One of the most important words to use in the context of customer experience, is consistency. Other words for consistency include: dependable, steady, rational, logical, and uniform.
How often have you found yourself in a situation like this? You call up the customer support number for an organisation. First you have to navigate the phone menu. Then you have to explain who you are to the person that answers your call. After that, you need to tell them about your problem. They take some notes but they are not able to resolve your issue. The person promises you they will call you back. But that never happens.
So, the following day, you ring up again. You have to go through the same exact experience all over again. It is very frustrating.
“If they said they would call me back, why didn’t they? How hard can it be? And now I have to tell this new person the whole dammed story all over again!” Sound familiar at all? Can you think of any businesses you know that ‘treat’ you like that?
Three examples of how businesses can avoid this situation include:
- Train staff to better resolve issues themselves. Try to get issues resolved during the first call with a customer.
- When an issue is complex, get the first person who speaks to the customer to take accountability for it and seek help from colleagues.
- Walk through your own customer experience to test things out. Mystery shopping is ideal for this. There is nothing to stop you pretending to be a customer and checking out what that experience is like.
Next up. Advertising. You see an advert. You contact the company to find out more about what’s on offer. The people you speak to do not know about the offer in the advert. Or they ‘are not able to’ sell you that thing at that price. This infuriates me. Why can’t the ‘left hand talk to the right hand’? Why is it that different parts of the same business do not know what each other is doing?
Nowadays, where we do everything online, there is nowhere to hide. you need to make sure your sales experience flows. You should ensure the page I land on when I click on your advert matches or looks like it’s joined up. Too often, I click on an ad and find myself on a homepage, rather than a page about what is advertised.
My recommendation today is that you hold a mirror up to your business. See what you notice. Then make some simple improvements that will really help your customers.
I strongly recommend you do this if you have lots of different sites or different parts to your business. If, like Virgin, you have a lot of companies that share the same brand, this exercise matters even more. Customers’ expectations are that you all form part of one happy family. Even if all the companies operate independently. I remember that all too well when I worked there. One brand equals one set of expectations for you all.
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Thanks for stopping by and see you for more tomorrow friends!
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