Have you thought about the customer experience that your business offers? It’s not always easy to see the wood for the trees in this instance, but perhaps thinking about other places where you yourself have had a great customer experience is one place to start.
Creating a streamlined experience is essential for a successful business strategy. Remember, your customers are your business; so building a relationship with them is of primary importance, especially if you want to encourage brand loyalty and generate more sales.
What is a customer journey?
The most basic answer to this is that it is the interaction between the customer and your website. When people are looking for a new car, a new winter wardrobe, or the best insurance deal, each of these searches entails an interaction. If they can’t find what they want with ease, then the journey is seen by them as unsatisfactory: it’s a bit like turning up at an airport and finding your flight has been delayed and that means you’ll miss a connecting flight.
Furthermore, consumers don’t base their perception of a brand on the basis of a single interaction. Their relationship with your brand is based on a series of interactions that create an overall feeling. When that is good; they come back. If it’s not so good, you probably won’t see them again.
How can you create a consistent customer experience?
Always avoid being inconsistent. The customer wants to feel sure the service will always be of a consistent standard. With that in mind, here are some things you must provide:
- Clear service, product and delivery policies
- Good customer service communication mechanism
- Always deliver on what you say
Failure to meet these most basic needs will lose any business customers. One way to avoid this is to put yourself in the customers’ shoes and try some customer journey mapping, which will help identify where there may be problems and solve any issues before clients stop using your company.
Customer journey mapping will help you to identify:
- How you are meeting customer expectations through specific interactions
- Where the customer struggles with the journey, e.g. they can’t find a product, or the aftercare isn’t satisfactory
- Where the brand needs any realignment
Learning from insights about the customer journey can only help your brand and increase customer satisfaction.
If your business includes a customer journey experience, but you need help with introducing it to your website if you’re a start-up, or refreshing it if you feel it may not be working at its best, MINT is here to help. With our knowledge and expertise we can help plan, write, design and create the pathway for the kind of streamlined journey customers want.
