If “the customer is always right” is the golden rule of customer service, then “treat each customer as an individual” should be the golden rule for brand marketing. Every consumer wants to feel as though the brands they support view them as a unique entity, rather than another customer identification number.
For years, brands were able to get by delivering mass communications and services to their buyers, but those days are gone. Today’s consumers want assurance that brands hear their unique voices, consider their original feedback, and deliver products and services that are tailored to their personal lifestyle needs.
https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/12/11/personalized-data-quickly-improving-customer-experiences/
Around the globe, billions of people are gradually shifting more of their lives online — they engage, share and consume. Along with the emergence of new technology in the digital era, customer behavior and expectations are changing rapidly too.
McKinsey has discovered that 75 percent of online customers expect instant assistance within less than 5 minutes. 70 percent of app users prefer added functionality over “look and feel” of apps, while 61 percent are more likely to buy from companies that deliver custom content. Another 75 percent of customers have used comparison apps for consumer goods, making items such as SEO and reviews pivotal success factors.
https://www.dig-in.com/opinion/leveraging-data-to-elevate-the-customer-experience/
This Customer Think article outlines 20 real steps to cutting waste out of your products, services, and experiences to make sure you deliver what the customer needs to solve their pain points.
https://customerthink.com/what-are-the-customer-experience-steps-to-cut-poor-features-from-your-tech-product-to-enhance-cx-design/
The rise of data-driven decision making has coincided with a resurgence of design thinking. Both processes are now seen as critical to delivering the ideal customer experience. To further understand the area we spoke to Joe Cincotta, director of Thinking Group.
https://which-50.com/data-feeds-design-lead-thinking-improve-customer-experience/
Today, digital technologies are moving into the heart of everything we do, changing the way people work, live and innovate. Naturally, consumer interactions and experiences are expected to be controlled by intonation, facial expression and body language.
Exploring the future from an early adopter user Perspective, Ericsson ConsumerLab presents the seventh edition of its annual trend report, The 10 Hot Consumer Trends for 2018 and beyond.
The report points to a paradigm shift as consumers expect digital technology to increasingly operate on human terms. Body language, facial expression and intonation will augment voice and touch to control consumer interaction with tech devices, easing adaption in an ever-increasing pace of technological change.
http://www.cxotoday.com/story/how-digital-tech-is-changing-customer-experience/
The marketing landscape has seen a tremendous shift in the last five years, largely due to data aggregation, and 2018 will be no different as communicators continue to gain a greater and increasingly granular understanding of customers.
Marketers have become proficient in gathering performance and consumer data through a wide variety of online experiences. These insights have enabled organizations to provide more relevant content throughout every stage of the sales funnel -- from the awareness stage all the way to the conversion stage. In the past, audience data metrics, informed by Google and Facebook analytics, could be applied effectively in organic social media content. But the days of free content are in the past as the industry has moved to a pay-to-play approach to reaching consumers.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2017/11/28/priorities-for-marketers-in-2018-refining-the-customer-experience/
In many conferences in 2017, the buzz has all been around the customer experience, customer journeys or customer engagement. These topics come up in almost every presentation in a banking, hospitality, marketing or retail conference. However, there was little linkage between these “buzz” topics with loyalty nor branding. There is a correlation between the customer experience and how that impacts loyalty and an organisation’s brand. How does a brand inspire loyalty and how does the customer experience elevate a brand?
The Holy Grail for any marketer is to get the consumer to spend with you.
In today’s modern world, consumers are knowledgeable, tech-savvy and loyal. In our fast-paced environment, where consumers have limited time, if there is a brand that has quality and is trusted, consumers will be more compelled to “automatically” buy that brand. This will enable the consumer to save time so as to have more time to do the things they need to do.
http://www.marketing-interactive.com/features/synchronizing-loyalty-customer-experience-and-branding/
There have been cracks in the CX story. And now there is another article by a CX proponent, Charles Bennett of the Next Ten Years, Great Customer Experience does not always mean great business performance.
He goes on to say: “The theory says customer experience is proportional to revenue. At least that’s what “best practice” thinking has taught us. The better the customer experience the better the business result.
https://customerthink.com/use-customer-value-to-fill-in-the-cracks-in-customer-experience/
Customer expectations are rapidly evolving. The pace of technology innovation is relentless. How will your business need to adapt or rethink the way you deliver customer experiences to stay competitive in the year ahead?
Check out these CX predictions from our Beyond the Arc team on what we expect to see in 2018…
https://customerthink.com/cx-in-2018-top-customer-experience-predictions/
It’s holiday time! What a joyous time of year!
And, then there is the holiday shopping experience… This is how I see it. I get in my car. About a mile from the mall I begin to experience heavier-than-usual traffic. Not just a little heavier, but sometimes it seems like worse than rush hour. Is there an accident? No, there’s a traffic jam at the mall. Once I’m at the mall, I experience the search for the parking spot. Then there’s the crowded stores, the lines to check out, and then the reverse commute to get home.
http://www.customerexperienceupdate.com/?open-article-id=7607731&article-title=how-to-deliver-better-customer-service-during-the-busy-holiday-season&blog-domain=hyken.com&blog-title=shephyken/
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