Zen and the Art of Customer Experience

Ever stop and wonder why you’re in this business? I do. It’s pretty amazing really. Paid to surf, investigate, ponder, and improve a mystical little mousetrap called a Web site. When it comes to direct marketing, E-commerce and online customer experience, I’ve been at this for a lot of years. Enough to really take the customer out of customer experience, if I’m not careful. But, when it comes to evaluating and optimizing customer experience, I’ve learned over time that there’s more art than science to evaluating the spectrum of customer touch points and making finding key areas that create not only advocates, but raving fans. (photo by HOBO)

The Art of Customer Experience
In E-commerce, online marketing, or what ever you want to call it, many of us are overly preoccupied with capturing the sale. Do what it takes to register the revenue. Looking at your business in this one dimension will let you garner profits early, but if you’re not looking at what’s happening before and after the sale, you’re E-commerce strategy will suffer long term. The businesses and brands that focus on these “ancillary” areas will not only be able to position themselves to acquire market share in the future even when budgets are tight and times are tough, in many cases focusing on these three key customer experience touch points will remind organizations there are benefits beyond the buck and there are real people behind the numbers. So, where should you and your organization be looking? Customer experience is definitely more art than science, but here’s three areas that are under utilized when it comes to improving customer experience as well as the bottom line:

1. Pre-Sales Contact Emails and Phone Calls – A no-brainer right? Maybe. Many organizations look at this area when it comes to cost cutting. Automation, auto-responders and tactics to reduce the need for real human interaction. But, there’s a goldmine of information within the content of these emails. If you look more closely than just the sheer number you may be getting over the course of a week or even a day, and dive into the content, you can find information that can lead your editorial schedules, drive support articles and help define the requirements of your Web site support feature and functionality list. Most importantly, taking one hour per week to sift through these little gems will plainly let you know what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong within your organization immediately.

Quick Tip: If you’re a part of a large organization and you’re a bit removed from the front lines of the phone queue, put a reminder in your calendar to sit and listen in on the calls once a month with one of your call center reps. Don’t have that kind of time? Do it at least quarterly. It will save your organization time and money in the long haul, plus be the impetus of a ton of great ideas that will help separate your business from your competition.

2. Post-Order Confirmation/Re-Affirmation – Congratulations, you got the sale.  So what. Most confirmation emails spit out pretty worthless junk. At most, it tells end customers that their order information has made it through the unknown labyrinth of bits and bytes and is has now been successfully received. End of story. Most online organizations have just lost a major opportunity to really create a customer for life. The best thing you can do at this point is to make your newest customer feel good about themselves and the wise decision they just made. How? Take a close look at the confirmation email that’s sent when an order is placed. A great confirmation email with a customer testimonial or two, links to install instructions if necessary, information regarding next steps in the fulfillment process – expected delivery dates, tracking links, etc. Do what you can to affirm that end customers have made a great purchase decision. Additional products to purchase are good here too (maybe even at a promotional discount). Hey, They still have their wallet out – they may have forgotten something!

3. In-Box Delivery and Packaging – If you’re selling hard goods, this is The Moment of Truth. Did you deliver on your promise? Did it arrive in a timely manner? Better yet, sooner than expected? As your customer peeled back the bubble wrap, what did they find? If you delivered on your promise, you’re more than half-way there. But, you as an organization can be burned on this last leg of the transaction. If the packaging is hard to open (an issue with a growing number of retail packaged products), install instructions difficult to understand or interpret, or even worse, the customer didn’t get what they expected when they initially purchased your product, you’re in trouble. The time, effort and real dollars you and your company spent acquiring this customer has just gone down the drain.

Quick Tip: In your organization’s analytics package or ERP system, keep a close eye on the number of new customers you’re acquiring over time compared to the repeat customers. The new ones are great to tell your CEO about because they’re growing your business and your market share, but don’t turn a blind eye to the repeat customers. If you’re doing your job right, they are your advocates, your biggest fans and when times are tight they’re probably keeping the ship afloat. What’s a good ratio for new vs. repeat customers? It may depend on your industry and your average order value, but if you’re keeping as many customers as you’re acquiring as a percentage month over month (50/50) you’re probably doing something right. Plus, the great thing about repeat customers? They’re telling their friends and family about you too. (photo by HOBO)

How can this information change your life? It doesn’t take many raving fan emails to remind you that you’re in the right business – or a couple of ranting phone calls to make you get your act together.

I just discovered Bruce Temkin’s blog on Customer Experience a few weeks ago. He’s got some great insights into customer experience monitoring and measurement – plus a free e-book: The 6 Laws of Customer Experience. A quick summary of the laws:

1) Every interaction creates a personal reaction.
2) People are instinctively self-centered.
3) Customer familiarity breeds alignment.
4) Unengaged employees don’t create engaged customers.
5) Employees do what is measured, incented, and celebrated.
6) You can’t fake it.

Definitely some points to ponder in an area that can be nebulous to say the least for many organizations. Bruce goes into great detail regarding the implications of the laws and how an organization can strive for improvements. A quick eleven page read with some fantastic insights. If you’re looking for some help in quantifying the customer experience for your organization, give it a read.

The point is – the transaction is only a small piece of the story. Organizations creating advocates and fans are able to break down pre-sales and post-sales touch points as well to maximize the experience from end to end.

Have a great story or point on customer experience? I’d love to hear it.