Among the many customer experience pitfalls that you need to avoid, three stand out. When customers have a positive experience from beginning to end, you will see your business grow. Unfortunately, there is a disconnect between what companies believe they deliver and what their customers actually experience. The goal is to recognize key pitfalls to help bridge that gap.
Not Understanding Customers’ Needs
Many companies do not have adequate metrics in place to determine customers’ expectations and brand perception. Therefore, start by implementing a proper measuring tool. Not understanding the customer’s needs is by far the most unforgiving of the errors that companies make. Although asking customers what they want is helpful, you have to dig deeper.
It is just as important to watch what your customers are doing. By understanding the environment in which they live on a daily basis and knowing what their specific concerns are, you have the opportunity to get creative in developing a compelling solution.
Using Yesterday’s Solution for Modern-Day Customers
According to various surveys, more than 50 percent of businesses do not take advantage of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology. That means they are using outdated methods of tracking customers’ experiences. To improve customer service, you need to keep up with the times technologically.
The best solution is a CRM system that can handle your company’s current challenges. Even if your business is relatively small, you have access to a number of highly efficient CRM systems to replace archaic processes. As a result, your customers have an exceptional experience that you can track.
Failing to Follow Up
Once a customer service issue is resolved, it is critical to follow up. Being proactive helps the customer feel more confident in buying your product or service. With a follow-up, you can ensure the issue was completely resolved, answer questions, and take additional action if needed to prevent a new problem from developing.
A follow-up replaces the customer’s bad experience with something good. By nature, humans tend to recall the last thing that happened, so if you leave things with your customers on a positive note, that is what they will remember. It is important to have a strategy for determining which issues need follow-up most. With that parameter established, you want to implement the appropriate system so that you never overlook those issues.
