How To Succeed In Designing A Seamless Customer Experience?

Imagine going to a restaurant where the food is excellent, but the waiters are sloppy, tablecloths are unclean, and don't have flexible payment options. Will you go back for the food? No! Customer experience works the same way in every other industry. No matter how unique your product is, customers will go for alternatives if you cannot create a seamless customer experience. 

The entire discipline on customer experience is filled with minute details and its impact on customer satisfaction. The customer experience has to be effortless; the transition from one stage to another has to be smooth. However, at times people confuse many verticals and end up with a complicated design. In return, the customers get repelled and fail to acknowledge the effort the business puts in. 

 

Here are 10 tips on designing a seamless customer experience for your business, which pain points to focus on, and which technology to invest in:

Customer is king, and all this effort is to please this king. Hence, it is essential to step in their shoes and map their journey with your brand and product. From brand discovery through SERP or paid ads to converting them into a customer, the user journey will pin-point all the customer hurdles. 

Remember, little things matter and make a big difference, like offering live-support on the product page to aid decision making or sending them an invoice copy on their preferred channel. 

The bottom line is to create convenience wherever possible by keeping the customer's journey in mind. It saves everyone's time and makes your brand favorable.

 

There are multiple kinds of services that are availed by large demography. Some of these services are complicated, like financial services, real estate services, bill-payment services, technical support, etc. Irrespective of its complexity, it is simpler for some and confusing for some. 

Hence, it is essential to use simple language and create prompts to guide the layman. The app and website must be easy to navigate, with relatable and understandable content. Once the end-user understands the content, be it company policies or product description, they will feel comfortable making a purchasing decision. The mantra is to avoid the jargon and keep it simple.

 

One of the most frustrating experiences as a customer is to repeat the same information repeatedly to reach the desired conclusion. It is tiring and increases your website's or app's bounce rate. Most customers will leave half-way through and never come back. 

Ensure your billing page or any other interactive page doesn't ask for information already provided. All-in-all, avoid any steps that are not helping the customer or the process. Also, in an omnichannel contact center software, the customer can engage with the brand from different channels. So an efficient system should ensure that customer doesn’t have to repeat herself in case she has switched to a different channel. An efficient omnichannel contact center will be able to show the customer journey along with timelines. 

 

The ultimate goal for all this work is to convert the prospect into a customer. To enable this conversion, create an experience that allows the prospect to decide easily. Restrict the number of choices you offer, but make sure whatever you offer has value-added for them. This will reduce the time spent dawdling and enable them to conclude on purchasing. Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that aren't

 

There is no seamless experience without omnichannel contact center support. Customers should feel well-connected with all the touchpoints of the brand. From a brick-and-mortar store to purchasing in-app, the experience should be holistic for every customer. 

With omnichannel contact center strategy, your agents will know which customer is buying in-store/in-app or via the website and how they interact on other channels. 

Imagine you bought something from a particular brand online; you already filled in your details while purchasing. Now months later, you see a store for this brand, and you walk in, saw something you liked and bought again. During purchase, the rep asks for your phone number, and immediately the system shows your purchase history, preferred payment mode, and more. The agent can leverage this to engage you better, upsell and create a complete experience. 

That's the omnichannel strategy in a nutshell. You can apply this strategy to all your touchpoints and create a well-connected environment for your customers. 

 

The journey of the customer doesn't end with purchase but extends to relationship management. Serving existing customers is essential to ensure repeat purchases or extended subscriptions. So, offer the customer adequate information and opportunities to reach out to you. Be available around the clock and deploy automation to cut-costs on agent employment. Offer support on all popular channels like telephony, email, SMS, social media, and obviously on your website/app. 

 

Warriors can't fight with sticks and stones. Similarly, your agents cannot perform and sustain your customers on inadequate resources. Equip them with proper helpdesk solutions so they can manage every customer to the best of their ability. With knowledge base along with helpdesk software, your agents will be updated with the latest knowhow to support your customers.

 

No matter how perfectly you design your customer support process, there will always be something wrong in your contact center software plan. To ensure that these mistakes are not overlooked, allow customers to submit reviews or feedback. Feedbacks can be collected at various instances; however, it shouldn't be too pushy and intrusive. Customer feedback is golden information that can lead to innovation and enhance the experience. Businesses must give this feedback (CSAT/NPS scores) its due attention so improvements can be made. 

 

The millennial customer prefers self-service to traditional service. Self-service allows the customer to avail the necessary support it requires at their convenience. Be it in the middle of the night or at peak hours, thanks to self-service; these customers do not have to wait to reach the agents. Popular self-services involve concrete databases with troubleshooting information, chatbots, and automated IVR systems. 

The frontline service team need to properly and regularly trained to attend customers diligently. This is a very stressful activity and sometimes customer can really get extreme. So, remaining calm and composed during such moments requires lot of training. Also, knowing about the products and services are critical. Regular training and measuring training effectiveness should be a continuous exercise.

 

Conclusion

Customer Experience encompasses user experience and customer service to build a lasting experience. It creates a massive opportunity to create loyal customers and increase the Customer Lifetime Value. So designing seamless customer experience can become a significant competitive advantage.