6 Great Customer Experience Examples You Can Easily Implement in Your Contact Center
Customer experience is a top differentiation metric for companies today. A great customer experience is important for the sustained growth of any business or brand. It promotes customer loyalty, helps retain current customers, and encourages brand advocacy.
According to a recent Trustpilot study, “A totally satisfied customer contributes 2.6 times as much revenue as a somewhat satisfied customer, and 14 times as much revenue as a somewhat dissatisfied customer.” Let that sink in because the stats tell the truth: Customer experience has a profound impact on your organization’s ROI.
Many corporations are missing out on crucial revenue opportunities because they lack a good customer experience. Brands have to be consistently accurate and dependable and provide the service they guarantee. The opportunity for a higher customer retention rate lies in delivering what you promised and a willingness to go above and beyond to help your customer.
Take a look at six great customer experience examples that you can implement in your contact center to stand out among the competition.
1. Hone Your Customer Experience Vision
Start with determining your guiding principles that will permeate your business culture and bring out the best in your team. Paint a picture for your team of what it looks like to be part of your strong customer experience company.
What’s an example of good customer experience? Let’s start with Zappos, which boasts a list of 10 core values. The inspiring yet practical values include: “Create Fun and A Little Weirdness” and “Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication.” Values like these help lay the foundation of the best customer experience.
Think about what you bring to the table as a company. What can you offer your customers?
What makes you special? How can your contact center agents communicate that feeling to your customers?
One of the keys to good CX is creating an emotional connection with your customers. Show them that you see them as people, not just dollar signs. For instance, when a Zappos customer needed to return a pair of shoes, the customer service agent had a courier pick up the shoes at no cost. This kind of service makes Zappos a great customer experience example.
2. Empower Your Customer-Facing Staff
Good CX begins with the end in mind. Many outstanding customer experiences happen where the rubber meets the road: at the customer/staff level. Unfortunately, many businesses seem to see their customer-facing staffers as the “low man on the totem pole.”
Well, we beg to differ. They’re the key players on the front lines. For that reason, empowering customer service agents to make decisions in the moment can set the stage for wonderful customer experiences.
Another good customer experience example is the grocery store chain Publix. Publix is the largest employee-owned company in the United States (and one of the most profitable), and their customer service team is known to be warm and friendly. The chain treats its employees well, offering career paths and stock options. This creates a feeling of engagement and investment in the company that opens the door for everyday excellence in customer service.
When Gage Boucher, an employee at a Florida Publix, stopped to help an elderly customer tie his shoelaces, it was just a regular part of his day. Another shopper took a picture of his act of kindness and posted it online. The story spread, and so did Publix’s good reputation. That’s the power of engagement in creating the best customer experience.
3. Listen To What Customers Say About You
Make the effort to maintain your social media presence and engage with customers on various platforms. If it’s appropriate to your niche, consider staffing your accounts 24/7. Customers today expect a quick response whenever they choose to contact you, so having a representative ready to interact at any given time can help set you apart from the less-responsive competition.
Use online tools such as Twitter hashtags, Hootsuite, or SocialMention.com to find out what people are saying about you in real time. It’s also a good idea to ask your customers to fill out surveys after they interact with an agent while their experience is still top-of-mind.
It’s wise to invest in Voice of the Customer (VoC) tools — so customers have the opportunity to share their experiences directly, and your organization can respond where needed. Listening to those you serve is key to a great customer experience.
4. Get to Know Your Customers Inside and Out
How well do you know your customers? Do you know their end goals — or at least how they want to use your services and interact with your company?
Australian telecom provider Telstra has designed its website to make the customer experience as effortless as possible. After conducting research and discovering that many of their customers access the website on their mobile device, they designed a simple, attractive, quick-loading mobile page that takes customers to their most-used features.
Big buttons with labels such as “Pay My Bill,” “My Pre-Paid,” and “Moving Home” make it easy for customers to accomplish their purpose on the site. They don’t have to search through pages to find out how to change the address on their account — it’s simplified for an easier user experience.
Telstra offers a good customer experience example because they considered how customers would need to access their service options and designed the customer experience accordingly.
5. Map The Customer Journey
Have you ever looked at your company from a customer’s point of view? It can be highly instructive to follow each step of the customer’s journey with your company. How did they hear about you? Where do they meet with you — online or in person? How can you make the process easier for them?
The Singaporean online fashion store Zalora found a section of its customer journey that was causing customers to feel inconvenienced. If customers who lived in apartments weren’t home when their packages were delivered, they’d receive a pick-up slip and would have to wait in the post office line to retrieve their order.
We’ve all been there: Even the best customer experience feels frustrating when your package arrives inconveniently. So to make the delivery process more efficient, Zalora entered into an agreement with the convenience store chain 7-Eleven to allow Zalora customers to pick up packages at their nearest outlet. (7-Elevens are very popular in Singapore.)
Organizations can apply the lesson to their own contact centers. Considering every touchpoint on your customer’s journey and troubleshooting as you identify gaps in each stage can help you create a good customer experience.
6. Keep Your Language Simple
If your industry is laden with jargon and tech-speak, then your customers are probably swimming around in a sea of confusing terms. They’re waiting for someone to throw them a language life preserver and communicate in a way they can better understand. Good customer service starts with ensuring your customer comprehends the information you’re relaying to them.
The New York health insurance company Oscar has built its business on “speaking human.” Their business model is based on simplifying the hugely complex task of buying insurance. Customers enter a few personal facts — including their marital status, income, number of children, and location — and they receive an instant quote. Oscar’s business is growing exponentially as customers flock to an online insurance-buying experience that simplifies the process.
As Oscar proves, a simple customer experience is a good customer experience. If a customer is confused from the start, it’s challenging for even the most empathetic contact center agents to turn the experience around. And when you keep things simple and strong, ROI is on your side. Forbes reports that 86% of buyers will pay more for a great customer experience.
The foundation of great customer experience is truly caring about your customer and building a relationship of trust. Now more than ever, it’s vital for companies to invest in good CX, not only for their customers’ sake but to raise their brand to new heights and ward off competition in an extremely aggressive marketplace.
Looking to improve your contact center’s customer experience? Playvox can help. Request a demo today!
