According to Brian Solis (@briansolis), the future of businesses will depend on how they innovate to improve the customer experience. Designing customer experiences is a fluid process dominated by new digital media. Consequently, companies that use 50-year-old business foundations will find it more difficult to compete as each digital day distances them from new customer behaviors.
Today’s customers expect a lot. And if companies don’t give them what they want, they will defect and go to someone who will. A conservative estimate is that the modern consumer is connected to their digital device for over 3 hours a day. As daily digital use gets longer, these consumers expect companies to deliver positive experiences that make them feel good about the experiences they’re having. These experiences become memories that are long ingrained in their minds.
Customers today don’t want to simply have a smooth checkout. They want superior experiences along every touchpoint and interaction. They want relevant content that makes them feel informed. And they want this information across all media channels.
On top of all that, customers want the best price and the best customer service. They feel empowered to pick and choose the winners and losers with whom they consciously choose to interact.
It takes agility and being able to adapt to the evolution of customer needs while working to keep up with perpetually changing trends, behaviors, and technologies.
One way to stay agile is listening to the customer. Listen to their experiences.
Listen to how they feel about you and those experiences. As new touchpoints are constantly created, the new consumer is your online friend asking for two-way communication and demands social media feedback. Metrics for social media listening can help plan customer service and response strategies and tactics.
Treat customers like friends or colleagues in the office who build a relationship together by having dialogues, sharing experiences, and adapting to each other. Those experiences pave the way for memories and customer experiences that build loyalty and friendship.
—Robert Vergara
Reach out to me on LinkedIn
For more content like this, go to https://robertvergara.net/blog/