In the wake of the global pandemic, the world has experienced a profound shift in how we live, work, and interact with businesses. As businesses navigate the uncertainties and challenges of a post-pandemic world, one thing has become abundantly clear: customer experience has emerged as a critical factor that can make or break a company’s success.
The pandemic has not only transformed the way businesses operate but has also reshaped customer expectations and behaviours. Customers are now more cautious, digitally empowered, and discerning than ever before. As the world gradually recovers, organisations must recognise the pivotal role that customer experience plays in establishing a competitive edge, fostering customer loyalty, and driving sustainable growth.
In this blog post, we delve into why customer experience matters more than ever in our rapidly evolving post-pandemic landscape and discover the opportunities it presents for businesses to build resilience, customer loyalty, and long-term success.
Customer expectations have evolved.
Customer expectations have undergone a significant transformation in the post-pandemic world. The prolonged lockdowns, social distancing measures, and reliance on digital channels have profoundly impacted how customers interact with businesses. Convenience, safety, and seamless digital experiences have become paramount in this new landscape. Customers now expect companies to provide frictionless online transactions, personalised interactions, and efficient delivery options. Moreover, they demand transparency and proactive communication regarding health and safety measures businesses implement. The post-pandemic customer seeks a product or service and an end-to-end experience that aligns with their evolving needs and values. As companies adapt to these changing expectations, investing in strategies prioritising customer-centricity and delivering exceptional experiences at every touchpoint becomes crucial.
Customer loyalty is more challenging to earn.
Earning customer loyalty has become an even more challenging endeavour in the post-pandemic world. The disruptions caused by the global crisis have prompted customers to reevaluate their brand loyalties and shopping behaviours. With the proliferation of online options and the ease of switching between brands, customers now have more choices. They are more willing to explore alternatives and less forgiving of bad experiences. In this fiercely competitive landscape, businesses must go above and beyond to win and retain customer loyalty. More is needed to offer a quality product or service. Instead, organisations must invest in building genuine connections, fostering trust, and consistently exceeding customer expectations. By prioritising customer-centric strategies, leveraging data-driven insights, and continuously adapting to changing needs, businesses can cultivate the loyalty of their customers and secure a sustainable competitive advantage in the post-pandemic world.
Online reviews and word-of-mouth are more influential than ever.
In the post-pandemic world, online reviews and word-of-mouth have become more significant than ever in shaping the customer experience. With increased reliance on digital platforms, customers now have a wealth of information at their fingertips, allowing them to make informed decisions before engaging with a brand. Online reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations carry immense weight, serving as virtual testimonials that can either attract or deter potential customers. Positive reviews and recommendations can boost a company’s reputation, instil trust, and drive customer engagement. Conversely, negative reviews can quickly damage a brand’s image and deter potential customers. In this context, businesses must actively monitor and respond to online reviews, ensuring customer feedback is acknowledged and addressed promptly. By leveraging the power of online reviews and encouraging positive word-of-mouth, organisations can amplify their customer experience efforts, build brand advocates, and establish a strong foothold in the competitive post-pandemic marketplace.
Businesses need to be ready to take action.
To adapt and deliver a better customer experience, businesses must be proactive and shift strategies and tactics to meet changing customer expectations. Personalisation is paramount. Companies can use customer data and analytics to tailor their offerings to individual preferences and provide relevant recommendations, creating a more engaging and personalised experience. Actively seeking and acting on customer feedback is also crucial. Regularly collecting and analysing customer insights can identify pain points, uncover opportunities for improvement, and drive innovation. By embracing a proactive approach, businesses can adapt, thrive, and deliver exceptional customer experiences in the post-pandemic world.
Focusing on customer experience delivers a competitive advantage.
In a post-pandemic world, customer experience has emerged as the ultimate differentiator, providing businesses with the most effective means to gain a competitive edge. As customers’ expectations and behaviours evolve, companies that prioritise and excel in delivering exceptional customer experiences are poised for success. A superior customer experience goes beyond simply offering a product or service—it encompasses the entire customer journey, from initial contact to post-purchase support. By creating positive, memorable interactions, businesses can build trust, foster loyalty, and cultivate long-term relationships with their customers. Moreover, a great customer experience leads to positive word-of-mouth recommendations and online reviews, which can significantly influence the purchasing decisions of others. By investing in strategies prioritising customer-centricity, personalisation, convenience, and continuous improvement, businesses can differentiate themselves, drive customer loyalty, and secure a sustainable position in the post-pandemic marketplace.
