How Does a Differentiated Customer Experience Enhance Customer Value?

What has been your experience after your visit to the Disneyworld? Or how was your experience when you owned the iPhone or as a matter of fact the experience you relish even after the wow moments are over.

How do brands create such experience? There exists a lot of industry-specific research on the links between a differentiated customer experience and increased revenue. All-new experiences detach us from the routine flow of life, disrupts monotony, and gives birth to innumerable brand loyalists. 

The goal is to learn from companies across various fields. These companies that are spearheading the change in their respective fields are doing so by actively distancing themselves from the kind of experience other companies in the field have to offer. They often use only the resources available to them to carve out their niche. This is based on the realization that there is no true competition if your firm can manufacture an experience that is novel to only the firm in question. 

A differentiated customer experience means doing much more than making marginal alterations in the business strategy. It means focusing on making changes that will positively affect the business and revenue the most. The changes also need to speak for themselves on some level. It is not possible nor desirable for the company representatives to point out the differential experience you offer from another brand. 

Active Observation

It is well advised to anyone running a business to take a step back from being inside the machine every day to observing its functioning from the outside at regular intervals. This duty can also be delegated to a team of senior representatives whose job would be to interact with customers and ask about their experience. They would further be engaged in observing how customers behave, what they say and require, and how the employees react to such interactions. Observation is an underrated tool while trying to understand what really works for customers within a company and what does not. This is an important step in providing a differentiated customer experience.

Identifying and implementing impactful changes

The onus here is on the business owner to find specific ways to improve the experience of customers have with their brand. Customers also tend to remain loyal to brands. This means that with making some targeted and pragmatic changes, a differentiated customer experience can be curated that serves the purpose of the customer and the company. Brand loyalty is a very important metric to analyze revenue through, and making customers feel different will keep them coming back.

Considering multiple solutions and experimenting

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to problems in customer interactions. Methods that work in a particular department might be counterproductive in other departments of the same company. Similarly, business practices and customer behavior are usually not streamlined across various fields, and that brings us to the same conclusion that we arrived at in the previous line. The key to figuring out the best business practices is to regularly experiment and actively implement what observably works and discard what does not provide similar returns. Constantly evolving is a great way to provide a differentiated customer experience.

Making the brand feel personal

Technology has not removed the need for human interaction in Omnichannel Customer Service. Rather, it has actually provided the tools and means necessary to make interactions conducted through these technologies feel more personalized and relevant. These are important markers to gauge a company's performance in terms of providing a differentiated customer experience. The system can be trained to store the customers' preferences, demographics, shopping history, etc., and can be used to actively personalize the brand experience for them. Constant threading in personal values and preferences will make the customer feel comfortable and remember the experience personally, all of which is important while creating a differentiated customer experience. 

Delivering consistent experiences through multiple channels

Regardless of whether the customer is being catered to online or in real life, it is absolutely vital to remain committed to delivering a high-quality customer experience across time. However, with the advent of newer technology – customers can be easily contacted through multiple channels. This means the customer experience needs to remain consistently good not only across time but also across platforms. With Omnichannel Customer service, a consistent customer experience can be delivered across all touchpoints. Applying the right metrics and using customer satisfaction tools will greatly increase positive feedback and revenue generation.

 

Flexibility in experience

The idea of a differentiated customer experience sounds mighty and great for starters. However, grand ideas like these will have no pragmatic use whatsoever if the company policies remain unable to adapt to each customer's unique needs. The internet has leveled the playground to a large extent and helped personalize interactions. However, today's challenge is to extend this mentality and personalization to the more conventional channels.

Measuring the ROI

There are multiple tools that can be accessed online or otherwise to check if the company's customer service efforts are paying off. This can be done using tools akin to the 'Net Promoter Score,' which collects information by enquiring along the lines of how likely it would be for the customer to recommend the company to another friend. However, companies are urged to use this as an example and not just rely on this particular index. The customer experience tools and metrics that a particular company uses should depend entirely on market demands – but more so on the indexes that the senior officials in the company feel it is necessary to evaluate their firm on.

As I conclude:

I still recollect the last flight experience I had. It was when my luggage got missed out by the airlines. It can’t be more frustrating but the way it was handled by the crew and ground staff made me feel that a great service can always cover up for such glitches. Having trained and empowered workforce was the reason for such a differentiated experience.