Customer Experience
/ˈkəstəmər/ /ˌikˈspirēəns/
noun [ singular]
how people find, engage with, and advocate for the brands they love
– www.ansira.com
When considering the importance of CX today, it’s hard not to reflect on the last two years and the major societal changes that have impacted both consumer behavior and the way business gets done.
This period of dramatic change has served as a catalyst for how we now define customer experience and the types of experiences customers have come to expect. The rulebook for what makes a good customer experience has been forever altered, pushing brands to evaluate and modernize their approach to engendering brand loyalty, as well as connecting with customers and employees in a more meaningful way.
At Ansira, we believe there are four keys to designing great customer experiences:
- Take an ecosystem-centric approach.
- Start from a people-focused data foundation.
- Leverage Design Thinking methods.
- Implement measurement-focused testing and constant iteration.
Let’s break these down a bit further and explore how each one can positively impact your organization’s CX.
Take an ecosystem-centric approach
Per Forrester, “Every organization is part of a CX ecosystem that determines the quality of the CX.” When considering how to drive results through elevating the customer experience, think broader. Assess the full ecosystem—from customers and employees to franchisees, channel partners, and beyond.
Success with this strategy hinges on navigating the complexities of an enterprise-wide approach, while keeping your values and customers’ needs at the center. Customer experience improvements should be considered across the organization, not concentrated solely within the marketing or digital teams.
Start from a people-focused data foundation
To gain a deeper understanding of the emotional and contextual drivers of your customer base, it’s important to use more thoughtful, people-focused data. For example, take time to analyze your data to establish needs-based customer segments. This exercise will ultimately allow you to better understand how your business is performing to meet those specific needs.
A few questions your team should ask:
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- Does the current CX enable self-discovery to help customers meet their needs?
- Does the company provide accessible opportunities for customers to inquire and receive assistance?
- Are your customer experiences engaging, unique, and proactive based on identified customer needs?
It’s essential to understand how you score on meeting these needs while also maintaining an ongoing system to identify, analyze, and pivot based on the ever-changing needs of your customers.
Leverage Design Thinking methods
Great customer experiences should be useful, accessible, and engaging. Employing Design Thinking methods—a methodology that provides a five-stage solution to solving problems (Emphasize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test)—can provide a systematic approach for teams to rally around problems inherent to the customer.
By creating a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) model to assess the financial impact of utilizing design thinking methodology, Forrester was able to project a median per-project ROI of 229%, “with three-quarters of projects doubling their investment or more. At an organizational level, a mature design thinking practice can achieve an ROI between 71% and 107%, based on a consistent series of inputs and outputs.”
Are the ideas or solutions designed useful (utility), accessible (usability) and engaging (desirability?) Adding the lens of design thinking methods to the customer experience planning process can help establish a results-based approach to begin to truly understand the customer.
Implement measurement-focused testing and constant iteration
Building an ideal customer experience (and the strategy/vision behind it) is not a one-time event. Ensuring the right tools are in place to monitor and measure performance across both business and customer KPIs allows brands to take an iterative, ever-evolving approach to CX.
Are you measuring customer satisfaction? What about brand advocacy? Do you currently monitor customer loyalty, retention, and churn? Developing a scalable approach to capturing and analyzing these metrics will allow for a more intimate understanding of the customer experience—both what works and what doesn’t.
Looking Forward
As customer expectations continue to evolve, think beyond simply taking an omnichannel approach or implementing a personalization strategy. When it comes to the customer experience, thoughtfulness, innovation, and agility will go far in this next year.
About Ansira
An independent, global marketing technology and services firm, Ansira believes in transparent partnerships to meet clients where they are on their customer experience journey. Ansira designs relevant, persuasive experiences for all the right moments, strengthening relationships, cultivating brand loyalists, and assuring profitable client growth. Teams operating across the US, Europe, South Asia, and Oceania, arm brands and their channel sales ecosystems with digital offerings, channel partner marketing technology and services, and local marketing technology to make these experiences possible. For more information, visit Ansira.com or LinkedIn.
