How To Deal With The Forces Impacting Your CX

Recognizing the forces that will impact your CX

Think about the last time you had a bad customer experience - what did you do? Did you lodge a complaint with the organization or just tolerate the interaction? Maybe you simply switched to a competitor after that bad experience. Leaving is now the norm, according to a recent European study an average of 76% of consumers said they would leave a business if it didn’t meet their customer experience standards.

The “disappearing customer” is the result of customer experiences falling short once someone enters your doors. The impact of this to your business is lasting and possibly damaging.

So how does a business keep their current customers from being former customers? One solution is to provide the same types of experiences that drew them to you in the first place. For example, in customer acquisition the experience is almost always omnichannel. However, customer retention experiences break when communications are not received or optimized on the channel of that customer’s preference.

This is why investing in digital experiences throughout the customer lifecycle is so critical. But with 20 years of documents, templates and outdated print processes limiting the speed at which enterprises can execute, moving to a digital platform can be overwhelming.

Customer service is not the only force affecting CX

The quality of customer service has always been a determining factor in how patrons gauge their customer experience. But nowadays it’s not the only one that organizations must recognize, respect and react to.

Customer experience is a critical battleground for businesses. There are new forces that can have a huge impact on a business’s CX. If an organization wants to remain competitive and thrive it must understand and take action to face these four foundational forces:

Understanding the four forces and how to deal with them

Those companies that are prepared to meet higher consumer expectations around consumer power, digital transition, regulation and data will prosper, while those that cannot do so will find their customers switching to the competition.

Here is a closer look at each of the four forces and what organizations need to do to address them.

1. Consumer Power

Consumers have more and faster ways to share their experiences than ever before. They have more ways to investigate the available choices and more options if they don’t like the experience.

Initiative Required: Accept that the balance in power has shifted to the consumer. Put the customer’s needs before those of your organization.

2. Digital transition

Consumers have access to a multitude of channels and expect interaction at the right time, over the right channel, with the right message. If not, your company will lose customer interest and trust.

Initiative Required: It’s not just realizing each channel is approached differently but the way you optimize content for each channel is the key to the approach. SMS, for example, has very different demands than email, post or phone.

3. Regulation

Detailed data provides the insight on which great customer experiences are built. Businesses, however, need to ensure they provide the best possible experience without compromising regulatory compliance.

Initiative Required: Organizations must ensure that regulatory compliance, particularly around data protection, is a key element of their customer experience strategy.

4. Data

The expanding amount of data available creates challenges and opportunities for businesses striving to deliver ever-more targeted experiences.

Initiative Required: The more data your customers provide, the more they expect to have their customer experience with your organization reflect that insight. Ensure you leverage that data to create a better customer experience; one that features services, offers and discounts tailored to the preferences, wants and needs of each customer.

Industries you can take inspiration from

Organizations in every sector need to adapt to the ever-changing customer experience battlefield. In order to truly succeed they must recognize the impact of the four forces, accept it and act accordingly. So which industries are leading the charge?

In Europe, the transformation of the customer experience is all over the map. When surveyed, European customers felt that the retail and banking sectors have made the most progress in modifying their customer experience in order to address the four foundational forces. At the other end of the spectrum, local government was judged to be far behind.