby giving people the ability to pick relevant pieces from an “a la carte” menu.
2. Loyalty discounts:
While cross-selling is commonly practiced, customers expect discounts when they purchase several products from the same provider. This can be a real challenge if these products are from different services lines managed by different systems. The customer expects to see “one vendor” and expects that vendor to be fully aware of their relationship and purchasing history.
3. Omni-Channel Access
Customers like to “channel-hop” i.e., have the ability to start a process on one device and complete it on another without having to start the process all over (“suspend and resume”). This is a trend facilitated by smart devices and overall broadband access through Wi-Fi. A customer should be able to research and start a quote online while sitting in the train or bus, save it, then place the order from the home PC and pick up the item from the store the next day.
4. Personalised Correspondence
It is no longer acceptable to send “generic” emails, letters or SMS, especially when sending special offers. These communications are critical opportunities to strengthen the relationship and trigger feedback or engagement, and are no longer simply a way of getting additional revenue. Furthermore, near-field technology has created unique opportunities, especially for retailers. An example of this is the ability to send an SMS to alert someone that an item they were looking at on the store website is now on sale, just as they walk past the store.
5. Be easy to do business With
In response to demand for mass customisation by consumers, many businesses have broken down their product, services and bundles into a granular self-serve menu. Navigating through the abundance of options and choices can be overwhelming to customers. The selection and buying process can easily become more complex and lengthy. Furthermore, with the responsibility of self-assessing the best fit, consumers can procrastinate in making a decision, because they are aware that the wrong selection can often have dire consequences, e.g. under-insurance. This is one area where technology from vendors such as Cincom can address that issue and turn it around a competitive advantage.
Cincom Systems offer IT solutions that solve complex business problems such as quickly meeting the needs of demanding empowered costumers despite operating in highly regulated industries such as Financial Services.
