What Makes a Great Customer Experience?

Paul Conlin of Sabio shares five key tips to transform your customer experience.

1. Stop Working in Silos

Different departments across the same business often work very separately. They have different budgets, processes and objectives, so it’s easy to see why silos emerge.

However, these teams are missing out on shared sources of information and insight. Every department, from marketing and product development to customer services and front-of-house staff, should have access to your company’s contact centre data.

Of course, we’re not talking about sharing details about individual customers. We’re talking about bringing data sets together to gain insights. These can then be used to plan product developments, special offers or advertising campaigns that delight your customers.

Breaking down silos requires a cultural change, too. All departments should see themselves as part of one big team, working towards the same ultimate goal. Businesses should foster a shared understanding among teams and an appreciation of the work that other departments do.

2. Don’t Let Your Data Collect Dust

The technology is in place to collect reams and reams of data – Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Employee, sales figures, web analytics, virtual assistant interactions and social media queries… the list just goes on.

Many businesses are keen to collect this data, but not many know what to do with it all once they’ve got it.

All this information and insight is left to sit in a virtual box acquiring virtual dust. Meanwhile, any customer experience issues continue to rear their ugly heads because nobody knows quite how to deal with them. The answers lie buried in the dusty data.

That’s where Sabio’s team of experts can help. We bring the data to life through pictures, words and recordings to show your stakeholders how your customers are feeling and what needs to change. We use your customer feedback to:

• map your top customer journeys
• create in-depth personas based on evidence
• create a tailored customer experience strategy for your business
• set priorities and expectations every 3 months.

You’ve got the data – we’ll help you use it to build a great customer experience.

3. Talk to Everyone

Everyone thinks they know what a great customer experience means for their business. If you asked your board members and senior managers, you’d probably get different answers – but each person would be fairly confident in their views.

However, many of them are probably just guessing, or out of touch. As British Airways’ senior customer experience leader Kate Thornton told our podcast: “I’d come up through some customer service roles and as I progressed into management and more senior management roles, I’m sure I thought that I was connected with colleagues right away across the organization, and that I genuinely respected them and cared about what they had to say.”

“The reality is, though, of course […] I was spending increasing amounts of my time sitting in meetings, and was getting further and further away from the reality of what was going on on the front line.”

Kate’s right. If you spend all your time in meetings, you’ll never really know what’s happening out there. So, we would encourage you to go to where the action is. Sit in your contact centre. Observe and listen to the conversations agents are having with customers.

If you’re really serious – and feeling brave – why not answer a few customer calls yourself?

First-hand experience, listening to your employees, and surveying your customers are all powerful ways to find out what is a great customer experience at your business.

Your customer experience might not be there yet, but at least you’ll know what your people and clients need to get there.

4. Support Your Staff

The chances are your contact centre staff spent time working at home during 2020. While homeworking has many benefits for people with the luxury of space and quiet, it’s also a big change.

Contact centre agents are used to sitting with their peers, swapping advice on how best to fix technical issues or resolve a customer’s issue. To maintain your NPS and CSAT scores, it’s vital that you support your staff with the right technology and information.

Customers were lenient and forgiving at the beginning of lockdown – nearly everyone in every sector was struggling to work from home. But now, that excuse won’t wash. Every contact centre agent should have the right information to give customers a consistent, positive experience, no matter who the customer speaks to.

Your staff should feel supported and empowered to do their best job with the best tools, no matter whether they’re sitting in a call centre or at their kitchen table.

5. Turn Negatives Into Positives

Sometimes it takes a bad customer experience to make a great customer experience. We don’t remember the interactions with brands that are efficient and hiccup-free.

But we do remember what happens when something goes wrong.

Every error, issue or mistake is an opportunity to turn a customer into a brand advocate. If you resolve the problem and send that customer away feeling pleasantly surprised or even delighted, they will tell all their friends – and they’re likely to be loyal to your brand.

Stuart Dorman

Sabio’s Chief Innovation Officer Stuart Dorman offered a good example of this from Tesla: “A Tesla Model 3 owner was involved in an accident. The crash shattered the vehicle’s central touchscreen, preventing the driver from opening the glovebox and accessing his insurance details.”

“The owner shared his experience online and was impressed when Tesla CEO Elon Musk replied the next day saying that he was immediately adding a software feature to open the Model 3’s glovebox automatically when the car comes to a stop after a crash, and that he would also look at adding an additional plastic sheet to the screen.”

“That’s really listening to the Voice of the Customer!”

While this situation could have led to a really nasty experience for the customer, they came away instead feeling listened to, acknowledged and impressed.