I get a number of opportunities to speak to business leaders & top management people and I can gauge their deep interest in customer experience. Though they all understand its importance, yet, surprisingly, they find it difficult to improve it. One of the major reasons for poor customer experience is the fact that clients’ expectations have been set very high by corporates and banks & some of the investment companies where needs get fulfilled for most of services merely on a tap on phone or click of a button. It is not possible for many regular businesses to provide the same level of customer experience consistently; sometimes because of technical reasons or sometimes due to the specific business types or models. However, I strongly believe that every problem has a solution and the customer experience of an ideal scale can be executed every time with the required zeal & passion for it.

How is technology helping in customer experience?

Considering the technological advancements in recent times & upcoming startups’ out-of-the-box vision, existing businesses face a real threat, as new entrants may surge ahead of them by meeting client-centric demands through technological means seamlessly and providing the same goods or services at almost identical prices. SMBs & established businesses face this danger appreciably more than others and that’s why the leaders of these organisations must keep customer experience at the very top of their priorities. Companies like Amazon and Uber have provided an exceptional customer experience & that’s why their success has been far more significant than other competitors in the market.

I believe that even though there may be strong competition in your market or there is a price-war, you can still cultivate good profits for yourself by just rendering better customer experience in your business. You will be amazed to know that how customers are ready to pay even more for having that experience. This does not only help in getting prospective clients on board and retaining the existing clients but also in spreading the good word about the company.

Following are some ways to add great customer experience to your business:

• Maintain a TAT (Turnaround time) for every customer-centric activity & communicate well to clients & your employees
  
  
• Add special channels of communication like SMS, Social Media, IVR (Interactive voice response) or related technology as per your customer-base
  
  
• Keep your clients informed at every stage of business, starting from customer acquisition to after-sales; this must be end-to-end
  
  
• Having clients’ feedback during & after business is crucial, this is a must to have a great NPS score (Net Promoter Score)
    
• Clear, transparent and understandable business communication can be a great winner with customers
  
  
• Keep a record of all discussions, transactions, problems & their solutions and the data you generate during various processes. All of this shall help you improvise ways to augment customer-experience for your clients.
  
  
• All touch-points must be optimised for the universal brand experience.
  
  
• By providing a unified experience to clientele on the front-end, companies can increase and personalise the customer experience to a level that will make them stand out against competitors, boost sales and increase the NPS.

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