As we navigate the ever-changing landscape of a post-pandemic world, one thing remains abundantly clear: customer experience matters more than ever. Organisations can establish a competitive edge by prioritising customer-centric strategies, investing in digital transformation, and leveraging the power of online reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations. Moreover, delivering exceptional customer experiences fosters loyalty and builds brand reputation and advocacy. It is the key to creating lasting connections with customers and ensuring long-term success in a highly competitive marketplace. So, let us embrace this new reality, invest in our customers, and create experiences that exceed their expectations.
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In today’s fiercely competitive business landscape, customer-centricity has become a critical differentiator for organisations aiming to thrive and sustain long-term success.
Customer-centric is not just a buzzword; it represents a strategic approach that places customers at the heart of every decision and action. By aligning the organisation’s values, processes, and mindset with the needs and expectations of your customers, you can foster loyalty, drive innovation, and ultimately achieve sustainable growth.
While the business benefits of customer-centricity are clear, data from CMO Council indicates that only 14% of marketers believe customer-centricity is their hallmark. Only 11% believe their customers would see them as such.
Despite technological advancements making it easier to connect with customers, many organisations have found switching to a fully customer-centric approach challenging.
In this blog, we will explore seven practical steps to help companies to create a holistic customer-centric culture.
Define and communicate your customer-centric vision.
A clear and compelling vision is essential to guide your organisational journey towards customer-centricity. Defining what customer-centricity means for the organisation and creating a vision statement that encapsulates your commitment to delivering exceptional customer experiences. Communicate this vision effectively across all levels of the organisation, ensuring that every employee understands and embraces the customer-centric philosophy.
Develop a customer-focused mindset.
Building a customer-centric culture starts with cultivating a customer-focused mindset among your employees. Encourage empathy and a deep understanding of your customers’ needs by regularly sharing customer feedback and success stories. Promote a sense of ownership by empowering employees to make customer-centric decisions, even at the front lines. Foster a continuous learning and improvement culture, where employees are encouraged to gather insights and proactively seek ways to enhance customer experiences.
Foster cross-functional collaboration.
Creating a customer-centric culture requires breaking down silos and promoting collaboration across departments. Encourage open communication channels and facilitate cross-functional initiatives and projects focusing on solving customer pain points and delivering value. Foster a sense of collective responsibility for the customer experience, as every interaction a customer has with your organisation should be seamless and consistent, regardless of the department involved.
Invest in customer understanding and insights.
To be truly customer-centric, you must deeply understand your customers’ preferences, expectations, and pain points. Invest in gathering customer insights through various methods such as surveys, interviews, and data analysis. Leverage technology and analytics to track customer behaviours and preferences, enabling you to tailor your products, services, and experiences to their needs. Regularly share customer insights throughout the organisation, ensuring customer data rather than assumptions drive decisions.
Empower and support your employees.
Your employees are the driving force behind delivering exceptional customer experiences. Empower them with the tools, training, and resources to meet customer needs effectively. Encourage a customer-centric mindset by incorporating customer satisfaction metrics into performance evaluations and reward systems. Recognise and celebrate employees who consistently demonstrate outstanding customer-centric behaviours and results. Support and nurture their professional growth by providing ongoing training and development opportunities.
Iterate and innovate based on customer feedback.
Customer-centricity is an ongoing journey, requiring a willingness to adapt and improve based on customer feedback. Establish mechanisms for collecting and analysing customer feedback, such as surveys, focus groups, and social media monitoring. Actively listen to your customers, address their concerns promptly, and iterate on your products, services, and processes based on their input. Involve customers in innovation by seeking their ideas and feedback, ensuring you stay ahead of their evolving needs.
Lead by example.
Creating a customer-centric culture starts at the top. Leaders must embody the customer-centric values and behaviours they want to see in their organisation. Lead by example by actively seeking and acting upon customer feedback, engaging with customers directly, and promoting a customer-first mindset. Ensure that customer-centricity is ingrained in the organisation’s mission, values, and strategic objectives, making it a top priority for everyone involved.
