Aligning Your Departmental Strategies to Deliver Memorable Customer Experiences
Tuesday, December 11, 2018Lauren Macdonald
Businesses today that sell online or in-store realize that making the customer experience a memorable one is imperative for driving repeat business, collecting positive online reviews, growing revenue through word-of-mouth referrals, etc.
In 2011, the
CXPA (Customer Experience Professionals Association) was formed as the premier global non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and cultivation for the Customer Experience Profession. Since its founding, more and more companies are recognizing customer experience management as a key ingredient in building and maintaining customer loyalty.
Today, a growing number of professionals have responsibility for assessing and improving customer experience across entire organizations, including various channels such as web, call center, brick-and-mortar store, eCommerce, mobile, etc.,
These professionals are responsible for streamlining processes, aligning departments, and perfecting the buyer journey, all with the goal of making the customer experience as simple and seamless as possible.
With over 25 years experience, Jay Baer, founder of
Convince & Convert has seen the benefits of improving customer experience time and time again:
“If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that customer expectations never go backwards,” he says. “17% of retail sales are expected to be eCommerce by 2022. What makes all the difference to eCommerce sales? Customer experience.”
According to some of the biggest companies driving the Customer Experience (CX) movement, including
Oracle, “unforgettable experiences = unstoppable brands.” (Click
here to read on about Unforgettable CX).
The key though is making sure that every department within a business is on the same page when it comes to delivering memorable customer experiences.
“Yeah, sure, dedicated CX professionals typically lead customer experience initiatives in most companies, but it’s critical that all of this also includes sales, marketing, support — it truly takes a village to deliver fantastic customer experiences.” – Jay Baer, Convince & Convert
Here’s a summary from Oracle’s Unforgettable CX that describes how various departments across an organization can impact customer experience:
- Service Teams: Service teams are often the first and last lines of defense in delivering customer experience, and they’re being held to high standards. 75% of today's customers expect "now" service within five minutes of making contact online. They want to interact when they want, how they want, and where they want, which opens several opportunities for customer service teams to leverage technology that can match them with customer expectations and improve experiences.
- Sales Teams: Sales teams need to be able to drive revenue, find new leads, and close deals, all while ensuring the experience is fast, personalized, and relevant for the prospective buyer. Delivering anything less than what’s expected could mean losing the deal and driving customers straight to the competition. It’s a shift from simply hitting numbers to requiring sales teams to be an active part of the customer’s overall experience. Customer experience is becoming a key KPI to guide sales’ efforts and measure success, and top teams are investing in technology to help them meet new goals.
- Commerce Teams: The buyer’s journey is no longer linear—it’s a complex web of interactions across different channels, locations, and devices. Every customer is unique, and commerce teams are tasked to meet their unique needs and deliver relevant offers when they’re purchasing products, whether it’s B2B or B2C. By constantly innovating to find ways to deliver better customer experiences, top commerce teams can keep up with shifting dynamics and use technology to connect data, embrace automation, and personalize omni-channel.
- Marketing Teams: Marketing teams are changing the way they operate to put a focus on the holistic customer experience. They’re taking on new responsibilities to reflect the voice of the customer, ensuring that understanding customer needs is at the core of customer experience strategies. Marketing teams are also incorporating new technology to deliver more targeted offers on a broader range of evolving channels—90% of marketers believe that cross-channel experience is critical to marketing success.
One last tip for creating a memorable customer experience?
Integrate your business applications.
Integrate as many of the applications that your business uses as possible. Ensure that data transfers seamlessly across them. This will help you align your departments, package and ship products quickly, maintain accurate inventory levels, and keep your customers happy.
To learn more about integrating your business applications, visit
www.ebridgeconnections.com