Improve your customer experience
I want you to picture this scenario;you walk into a crowded and noisy restaurant then you also see dirty tables with uncleared plates,as you try to find your way, you step onto crumbs of food that were falling from the tables as the other people were eating.
It’s a crowded place and as you try to speak to someone from there, you’re ignored and you spend almost 15 minutes without getting any assistance or greeting from anyone.
When you finally speak to someone the person is inattentive,rude and uncaring. You then try to speak to another person again and you receive the same treatment.
You then try the third person whom you think works there and you finally place your order of chicken and chips.
When you try to pay, you are told that swipe is down and they don’t have change for US$20.Someone behind you hears and sees your troubles and offers to give you change for the $20 and you finally pay.
After you’ve paid, you find it terribly difficult to have a place to sit. When you finally sit,you realize the table is dirty and there are used plates that have not been collected.
After some 10 minutes, someone comes to try and clean the table but you’re halfway with the chips. As you eat your meal,you discover the chicken is not well roasted and is burnt.
The above scenario is what customer experience is all about. How you were feeling at all those encounters is what is termed customer experience.
Customer experience has nowadays become a major source of competitive advantage. Businesses are now placing great emphasis on how customers feel when they interact with the brand at any point of contact.
Below I now share 4 ways of improving customer experience:
- Have clean environments*
Environment or atmosphere is a very important determinant of the customer’s experience. Customers love clean and healthy environments especially in food-related businesses.
- Have helpfulness staff.*
Customer service is a very powerful component of the customer’s experience. Make sure service providers are warm,friendly and customer-oriented.
- Improve your processes*
Processes come in a number of types and transaction processes are so important in customer experience.
- Deliver Good products*
A product is a very fundamental brand touch point,so you need to make sure that it is delivered according to customer expectations.
Customers’ expectations are heightened and influenced by a number of things.Messages that we send through different media channels help shape the customers’ expectations.
What people say about our businesses will keep shaping what our customers will expect from us. The experiences that our customers had in the past have the power to determine what those customers will expect from us in the future.
Customer expectations are a function of a multiplicity of forces,factors and variables as mentioned above.
When customers deal with us,they have a certain level of expectation which is based on those influences we have described above.
When what the customer was expecting does not happen,that customer’s expectations will be disconfirmed. This will mean a disappointed customer in other words.
The customer’s expectations of value should be met by the corresponding performance or delivery by the company. This results in a condition called customer satisfaction.
There are so many negative effects that come to the business as a result of disappointed customers. Some of them include a bad reputation and low future sales.
The ideal situation is to meet or exceed customer expectations. Going below customer expectations is quite detrimental to the overall well-being of the business.
Clemence Mutembo is a High-Impact Customer Experience and Sales trainer who has done over 500 presentations to small, medium and large organizations. Connect with him: 0778 994 994-ebusinessweekly
