The episode starts with a debate around the definition of customer experience, and its difference from customer service. Customer experience seems to be a proactive way of delivering the tangible and intangible needs of your customers and making them feel really good about doing business with you. Speaking of customers, those can be internal or external to your point of view. Think of everyone that your business interacts with as a customer.
Companies looking into ways to enhance their customer experience should develop a customer experience mindset. Start with the ‘whys’ – why does your company exist? Think as the end-user of your product would. Understand their pain points. This can be easily done by simply talking to them. Immerse yourself in the journey that your customer will probably take with you. Then, take a step back and evaluate how you’d feel if you went through the experience you are delivering. As a leader, ask yourself: am I delivering everything my customer needs? Am I just giving the minimum or am I exceeding expectations and making them feel good?
Perhaps a good starting point when it comes to building a customer-centric organizational culture would be to get a third-party consultant involved to assess the relationship between your company and your customers. Other potential practical things to look at including your ability to understand the behavior of the usage of your products, and the use of data to inform the health of that relationship.
The episode concluded with a call to action for SMEs to align their businesses with the purpose that, in turn, most aligns with their customers. Out of all the examples mentioned in the podcast, the one that seems to be the most relevant at the moment is sustainability. More and more people are caring about the planet. That care seems to spill into their investment choices in terms of the products and services they buy.
