Everyone knows that creating a positive customer experience is what it is all about. The individual outcomes, and their interactions, creates a real boon for business growth. And the tell-tale signs of a positive customer experience are not so hard to identify. Customers will:
-feel good about their purchase
-want to share their story
-will return to the vendor seeking more
-will shun alternatives
-will provide genuine feedback to the vendor
So no doubt, it is important to focus on creating those positive customer experiences. But getting there does not boil down to a bunch of incentive schemes to get more “Likes” or “tweets”. Getting there boils down to understanding what kind of customer experience is valued by your target market, and then investing in those areas. It is this understanding of what your customers value that is the real holy grail of creating those positive experiences and outcomes. And this is where the formula for getting there becomes less obvious.
The customer experience is borne out of some blend of 3 major components:
-The product/service offering
-The pricing/delivery offering
-Company support, both pre and post purchase
Determining what your customer segment values is determined by which 2 out of 3 items that they value most. They cannot choose all 3. Playing with the combinations allows us to see how things fall into place. If customers want the best product, and best price, they will not get the best support. Or if they want the best product, and best support, they will not get the best price. And if they want the best price and best support, they will not get the best product.
Of course, customers always want it all. So establishing an understanding of how your customer’s value system works, and henceforth their expectations, really needs to tie back to 2 fundamental points:
-The nature of the problem that your product/service offering solves
-The commitment the customer has to addressing the problem
And these are the key insights that need to be discovered and leveraged in order to drive positive customer experience. If the nature of the problem that you are solving is deemed important, and the customer’s commitment to solve it is high, then the user experience with the product/service offering is a high priority. And this is where investment will yield the best dividends. Conversely, having great pricing, great support, with a mediocre offering will fail to be achieve a positive customer experience, because you may be failing to deliver on the real usage needs.
Generating positive customer experience does not have a universal formula. It boils down to the things that you do well, and that are valued by the customer. It is the job of your sales and marketing efforts to find ways in which to communicate these aspects, such that it resonates with the customers whose values match yours. Of course, this sets off the whole cycle. Awareness. Interest. Demand. Purchase. And ultimately a positive customer experience which then causes those most desirable customer behaviors, that can truly catalyze your business growth.