Customer Experience Management Solutions For Your Business

If we were to look at customer experience management from the right perspective, it is certain it will throw some interesting and even surprising facts. Whether one is running a small enterprise or a big organization, understanding customers from their experiences with products and services, from the service standards offered to them and even from the kind of information that they are privy to, play a big role in shaping the direction in which an organization is moving.

There are some deeply held beliefs and myths that could get shattered if the top echelons in any small or big companies try and discover more about customer management experience or CEM as it is often referred to.

What Exactly Is Customer Experience Management?

Before understanding the growing need for having a good CEM in place, it is important that we have a reasonably correct definition of customer experience management. In today’s highly competitive world and a world that is being driven more and more by technology, interactions with customers is becoming quite common and quite regular. Each interaction is a new experience and companies and organizations must know how to manage such experiences and interactions.

They must learn lessons out of such interactions and know how to manage it more effectively the next time around. When this is done repeatedly and constantly it goes a long way in meeting ever growing customer expectations and requirements.

When implemented properly after the right thought and due diligence process, customer experience management solutions can go a long way in increasing customer loyalty, satisfaction and advocacy. However, we have to bear in mind that this is not an easy task. It might call for a total overhaul of the various processes and also would call for efficient, intelligent and extensive use of various modern day technologies.

Lessons To Be Learnt From Customer Experience Management

As mentioned in the beginning there are quite a few lessons to be learnt from authentic and focused customer experienced management programs. For example, there has been a belief that most of the customers are always price conscious and anything that is offered at highly competitive prices will sell and sell well. However, this might not be the entire fact.

Many CEM programs have proven that a big chunk of customers do not mind paying more for products and services provided they get value for money. When they talk about value for money, they do not mean excellence of the products and services when it is bought by them. They also refer to the kind of services and support that is available to them once the product or service has left the distribution chain and reached the customer. Hence, customer satisfaction is an ongoing process and does not end just by selling the product.

How Customer Experience Management Can Make A Difference

In today’s highly competitive and tough market situation, retaining existing customers is an intelligent and effective marketing strategy than spending thousands of dollars on advertisements and brand building exercises.

While not discounting the need for looking for new customers, retaining old customers will certainly bring in new customers. The word of mouth advertisement by a few hundred satisfied customers will eventually snowball into a big movement. This again has been proven beyond doubt by some of the best customer experience management solutions implemented by some big names in the telecom sector.

Is Customer Experience Management Essential?

There are many conventional and old fashioned business houses who might ask the question whether customer experience management is a choice or a necessity. Given the complex markets that we are today and the levels of competitions that we encounter, there is little doubt that customer experience management is no longer a choice but a necessity.

The rapid strides in internet and mobile technology have only increased the need for such a program if companies are serious about retaining market share and keeping customers in good humor.

How To Build The Right Customer Experience Management Model 

Ask any company that has built successful customer experience management solutions, you will get one common answer. All these companies have been successful because of their unflinching commitment to the customer and being customer-centric at all points in time. Hence being customer-centric should be a mantra for the entire organization and should be a part of their DNA. It should be all the more prevalent in the front end where the interaction with the customer is the most.

Social Media And Its Role In Customer Experience Management

As mentioned earlier in this article, companies must know how to effectively leverage modern day technology in building effecting customer experience management solutions. Here the role of social media is becoming more and more important and relevant. Gone are the days when social media was basically a platform for entertainment, gossip and communication. Today it has become a very potential platform for customer interaction and feedback. Hence it is the most ideal platform for any company that is serious about its CEM program.

The reason why social media is so important is because this is the place where customers express themselves freely about a product or service. A positive feedback about a product or service can go viral within a few minutes. In the same light a negative feedback about a product can literally be very bad news for it. Hence, while being active in the social media is extremely important, there is also the need to manage perception and opinions about products and services.

This is where effective customer experience management comes into play. Replying to positive feedback is not a big problem but answering negative feedback could be a challenge. While not trying to brush things under the carpet, the reply should be carefully drafted and help defuse the situation rather than trying to aggravate it. The customer should have a genuine belief that his opinions are very important and corrective actions are being taken.

Given the above facts, there is hardly any doubt that choosing the right customer experience management solutions is extremely important. However it has to be done carefully and with a calibrated approach rather than rushing through it without researching and without building the right foundations and platforms.

 

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Matthew is the Lead Author & Editor of CXperience Blog. Matthew established the CXperience blog to create a source for news and discussion about some of the issues, challenges, news, and ideas relating to Customer Experience.