5 Customer Experience Mistakes

and How To Fix Them

A primer for ‘How to Treat Your Customers Right’

treatyourcustomersright.com

We all make mistakes. I have a favourite quote which I often use “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” (John C. Maxwell).

Below are five mistakes which we have found in our work which we ask our clients to become strong enough to correct and hence profit from.

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1. The Mistake; Managers put process and technology over people.

If your process or technology is inflexible your customers will notice. We’ve all had “those” calls with someone who is unable to help because the "computer system won't let me do that" or it's "not our policy” . Stressing protocol and policy more than the customers need and your people, is a recipe for a terrible customer experience.

The Fix: The best companies live their dedication to the customer experience. They empower their people to “make it right” when the customer has issues. It isn’t about the process. It's about the culture of the people in your organisation and they create a loyal customer.

treatyourcustomersright.com The Complete ApproachTel: +448709741911

2. The Mistake; Managers don’t see the end-to-end experience for their customers.

Organizations are usually very siloed and they tend to look at the business as individual units not as a whole. A sales manager is looking at their own patch - sales- but a customer sees the business as a whole, for them delivery is as important as the sale and is actually part of their 'sales' experience. Too often the overall customer experience is forgotten and the customer experience is fragmented.

The Fix: It’s important to take a holistic view, evaluating the customer experience across all channels and touch points to ensure you really understand how customers view your business.

treatyourcustomersright.com The Complete ApproachTel: +448709741911

3. The Mistake; Managers don’t invest enough in employee engagement to deliver the desired

customer experience.

It all starts with your people. In building a customer-centric company culture, employee training brings to life the values of the brand, and the tactical customer experience that reflects the brand. As opposed to differentiating solely on price or features, forward-thinking companies help employees – e.g., call centre staff, sales and marketing teams, and senior executives – internalize corporate initiatives to improve the customer experience.

The Fix ; To increase the likelihood of success when making a change, be it a product launch, merger or making sure the customer is at the heart of your thinking, employee engagement, through training, communications and listening to feedback, can help ensure everyone is on board with a consistent vision for the customer experience.

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4. The Mistake; Managers treat all customers as equal instead of focusing on high value

customers.Many large organizations undertake customer research

and collect mountains of data, but relatively few know who their most profitable (not largest) customers are. Believe it or not some of your customers are costing you money to keep them! They know how to get ‘free deals’ and ‘special offers’ and are too willing to exploit your good will.

The Fix ; Start by tracking the customer journey as they interact with your business across touch points, and prioritize improvements to optimize “moments that matter.”

treatyourcustomersright.com The Complete ApproachTel: +448709741911

5. The Mistake; Managers track the wrong metrics.

My least favourite metric is probably the “time on call” one so many call centre managers and business leaders are fond of. The theory is the less time spent on a call, the less money spent. However there are consequences. It can get so bad that customers are disconnected so they don’t ruin the average of a particular agent.

The Fix: Measure what matters. Pay attention to metrics like customer churn rate and customer lifetime value. It is really important to get it right on the first call, so target getting it done right (i.e no repeat calls about the same problem) rather than getting it done quickly. Measure your employee retention rates which will tell you if the employee thinks they’re engaged and feel valued and so help to build the relationship with your customers.

treatyourcustomersright.com The Complete ApproachTel: +448709741911

Improving customer experience is good for business.

To get the most out of your efforts, focus on the big picture of how customers relate to your company, and prioritize improvements to generate the biggest wins first. This can help build momentum across the company to best ensure you meet your customer experience goals.

Want more tips on how to make your customers love you? Click here to book your ‘Treat Your Customers Right’ Strategy Session. We look forward to our conversation.

treatyourcustomersright.com The Complete ApproachTel: +448709741911