The shift towards becoming a truly customer-centric company is complex and takes time. However, if you want your business to excel, putting the customer at the centre of everything you do is the key to unlocking the true potential of customer value and growth.
Join the CX Forum community to stay up-to-date with the latest in customer experience and learn from global CX experts.
Join this webinar to learn effective approaches and strategies that help businesses to drive growth, create new innovations, and enhance customers’ experiences.
Date: Wednesday, June 21 Time: 9 AM EDT (UTC -4) / 4 PM EEST (UTC +3) Running time: 45 min
Are you continuously seeking ways to drive growth and innovation in your business while putting your customers at the center? If the answer is yes, this webinar is for you.
On June 21st, we’ll have an exciting webinar with Rachel Kaye, the Global Upstream Marketing Manager of Teleflex Medical – Urology Care, where we’ll revolutionize the way you approach business success with a strong focus on customer-centricity.
During this webinar, Rachel will guide you through the powerful strategies of Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI) and Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) theory created by Tony Ulwick, emphasizing how these methodologies can help you identify and quantify your customers’ needs effectively.
In this webinar you will learn:
Identify and quantify your users’ needs using outcome-driven innovation and jobs-to-be-done theory
Bring outcome-driven decision-making into all aspects of marketing and customer experience
Understand the overserved and underserved needs of your customers
Create strategies that are agnostic to external variations in the market
Welcome to learn new ways to enhance your customers’ experiences and drive business growth!
PS! No worries if you are not able to attend in real-time. Register now and we’ll send a recording afterward!
About the speaker:
Rachel Kaye Global Upstream Marketing Manager at Teleflex Medical – Urology Care
Rachel is an integral part of Teleflex’s global marketing team. She is the marketing lead for the PLM of Teleflex’s complete Urology product portfolio, which includes both products for the hospital and homecare market. As a passionate Marketeer, she prides herself on her ability to make data-driven decisions and is on a constant quest to remove bias from her work. One of the main tools for that is JTBD & ODI methodology which she uses, in some form or another, on a daily basis.
When the pandemic hit, it became quickly clear that businesses thatinvest in Customer Experience are the ones that survive and the companies that couldn’t keep up with customers’ needs are shut down. Even though we have seen some great days, the truth we all know is that challenging times haven’t ended. Your customer experience is what differentiates you from your competition, and helps your customer choose you in any market situation.
Is your business focusing on Customer Experience today? And are you doing it the right way?
At this webinar, our experts Pasi Brusi from FuturelabExperience and Jaakko Männistö from Feedbackly will help business leaders understand the role of CX in tough times and how to ensure visible results and ROI already in the short term.
In this webinar you will learn:
What is the primary goal for improving CX
Why is it especially important to focus on CX during challenging times
How does better CX improve company profitability
How to utilize CX data already today through modern technology
A practical case about how you can turn your customer feedback and CX data into measurable sales and growth already in short-term
PS! No worries if you are not able to attend in real-time. Register now and we’ll send a recording afterward!
About the speakers:
PASI BRUSI Senior Consultant at Futurelab Experience
Pasi is an associate in Futurelab Experience, which is a consultancy specializing in CX strategy development. Before Futurelab, Pasi worked in various sales & marketing, and business management roles, which gave him a good understanding of the role of each organizational function in developing the customer experience. A deep understanding of customer value management, analytics, research, marketing, and loyalty programs helps to recognize different ways to take the CX to the next level.
JAAKKO MÄNNISTÖ Founder & CEO of Feedbackly, Awarded CX Leader, Researcher
Jaakko is a startup entrepreneur and an internationally awarded CX professional. Jaakko is a founder and CEO of Feedbackly, co-founder of CX Academy and CXforum. He also is one of the developers of the Emotional Value Index (EVI®) measurement framework and a global front-runner in Emotional Experience.
In today’s business landscape, delivering a superior customer experience is more important than ever. With a vast array of products and services available to customers, companies must go above and beyond to ensure they stand out against their competitors.
Improving customer experience metrics is essential to achieving this goal. In this blog, we’ll explore four key areas businesses can focus on to improve their customer experience metrics: personalisation, omni-channel experience, emotional intelligence, and data-driven customer experience metrics.
