Customers are the reason we are all in business. The customer’s reaction to your brand dictates success or failure. And since nobody actually seeks to fail, it pays to know how your customers experience you, your company, your product, and your brand. Conventional customer-satisfaction surveys have limitations; they tend to assess isolated pieces of the overall experience, and might very well neglect what happens before the sale or during it. Here are five SMART Tips for evaluating your customer’s experience and using it to acquire more customers.
Tip #1: It’s the Customer’s Viewpoint, Not Yours. You’ve got to know what the experience is like from your customer’s perspective, including the good and the bad. Too many companies have faltered because (a) they didn’t obtain the ‘brutal facts’ from their customers and/or (b) once they got those facts, they couldn’t deal with them.
Tip #2: The Brand Experience Starts Early. Customers are exposed to information about you and your business long before they achieve ‘customer-hood.’ Find out if your branding sends the right messages to the customers you want to attract and retain.
Tip #3: Make the Customer’s Experience Consistent and Continuous. Sales is only one Customer Touchpoint. The sales experience should seamlessly follow the marketing experience and seamlessly lead to post-sale service. Disconnects and differences in values, ethics, and behavior are no-nos. If you treat prospects like stars, make sure customers get the same treatment, or better.
Tip #4: Every Point is a Customer Touchpoint. The customer’s experience is affected every time they experience your product or service. The receptionist, the service tech, the inside sales rep, the fulfillment house, the chambermaid, the busboy – all impact the customer experience. What would you need to know, in order to know it was the right experience?
Tip #5: Know What’s Going On at Every Touchpoint. Don’t take it for granted that the whole scheme works as planned. Set up realistic performance indicators, track them, report on them, and analyze them. Finally, face the brutal facts. Welcome the unwelcome, and work with it. Even if the feedback is uniformly rosy, keep digging.
There is always room for improvement.
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