Why is there so much noise around the Customer Experience now?
In these latter days, I see a growing interest in Customer Experience. New customer-oriented tools (like Customer Journey Map), frameworks (such as Voice of Customer, Human Experience), and metrics (NPS, CSAT, etc) are coming up. And even a new special position — Chief Customer Officer (CCO).
The importance of good customer service and clients satisfaction are not something new. For decades, companies such as BMW, Starbucks or Bloomingdale’s have used superior user experience as one of their main competitive advantages.
So why has Customer Experience become such a hot business topic these days?
The Rules of the Game have changed
Market and technological changes transform customer behavior and competitive conditions. As a result, new business challenges arise.
- Clients have more choice. From a business perspective, this means competition is fiercer than ever before.
- Clients are overloaded with information. It is getting harder to attract the attention of buyers because of the information noise that surrounds everyone and everywhere. In addition, people protect themselves from advertising with Ad Blockers (47% online users use ad blockers — Digital Information World, 2019 ) and Ad Blindness.
- Clients are better informed. It needs a few minutes or even seconds to compare your prices and offers with your competitors, or to get an idea about your company after reading reviews on the Internet.
- Customers know well what they want. They have easy access to a huge amount of information. So the strategy “they will buy what I offer, just because they have not seen anything else” does not work anymore.
- Clients can switch to your competitor without any efforts. In many cases, this means just a few taps on their smartphone.
- Clients are more impatient. People make decisions faster than ever before and expect to receive goods and services immediately.
Impatience, immediate action, instant gratification, even some impulsiveness — these are just a handful of descriptors for behavior today. — Lisa Gevelber. Google’s VP of Marketing
- Your competitors are better informed. Pricing, primitive “exclusive” offers and services are easily copied. Creating long-term competitive differentiation is getting increasingly difficult.
- Customer Acquisition Cost rises. More competitors + customer attention is distributed across many information channels + need more qualified marketers = Marketing is getting more expensive.
Many of the old competitive methods work much worse or do not work at all.
Geographic proximity to a customer? For many business sectors, the Internet eliminates this advantage. Low prices? Your competitors have the same ones or even lower.
An unique product? With modern technology, this advantage too often lasts a very short time. And today, even high-tech products are practically no different. Do you feel a significant difference between Volkswagen Passat and Toyota Camry? Or between Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy?
Even just excellent service is no longer enough for more demanding customers. Most of us already take it for granted.
The reality is that for many companies, extraordinary and exciting customer experience will very soon become the main (if not the only) weapon in the fight for the Client.
References
https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-acquisition-study
