Improving customer experience is one of the most effective ways to build a brand – if it’s done correctly. It’s a simple, powerful sequence: By delighting customers through better experiences, they become (and remain) loyal. They share word-of-mouth recommendations. And as a result, your business grows.
Implementing experience improvements, though, is anything but simple. Brands that truly want to create powerful experiences need to put the customer first, measure relentlessly, be prepared to innovate, and bridge the gap between execution and strategy. And they have to be willing to make sure that initiatives align across their entire organization. Improvements to shopping or sales transactions, for example, won’t mean much if delivery or service doesn’t support and enhance those changes.
Here are four key steps, with real-life client examples, for transforming your customer experience:
Start with the Customer
Looking at the world through your customers’ eyes, not your own internal processes or goals, is the only way to understand what they really need right now. Walk in their shoes for every step of the customer journey, and at each touchpoint, ask: What do my customers need? How could our brand enrich this aspect of the experience? Simplify it? To truly understand your customers, you need to listen and empathize with them. Uncover the touchpoints that matter the most, and you might be surprised to learn what your customers value when interacting with your company.
How it works: Zurich Financial implemented HelpPoint, an initiative that put the customer at the heart of everything and involves 60,000 employees across 140 countries. Through global research, Prophet uncovered significant distrust between insurance providers and their customers. In response, Zurich transformed into a customer-centric organization that put the customer first. The results? Not only did revenue, margin and brand tracking all increase, Zurich is now the 2nd most admired insurance company in the world.
Measure the Journey
Economic advantage comes from delivering a great customer experience cost effectively. To do this, you need to focus resources where they will have the biggest impact. As a first step, quantify the importance to the customer of each stage of the journey and how well your touchpoints are serving their needs and supporting brand values.
How it works: When Prophet worked with T-Mobile,a combination of robust qualitative and quantitative research alongside a series of internal workshops led to a pivotal insight: Wireless customers are frustrated with their carriers and willing to make choices based not just on coverage and service, but also on transparency, flexibility and fairness. Our research helped establish more meaningful metrics, enabling T-Mobile to recast itself as an advocate, the wireless brand with the interests of the customer at heart. The Un-carrier was born, and T-Mobile now leads the industry in customer acquisition beating Verizon, AT&T and Sprint combined.
Envision a Distinct Future
To translate your vision into a reality, you must be open to innovation, create new experiences and design them. You must make them tangible to your organization through simple prototypes that tie together all human, physical and digital interactions. Identify the biggest opportunities for dramatically improving the overall experience and make each of the essential touchpoints work better. Are there moments that are truly delighting and engaging?
How it works: United Airlines didn’t want to be a commodity carrier, so it set out to transform the experience of loyal business travelers, its most profitable segment. Prophet worked with United Airlines to bring together key functions throughout the company, creating new signature experiences along the customer journey such as a better ticketing process, a premium lobby and boarding process, and improved seats for first class and business-class international passengers. As a result, United surpassed American Airlines in customer experience ratings.
Create Organizational Alignment to Implement your Vision
Delivering a breakthrough customer experience requires close collaboration across your organization. Drive alignment by working across silos, bringing together departments that don’t generally work together and expanding organizational boundaries. Aligning organization is often the most critical and difficult challenge when implementing a better customer experience. The roll-out is usually achieved in stages: Some touchpoints may be redesigned immediately, but some may take years to achieve the full breakthrough. The organization will need to be reminded of where it is headed and to be responsive to changes in the market while still staying focused on the vision.
How it works: Electrolux, a global leader in household and professional appliances, knew it needed a branded shopper experience that would leapfrog the competition. Prophet partnered with the Electrolux team to help map the consumer experience and through that process uncovered purchase cycles and pain points in its different business sectors and regions. Working with a dedicated team of senior leadership to help drive and promote customer experience across the organization, we helped create a multi-year, step-by-step road map, that included new touchpoints such as a branded food and home decor inspiration site, an online recipe site/app, and even a mobile augmented reality app to demonstrate the benefits of new products. Not surprisingly, the Electrolux Group just delivered its ninth consecutive quarter of organic growth.
Transforming customer experiences is a bold undertaking that requires deep customer insights, innovation, execution, collaboration and cooperation at every level. But the rewards are big: Increased loyalty, greater market share, higher revenues, and reduced churn. Less quantifiable—but just as valuable–organizations become more focused, with motivated and engaged employees. And that benefits every stakeholder – including, of course, the customer.
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