During December we posted 12 CX Wishes going through all the things your customers wish for when it comes to great CX – not just for Christmas but for all year round. To save you time here they are all in one place. Follow us on our LinkedIn page for more CX insights!
Wish #1 – Personalisation
Everyone loves a personal touch. Use data to tailor each touchpoint delivering relevant and meaningful experiences that make customers feel valued. Personalising your customer’s experiences shows them that you understand their needs and they’re more than just a number in the system for you. Personalisation fosters deeper bonds, turning one-time buyers into loyal advocates.
Wish #2 – Convenience
You need to make every interaction with your business as easy and effortless as possible. Even the slightest friction can cause your customers to leave to your competitors. Customers want an omnichannel experience so that they can do business with you in a way that suits them. This is especially important today when customer’s expectations are rising even faster due to recent AI developments.
Wish #3 – Consistency
Your customers want you to deliver on your promise and stay consistent in delivering great experiences every time. As well as that, consistency builds trust, so the quality and standard of the experience should be aligned across every channel and touchpoint. A consistent experience reassures customers that they can rely on you, no matter where or how they connect with you. This reliability can be a key differentiator in a crowded market.
Wish #4 – Empathy
Empathy in CX means understanding your customers’ emotions, circumstances and behaviours. Customers want you, as an organisation, and all your staff – especially the ones who are directly dealing with customers – to understand how they feel at any given touchpoint in the customer journey. In a contact centre setting this would be demonstrated by, active listening, putting yourself in your customer’s shoes, and responding in a way that reassures the customer you understand where they’re coming from.
Wish #5 – Recognition
Loyal customers will stay with you longer and buy more from you. Research has shown that loyal customers will spend almost 70% more than new customers. This highlights the importance of recognising your customers’ loyalty.
By recognising your customers for their loyalty you strengthen customer bonds and turn them into advocates for your brand.
Wish #6 – Quality
Customers have high expectations and standards – they want to receive a great product or service but also a great experience. It is important to remember that customers’ expectations are constantly and rapidly rising. What was a great experience a year ago, today is assumed to be a given. So to meet these constantly rising expectations of great quality, you need to train and empower your staff to go above and beyond for your customers.
Wish #7 – Respect (for my time)
‘Time is money’. Customers want to invest their hard-earned money in a business that will deliver exceptional experiences. Therefore, long waiting times on the phone, never-ending queues in physical stores, slow loading times on the website or waiting for a delivery for 2 weeks is a big no-no. Your customers wish for immediate results, to make this wish come true you need to use the right technology, employ the right staff and train them to deliver exceptional experiences.
Wish #8 – Transparency
Transparency sells better than perfection. This is because customers like to make informed decisions. So it’s important to tell your customers what they won’t be able to do with your product or service. But that’s not all – you should also be upfront about any changes or issues that may have come up. By being proactive and transparent your customers will trust you and the customer bond will grow stronger.
Wish #9 – Innovation
Customers are looking forward to all the ways businesses will utilise AI to improve and develop their experiences. Naturally, they will want not only simple improvements like faster resolutions but other ones that will change (for the better) how they interact with your business on a daily basis. Customers want to deal with creative businesses. A great example of this is the beauty brand Prose which combines data from customer profiles and automated fulfilment technology to deliver personalised products and reduce environmental waste.
Wish #10 – Reliability
Having to worry about a missing order or an issue with a refund is not something customers want in their daily lives – especially if they’re paying a lot of money for it. Customers want to feel at ease knowing that if something happens you will take ownership and fix issues brilliantly. They rely on you to take care of everything.
Wish #11 – Confidence (in your brand)
Customers want to trust you. They want to have confidence when buying your products and when using your services. As well as this they want to feel safe with sharing their data with you. So that they can recommend you to their friends and family with confidence. Trust is earned slowly over time, interaction by interaction. CX training can help your staff to build trust and confidence with your customers, leading to more loyal and engaged customers who stay longer and buy more from you.
Wish #12 – Human Touch
AI & Technology are great – but customers don’t want to interact with robots all the time. When it’s convenient for them customers are happy to use technology such as self service and chatbots. But when they need real help on complicated or sensitive matters, they want to speak to a human with empathy that will understand them and go above and beyond to help them. With the rise of AI capabilities, it is important to ensure you balance your investment in AI with investment in your people, giving them the knowledge and skills to deliver a genuine and excellent experience for your customers when they want to speak to a human.
If you want to learn how to deliver great CX strategies that will make all your customer’s wishes come true, enrol in our Professional Diploma in CX here.
