The new ROI — Return on involvement
As a business owner in any industry, it can be so easy to focus on the product you have to offer. From cars to drinking cups and everything in between, after the many steps to order your goods, ensure they are good quality, keep track of stock and deal with shipping, there can be little time to think about anything else.
However, with so much competition out there in the market, there is another area you must pay close attention to if you want to succeed in the long term.
In today’s attention economy, we need to embrace the new ROI — return on involvement.
The age of customer experience has arrived. When so many brands offer similar items, your business needs to stand out because of the way you make people feel as well as the items they take home. What’s more, you need to have an understanding of how they are feeling so you can shape their experience accordingly.
I have put together a helpful starter article for anyone who wants to know more about Customer Experience. Please note that this article shares my own views and does not express the opinions of my employers or customers.
Introducing CX
CX, also known as Customer Experience, describes customers’ perceptions — both conscious and subconscious, of the relationship with your brand. It encompasses all their interactions with it over time.
The CX journey includes:
- The first time your customers search for what they want using search engines like Google or a shopping platform like Amazon
- The steps they go through to order or obtain the product
- Their perception of the packaging, delivery and additional information
- The usability of the product
- The ‘after sales’ experience, such as follow up emails or phone calls.
Think of CX like filming a movie about the buyer’s life, rather than taking a snapshot at the moment that buyer makes a transaction.
I am impressed with the Customer Experience Management (CEM) model created by Dr. Can Erdem and Dr.Nihat Tavsan in CEM 4.0. It’s a practical model that helps any CX leaders learn about customer journey.
The model has broken down four areas that can improve the effectiveness of customer engagement.
1/ At the bottom, ‘cognizance’ refers to the experiences customers pursue. To figure this out, you need to listen to the voice of your customers. There are several ways to gain access to this, for example through surveys, reviews, polls, focus groups or online communities. While it is easy to make assumptions, if you don’t speak to your customer directly or at least refer to data that tracks their habits, you’re flying blind.
2/ Response refers to the capability of the company to close what’s known as the ‘experience gap’. This is the disconnect between what companies assume the customer thinks about the brand based on corporate values and what customers actually feel. Motorcycle brand Harley Davidson can be used as an example. When the first bike model was launched, the manufacturers wanted to position it as a racer. The interesting part is the majority of their customers had no interest in racing. Instead, they perceived the brand as a symbol of freedom and adventure. Harley Davidson redefined its branding to adapt to customers’ needs, while keeping its essential values in mind. You can see from this example how brands need to respond to the voice of their customers and orchestrate touchpoints with customer viewpoints in mind.
3/ Perception refers to what customers think about a brand. This can be broken into two parts; how the customer understands the function of your product, and how they perceive your service. Both of these are equally important! If you look into research, people often gravitate towards brands because of the experience that’s on offer, not the product itself. Here’s another example: When you go to the supermarket to grab a bottle of shampoo, it’s often what the bottle communicates to you, not the shampoo itself. This is why you see so many brands in different colours and with different names. You’re more likely to reach for the brand that matches your personality, then drill down to your hair care needs inside that brand. It’s also like mechanics who fix cars… these are a dime a dozen. You need to find a way to be relevant to your customers at every stage of their journey with you. This is why aftersales is being taken more seriously during the CX era. An example of positive customer experience could come from a mechanic workshop that sends helpful emails when a service is due and hands out free information booklets about how to care for your car between visits.
4/ Finally, relationship level comes down to building ongoing relationships and encouraging bonding/loyalty. This is the essential part of CX that will keep people coming back. Think about how you can create personalised experiences so your customers feel like they’re the only person you care about.
When it comes to relationships, measuring customer churn rate or predicting who is likely to move on from your brand quickly is a popular trend to define customer loyalty. I am in the process of learning how to map this so brands can quickly identify which customers are the most valuable to them.
The not-so-missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to figuring out what causes churn is data. This is a topic I will explore in my next article.
#customerexperience #CX #customerjourney #Data&AI #machinelearning
