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How can you differentiate your products and services?

By delivering an engaging Customer Experience!

Gallup research shows that happy and committed employees deliver a better customer experience, and isn’t that what every business wants?

Your customers’ experience is based on their interaction with your products, your systems and processes - and your people. Each and every interaction forms either a positive or negative impression of your company, and every experience is associated with your brand. So every touch point - every interaction - is critical in creating a positive customer impression.

Your employees reflect your brand. They are the custodians of your customer experience and bring your brand to life. And companies with both engaged employees - and engaged customers - are more productive, more profitable, and achieve higher sales growth. But many companies fail to manage the employee-customer relationship.

In today’s economic environment, it’s even more critical to understand how we connect with people and create positive experiences, build relationships and create value. We know there is a link between a positive customer experience and customer loyalty. Even in a down economy, many customers will pay more for a better customer experience. We also know that a large percentage of customers will leave us after a negative customer experience. With the use of social media today, negative news travels as fast as fingers can ‘tweet.’ Yet a great experience can help you differentiate a highly commoditized product or service.

Two key factors enhance your customers’ experience. First, their needs and desires must be understood. You must deliver an experience based on those needs. Most companies design processes and systems for internal users -‘company-out.’ You need to develop a ‘customer-in’ view, and understand how your customers interact with your systems and processes. Second, it is important to engage and involve front-line employees in the delivery of your customer experience. Employees can provide specific insight as to what’s working and what isn’t. A great marketing campaign is only as good as your ability to deliver against the promise - every day.

So, how can you better understand your current customer experience? Here are some tips for applying experience-thinking:

? “Walk in your Customer’s Shoes.” Audit your experience from the customer’s perspective to determine the positive and negative elements of your current experience.

? “Define your Customer Pathway.” Understand all the ways your customers interact with you - through your website, marketing materials, processes, mail, over the phone and in person.

? “Design the Experience.” Identify opportunities to create an engaging, positive customer experience, and align all your interactions, touch points, procedures and systems to support the desired experience.

? “Engage your People.” Determine your key positions - your brand ambassadors. Understand the difference between jobs and roles. Coach customer-centric behaviors.

You don’t need to ‘boil the ocean.’ Look for opportunities that are practical and actionable.

Experience Management helps you manage the employee-customer relationship. It’s a business discipline that delivers bottom-line results. It’s not a one-time fix, but rather a consistent, disciplined approach that will help you achieve sustainable, measurable results - your unique value proposition.

You are already delivering a customer experience today. Is your current experience designed to meet customer needs so that your customers become raving fans?

If you want to learn more about Experience Management, contact us. We can help. We have the experience, training and tools to engage your customers and employees.