For several months now, I have been writing blog articles in this space in an attempt to make the case regarding the necessity for mid-market businesses to launch a digital transformation effort - because digital interactions have become required by their customers, vendors, employees and partners. My customers understand this and get to work building digital experiences that puts them ahead of their competition. I love helping my customers as they begin their transformation effort and it is thrilling (for me) to see them really own the transformation and drive the changes they say they need to be more competitive in their market segments.
Not all companies share the enthusiasm for improving their digital experiences as my customers.
Let me explain…
Recently, I have personally experienced a digital experience that was incredibly bad - bordering on abusive. This isn’t hyperbole.
There are some transactions that we all undertake that are trivial. There isn’t a great deal of emotion behind them and there are plenty of options available in the marketplace that makes avoiding a poor customer experience easy. There are other transactions that are more important and emotionally charged. The digital customer experience that I am going to describe is an example of the latter.
Customer Experience (CX) is personal and it matters.
We should start with an understanding of what constitutes “customer experience”. According to McKinsey: “Basically, CX refers to everything an organization does to deliver superior experiences, value, and growth for customers. And it’s crucial in an age when how a business delivers for its customers is just as important as—if not more important than—the products and services it provides.” You can read the whole article here.
The way we treat our customers is a loud announcement to them about how much we value them…or don’t value them. There are some businesses/organizations that get this and others that don’t. According to IDC, spending on CX improvements increased by 36% between 2018 - 2022. According to Forrester Research, 64% of CX leaders report having a larger budget in 2024. While this is good, not all organizations are doing the work required to improve the situation for their customers.
As an example and generally speaking, I can’t think of an interaction with a government agency that was satisfying - they don’t see me (or anyone else) as their customer. They know they have a monopoly for what they do and it shows in the customer service they offer. Often, the bureaucracies are so vast and complex, that even a well-meaning civil servant couldn’t be truly helpful if their life depended on it.
Poor customer experience goes viral…
When we have a good experience with a business, we generally don’t mention it to anyone - it has to be very good for us to gush about it to someone - that seems to be the way we are culturally. Perhaps we just consider their performance to be their job and not worthy of praise. When we have poor interaction, however, we tell people. As business people, we want to avoid this because poor customer experiences have real consequences for our businesses. In the world of social media saturation, going viral for this reason can kill a business overnight.
According to research from Statista, 49% of customers that are dissatisfied with their experience when transacting with businesses switch their buying habits to the competition. Roughly two-thirds of those customers switch to your competition and never engage to let you know they are dissatisfied - they just leave.
Don’t rely on your customers to tell you that your customer experience is poor - be proactive and get to work building the tools your customer, employees, vendors and partners require to stay satisfied and continue doing business with you…instead of your competition.
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