With the increasingly frantic use of mobiles and social platforms, highly connected consumers are now finding information in just a few seconds and have, more than ever, power on brands and the user experience offered. To follow the trend, you have no other choice but to offer an incredible user experience on all channels.
Each client’s journey is different based on the desired product. For instance, think about buying a coffee maker. Which channels should be used?
- A blog article presenting the various products available;
- Product recommendations from an expert;
- A video showing how easy it is to use;
- Social media to view feedback;
- Stores to try the product;
- A website to buy the product.
It can also be a ton of other combinations that will depend on several other factors such as your target audience, the importance of your message, the length of your message, your corporate values, etc.
Every interaction must be relevant and directly related to your consumer: who he is, what he does, and where he is in the sales funnel. Maintaining communication over a long period of time with your prospects or clients is an art that allows you to significantly increase their engagement.
However, unified user experience goes well beyond the purchase; do not overlook customer service. We need to follow the customer throughout his buying process, but also after his purchase, and to build customer loyalty, between each purchase. Abandoning your customers right after they bought one of your products is one of the best things you can do if you don’t want them to make a second purchase from you.
1. Focus on individuals
Each client has different expectations regarding your products and services but also for the experience they want to have when doing business with your company. Knowing this, you will have to adapt to be able to engage with your customers and thus better retain them.
To respond adequately to these expectations, a deep knowledge of your clientele is necessary. Collect, group, and maintain the preferences, interests, and behaviors of your prospects and clients to build a complete picture of each one of them. This knowledge will allow you to have more control over your marketing actions and to be able to optimize the experience offered through personalization.
2. Personalize your relation
As mentioned below, knowing well your clients is the first step towards a better engagement rate. Once you know your customers well, you need to make all this data available across all your channels to get more information about the journey your customers are taking, and then, ensure an exceptional experience.
Indeed, you should be able to recognize your client at each step of the relation and to recommend products or services that meet his or her specific needs. Offering a personalized experience is one of the best ways to achieve optimal customer engagement and loyalty. The majority of consumers choose, recommend, and are willing to pay more by choosing a brand that offers a personalized experience.
3. Define your standard client journey
Each marketer’s goal, in terms of customer experience, is guiding clients through the conversion funnel that leads to a purchase, and then to loyalty. You must determine the proper communication sequence on each channel and the calls-to-action based on the client cycle. It can be a long and tedious job but believe me, it’s worth it.
By building a comprehensive picture of each possible point of contact, you will be able to determine which segment is most likely to connect with your company through which entry point. Then, you can send them the most appropriate communication to move them forward on their buying journey. Don’t underestimate the importance of every interaction you have with your customers. And always keep in mind that the client experience goes well beyond the purchase action.
4. Take advantage of the digital era
Consumers are everywhere, on mobiles, on social media, on websites, and in stores. They read their emails, view their favorite blogs, consult their Facebook feed, and go from one another non-stop. This is why you must send a unified message that performs well on all these platforms.
Your customers expect that what is on your website will also be on your mobile application. They also expect them to be able to shop on your website and go to the store to buy without any problems. It is therefore essential to have some consistency in your points of contact while adapting your messages.
No matter where the consumer interacts with your brand, it is imperative that the experience continues through the different channels and not be repeated. Why’s that? The answer is simple: several of your customers are on many social networks at the same time and follow you on each of them, in addition to being subscribed to your newsletter and push notifications, for example. With this in mind, seeing the same message on each platform can become tiring for your contacts.
You should, therefore, adapt your message according to the channel used to broadcast it. Of course, the content of an SMS message will not be the same as that of an email or a push notification. So keep this in mind when you write your main message and adapt it into a new version for each channel.
5. Share your engagement policy with your teams
Forget working in silos and try instead to share with your teams everything about your engagement strategy. Everybody that interacts with your clients must be aware of your engagement policy to comply with it. Whether it is your call center employees, your representatives, or your salespeople, if you want to provide a unified experience, you need to explain your strategy to them.
When people interact with someone in your company, they expect that employee to be aware of what’s going on in your various channels. So plan a weekly or monthly meeting, as needed where you can keep your teams informed of the different strategies deployed for your customers.
6. Identify your governance model
Have you heard of a CXO, a Chief Experience Officer? This is the person responsible for the overall user experience of an organization. And if you don’t have such a person in your company, maybe it’s time to promote someone to this important role to make sure that you always provide the best possible customer experience.
The person you’ll name to be responsible for governance must have the capabilities to act on all levels – operational, marketing, and technical. As we have seen, client engagement relies as much on client knowledge as on how this knowledge is used. So ideally, your CXO will also understand how information systems work.
Conclusion
What about you? How’s your customer experience?
To help you identify your omnichannel client experience level, we have prepared a diagnostic questionnaire for you to complete. Based on your results, we can only recommend that you put all the necessary efforts on your weaknesses and to continue improving your strengths to become a client engagement master!
Now it’s up to you!