Across all industries, the pandemic fundamentally changed how business is done. And the interesting thing is that while the lockdowns disappeared, the trends did not. Many new sales paradigms emerged and are here to stay, and today’s customers will never look back. Expectations have been set, and if anything, they are moving higher on the leaderboard. Research shows that pre and post-purchase transactions impact the customer experience more than ever, and organizations need to have highly qualified CX teams in place to successfully manage their end-to-end customer lifecycles. This involves a deep understanding of the mind of the customer, and how to equip your CX teams to succeed.
So exactly does today’s customer expect from CX? To begin with, people across every industry are juggling more emails, video calls, collaborations, and meetings than ever…all at the expense of their time. This trend has a direct impact on buyer behaviours and affects the customer journey. Surveys show that today’s buyers require the utmost respect of their time. They expect interactions to be simple, streamlined and straight to the point. They’re not interested in interactions that waste their time.
Additionally, customers expect all engagements to be personalized, with customer-facing agents demonstrating a thorough understanding of their circumstances and situation. They also expect responses from brands in hours – not days – and organizations need to be observant of their response timelines. That said, there is a short leap from responsiveness to badgering, and here again, brands need to have a CX team with the experience to understand the difference, when to push, and when to be patient. Lastly, customers expect simplicity and ease across all stages of their journey.
So now that we’ve zeroed in on expectations for a next level CX, how can brands deliver? A few tips include understanding the customer journey from their motivations and concerns to their decision-making style. Then it’s important to clearly understand what your current CX reality looks like – how do your teams interact (directly or indirectly) across the entire buying journey. Do you measure up in terms of today’s standards? If not, it’s time to analyse your market engagement strategies and organize all of your systems – including partners and channels – accordingly. It’s also important to remember that a successful CX program is not an event, it’s a fluid system that requires careful oversight and management as the market evolves.
One way to aim high and set the gold standard for CX is to look at leading customer service outsourcing companies as potential partners in your customer-centric strategies. Considering that companies need to build an emotional connection that anticipates customer expectations, partnering with a business process outsourcing company like Anexa could be a stroke of genius. Anexa can help your business deliver on ambitious aspirations by representing your company as you would – implementing insights, and remaining highly aware of the expectations of today’s customers. We understand that customer service is more than a feeling, more than a department, and more than a phase in the customer journey. It should be the culture of your organization, and with the support of our customer specialists, it will be.
Contact Anexa today to find out more about our customer service specialists.