Personalisation
Personalisation is a crucial element of a successful customer experience strategy. Customers want to feel valued and appreciated making personalisation an excellent way to achieve this.
Companies can use a variety of techniques to personalise their interactions with customers, such as:
Collecting customer data: gathering data on customer preferences, behavior, and demographics can help companies tailor their interactions with customers.
Offering personalised recommendations: recommending products or services based on a customer’s past purchases or browsing history can help companies offer personalised experiences to their customers.
Using customer names: Using a customer’s name in interactions can create a more personal connection and make customers feel valued.
Personalisation can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately improving customer experience metrics.
Omni-channel Experience
An omnichannel experience refers to providing customers with a seamless experience across multiple channels, such as online, mobile, and in-store. Customers expect to be able to interact with companies across multiple channels, and companies that fail to provide a seamless experience risk losing customers. To improve their omni-channel experience, companies can:
Ensure consistency across channels: companies should ensure that their branding, messaging, and customer service are consistent across all channels.
Use technology to track customer interactions: companies can utilise technology to track customer interactions across multiple channels, providing a more personalised experience.
Offer multiple channels for customer service: providing customers with multiple channels for customer service, such as phone, email, and chat, can help improve the overall customer experience.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage one’s emotions and the emotions of others. In the context of customer experience, emotional intelligence can help companies provide a more empathetic and understanding outlook to their customers. To improve emotional intelligence, companies can:
Train employees on emotional intelligence: companies can train their employees to help them better understand and manage customer emotions.
Use customer-feedback to improve emotional intelligence: companies can use customer-feedback to understand how customers feel about their interactions.
Offer empathy and understanding: encouraging empathy and understanding towards customers can go a long way in improving overall customer experience.
Data-Driven Customer Experience Metrics
Data-driven customer experience metrics refers to using data to measure and improve customer experience metrics. Companies can use a variety of metrics to measure customer experience, such as:
Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS measures how likely customers are to recommend a company’s products or services to others.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): CSAT measures how satisfied customers are with a company’s products or services.
Customer Effort Score (CES): CES measures how easy it is for customers to interact with a company.
By using data to measure customer experience metrics, companies can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to improve the overall customer experience.
In conclusion, improving customer experience metrics is crucial for businesses looking to stand out from the competition. By focusing on personalisation, omni-channel experience, emotional intelligence, and data-driven customer experience metrics, companies can provide a superior customer experience and improve customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Join this webinar to learn Air France’s best practices on how to build a B2B customer experience program that can take your business to the next level.
Date: Wednesday, May 10 Time: 9 AM BST (UTC +1) / 11 AM EEST (UTC +3) Running time: 60 min
The CXforum audience has asked for a webinar about CX programs designed specifically for B2B businesses. We are excited to announce that at the next CXforum webinar, we will have a nice and cozy fireside chat with Lucia Terroni and Alisson Sergent from Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance to dig deep into the specifics of a B2B CX program.
At this webinar, we will discuss the story of building a B2B CX program for Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance. The webinar focuses a lot on the early phases of a CX program. However, every business is different and there might be interesting tips to learn also for advanced CX professionals.
Being in the early stages of a CX program or an experienced professional, welcome to join our chat with your questions and use a chance to learn from other CX peers!
In this webinar you will learn:
What role a CX program should play in a B2B business
How to build a customer-centric culture in a B2B business
How to build a B2B CX program from the ground up
What are the main challenges in building a CX program for a B2B business and how to overcome them
LUCIA TERRONI Head of Customer Experience at Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance
Lucia is a Head of Customer Experience at Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance. Over the past 7 years, she has held various project management positions within the Air France-KLM group, focused on the deployment of B2E/B2C/B2B CRM solutions to improve the Customer Experience. She has thrived on managing customer-oriented solutions from strategic alignment to implementation.
ALISSON SERGENT Customer Experience Manager at Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance
Alisson is a Customer Experience Manager at Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance and she’s also part of the Continuous Improvement team. She has many years of experience working in the airline and maintenance industry and is nowadays an AFI Material & Services Directorate. She has been working with different CX roles at Air France KLM for the past five years.
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