In Part 1 and 2 of this blog series, Brent Haumann went back to the basics, revisited the core purpose of communication and looked at how manufactured experiences can fulfil customer needs and change customer behaviour.

In Part 3, Brent explains why manufacturing customer experiences will drive a faster ROI

Why manufacturing customer experiences will result in a faster ROI

To remain competitive in the digital-dominated future, it’s imperative that organizations build digital capabilities that deliver seamless customer journeys and hyper-personalised experiences.

Building digital relationships with your customers and shifting their behaviour incrementally through manufactured experiences, goes far beyond creating happy customers. There are real rewards for getting these experiences right, rewards that have a far higher long-term value than operational efficiency.

Happy, engaged customers spend exponentially more with a service provider, which in turn yields a faster return on investment.

Achieving a fast ROI

Carefully manufacturing experiences is imperative to meet customer needs and drive the desired behavior.

Manufactured experiences need to be applied across the entire customer lifecycle and within each customer journey.

1. Pay attention to the golden rules of communication
   Communication must be relevant, useful and add value to the customer. It should invite interaction and encourage engagement. All processes that spin off from a communication must be simple and the supporting systems must be easy to navigate. However, optimal customer engagement requires a consistent experience across the entire customer lifecycle.So, create the right experience first and then focus on how to make it operationally efficient afterwards.

 

2. First impressions count
   75% Of all cross-selling occurs within the first few months of a customer’s onboarding, making first impressions crucial (Financial Brand). An onboarding experience that makes a bad first impression will affect the lifetime value of that customer, to the extent that you may fail to recoup the acquisition cost. On the flip side, research shows that a strong onboarding process results in better customer satisfaction, more referrals and higher revenue.

 

3. Communication is the golden thread to the adoption of digital channels
   Often, the fastest way to achieve a return on investment is to encourage customers to move their primary communication preference from print and post to digital. However, this is not the end goal. Once you have established a digital connection, you can leverage digital communication to drive adoption of lower cost channels, such as your portal, email, text, chat and MMS. Each communication should create the right breadcrumbs to migrate the customer to the channel most suited to their needs.

 

4. Artificial intelligence can further enhance CX
   Artificial intelligence technology is providing innovative alternative, low cost ways to engage, such as a chatbot driven by conversational AI. This is not only applicable to a portal. A chatbot can be embedded into communications such as emails and even inside a document, such as a statement. Using this service channel, the customer is able to self-serve by engaging with the chatbot first, before making a call or sending an email to a live (expensive) support team.

 

5. Put customers at the center of CX design decisions
   Too often, the complexity of an organisation’s systems and processes dominates the process of designing the ultimate customer experience. This is especially true for organisations that are strongly IT-lead. Far too much emphasis is placed on leveraging existing technology, and not enough on manufacturing the perfect experience for customers.When technology is the basis for design decisions, customer experience becomes a result of what’s available, rather than what’s possible. To design and manufacture the ultimate customer experience, key decisions must be centered around the customer and how you want them to feel/act when interacting with your brand at a certain touch point.Manufacturing the right customer experience will not only delight your customers, but will help you stand out from your competitors and achieve a fast ROI.