Post-COVID Outlook: Customer Experience, Total Experience, & The One Thing You Can’t Get Wrong

Zain Jaffer discusses how our approaches to Customer Experience need to evolve.

Last year in an interview, I made the case that providing an excellent customer experience needs to come before anything else. This was a lesson I learned at Vungle, and it’s a learning that’s been reinforced in every other venture that I’ve taken on. For a number of reasons, CX needs to be built into a brand’s strategy, a core pillar rather than a byproduct. We live in an interconnected world, and digital word-of-mouth travels quickly; one bad review can derail an entire operation.

Since the inception of the pandemic, something really important has changed, making customer experience more important than ever. With almost all purchase decisions taking place online, the importance of digital reputation is at an all time high. GE Capital conducted a survey in which 81% of respondents said they research their product online before making their decision—before the pandemic, only 20% would have said the same.

CX As A Survival Strategy

E-commerce is no longer a value-add; it’s a new normal. That means online customer offerings need to go above and beyond. Rather than reinventing the entire CX wheel, owners and entrepreneurs would be well-advised to focus in a few main areas. Below are the areas which, in my opinion, deserve the most immediate attention:

Investing in CRM

Smarter CRM (customer relationship management) software is available for a fraction of what they used to cost. Most platforms can be easily integrated across multiple customer touch points—a crucial feature as brands continue to have their sales trickle in from different avenues. The CRM umbrella includes chatbots and automated support strategies, payment platforms, and return and exchange strategies. One of the most important things that CRM software can do is eliminate wait times; virtual customers expect their transactions to be instant and their tech-support experience to be smooth. The easiest way to lose a customer is to keep them waiting. To this end, chatbots and automated support strategies are a business owner’s best friends.

Helping retailers manage their customer interactions across all channels, CRMs can also collect and store important customer data. The data can be leveraged in a number of ways, from predictive product procurement to targeted marketing. Smart software can bring in data from in-store sales, digital transactions, chatbot interactions, social media engagement, and email campaigns. They can alert retailers to consumer trends and help them quantify demand.

Bringing Mobile into the 21st Century

Another area that’s ripe for improvement is the mobile experience. Brands can no longer take for granted that the average customer is seated in front of a computer monitor, engaging with their e-commerce experience with full-screen windows, giving it their full attention.

A lot of shopping and browsing are happening on smartphones, while consumers are stuck in a drive-thru or waiting to pick up their kids. And the mobile experience simply hasn’t risen to the challenge.

Statista gathered data that suggest a whopping 88% of consumers find their mobile browsing experience inconvenient. This is more than likely a huge leak for retailers, preventing leads from converting to sales. In this domain, a small investment could offer huge returns, and there certainly still exists a lot of room to be competitive in the mobile market.

Smarter Marketing: An Immersive Experience

Augmented reality is winning the COVID-market because it solves the most pressing problem: how can shoppers trust a product if they can’t see it in person? Retailers with interactive displays are seeing a 40% higher conversion rate overall; the adoption of AR in digital marketing will only increase. It’s bringing the online world to life.

Another winning strategy has been consumer customization. E-commerce offers business owners a unique opportunity: every customer that enters the ‘store’ can have a tailored experience. Imagine if you could rearrange your product display based on what you know a customer is looking for? The digital world more or less lets us do just that; smart tech can use data from a consumer’s previous virtual visit to build a Netflix-like queue of recommended items.

Total Experience: What Does It Mean?

Total experience, abbreviated as TX, is a new buzzword in the tech space. The term was coined by Gartner in October, stressing its importance. Accordingly, total experience refers to the experience of all participants across the span of a company —from user, to client, to employee.

One major theme of the COVID-19 pandemic has been transparency. More than ever, customers care what goes on behind closed doors, including how a company treats their employees. Market demand is gravitating toward companies that can demonstrate an employee-first attitude and a customer-first experience. Appreciative employee initiatives and a merging of front and back offices for a well-integrated, highly engaged team; these are some things consumers are looking toward in making their decisions.

Along with other industry observers, I offered my take on total experience in a recent CMSWire article. You can read it here.