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Is Your Customer Experience Hurting Your Brand?

I’m going to tell you a poorly kept secret: Most people don’t like their cable companies. That is, if they haven’t already cut the cord. So I must ask:

Have you, too, been personally victimized by a cable company’s customer service? 

  • Stuck on the phone for hours relaying your issue over and over again to each new representative you’re passed to?
  • Forced to sit at home and wait through an 8-hour service window?
  • Locked in to reasonable pricing only for it to skyrocket after a year?
  • Forced into bundles you don’t need because the a la carte costs are too high?

I want you to think about how that makes you feel. Annoyed. Inconvenienced. Frustrated. Angry. Disappointed. Not very likely to recommend.

Cable companies may offer a great product: thousands of channels, high quality picture, the ability to record, stop, rewind, start, rewind again, fast forward—all at the push of a button. But that doesn’t matter when the customer experience is terrible. When your offer a negative customer experience, it hurts your brand.

What is Customer Experience?

Customer experience is not just about customer service. It is the impression you leave with your customer across every stage of the customer journey. So if a your brand is the sum of all your customer’s feelings about your product, then the customer experience is the entire journey that shapes those perceptions.

While customer experience does include calls to customer service representatives, it also includes the shopping experience (viewing ads, exploring the social media account, comparing with other brands, etc.), the buying experience (finding the product in store or online, being upsold, discounts or coupons, interactions with the cashier or the ease of the online cart, etc.), the experience with the product or service itself (does it work as expected, was it worth it, etc.) and even the after glow (sharing . socially or recommending to friends, how you feel post-purchase).

In short, every single touchpoint your brand has with a potential or actual customer is a stop on their customer journey and has enormous potential to impact their relationship with your brand.

Let’s say you’re the owner of a business that sells home decor products. They are beautifully made and the packaging is impeccable. You have a network of influencers showcasing your brand all over social media. You have a modern, elegant website that is easy to use and full of photographs of beautiful homes featuring your products. You even offer free shipping.

So what happens when a first time customer’s order takes over three weeks to arrive? Or when a piece arrives broken and they call to complain? What happens when the customer tries to assemble a bookcase and it is missing a screw or the directions are confusing?

The way these scenarios are handled could reinforce or undermine all of the positive brand sentiment that your brand has built.

3 Ways to Improve Your Customer Experience

While no brand is perfect, the more thoughtful and deliberate you are about each touchpoint in your customer journey, the more positive your customer experience will be. The goal is to eliminate any gaps, disconnects or breakdowns in the experience so that every step is consistent with the brand you are trying to build.

Map the journey

The first step towards improving anything is knowing where you stand. Create a customer journey map (or several that account for different experiences) that charts out every single interaction a customer might have with your brand as they move from potential customer to potential brand advocate.

Stop the gaps

Chances are that your first customer journey map identifies at least one area that has been neglected or deprioritized when it comes to brand. Take this opportunity to change processes, train staff, implement new guidelines or performance metrics that will help ensure more positive customer experiences.

Be honest and accountable

We all make mistakes. When you do, own up to it, thank them graciously, apologize humbly and ask your customer for an opportunity to not only correct the error, but give them a more positive takeaway—whether that is a freebie, a discount for a return visit, or the chance to engage more deeply with the brand.

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