By: Forbes Magazine
Translation : Feedbacksmiley.ae
In a time of unprecedented demand and increased adoption of online ordering, customer experience (CX) data has never played such an important role in increasing customer retention and ensuring businesses remain successful. Statistics from Zendesk’s 2021 CX Trends Report show that 50% of customers switch to a competitor after one bad experience.
Despite this, some retail companies still fail to develop a mindset that promotes the use of customer experience data to drive decision-making within the company. As a result, they are not equipping themselves with the tools they need to grow and meet new challenges. If companies want to successfully navigate the evolving retail landscape in 2021, they must focus their attention on optimizing the customer experience as a means to build and maintain long-term relationships with customers and facilitate continued growth within the organization. This, while at the same time keeping in mind budgetary constraints, balancing both cost and ROI.
In 2020, when many retail businesses were forced to close their doors and go exclusively online, it was quickly realized that it is no longer the case that good customer service equals a good customer experience. If COVID-19 has taught the world one thing, it is that consumer expectations about how retail businesses operate and the way we store both online and in-store have shifted.
As a result, businesses must now take steps to adjust the focus of the organization and make valuing the customer experience a priority. At the same time, organizations must make rapid changes to avoid financial pressures. Only by implementing new operational strategies can transformational companies ensure that they truly meet changing customer needs.
Set goals and invest time
It is no secret that growth is not something that happens overnight but rather is the result of an accumulation of small successes over a long period of time. Typically in retail, there are a number of activities that could be improved if only the company took the time to collect data sets, such as feedback, to help understand the pain points of the business and its customers.
To support a company-wide mindset shift and work toward embracing customer experience as a priority within an organization, retail companies must first set CX goals for employees to work toward. These goals should be in line with what is appropriate in today’s market and with the organization’s overall strategy. Thus, the goals should not be too high, as it will be too expensive to implement them, nor should they be too low, as companies may lose their customer base. Ultimately, goals are determined by strategy. Some companies will prefer lower prices or a wide selection of goods over CX, but each company’s decision will have lasting consequences later.
These goals may include improving net customer value growth (the difference between the number of new customers the company gained in a given period minus the number of customers the company lost in the same period), receiving a certain number of high net promoter scores (how likely is it that a customer would recommend the company to a friend, family member or colleague) or working to increase the number of word-of-mouth referrals as a result of a good customer experience online or in-store.
By creating an environment where it is commonplace to consistently set qualitative customer experience goals, retail company leaders can ensure that CX plays a key role in employee KPIs, motivating staff to consider CX as a crucial part of their work.
Analyze data and stimulate creativity
In changing the mindset of the company and incorporating CX as a foundation from which to drive growth and development, it is important that stakeholders have the opportunity to become involved in the process.
As such, every employee within the company should be regularly given the opportunity and encouraged to review the company data collected (including CX data), especially when it is relevant to their role and the work they do within the company.
Involving the entire company in the analysis of all data, including sets such as basket size, visitor numbers, costs and CX data, whether it is marketing staff at headquarters or employees working in the store, will help employees understand it better and also encourage them to suggest any future changes that may be needed to maintain competitiveness in the marketplace. Another benefit is that it ensures every employee is part of the conversation, helping them understand the many small changes that will ultimately allow the company to reach new heights.
It is also important that companies nurture an environment where employees feel safe to not only propose new ways to improve the company’s profitability and CX, but also not afraid to fail if their ideas don’t pan out as they expected. Many companies have embraced the culture of learning by “failing forward.”
By encouraging employees, no matter how junior they are, to be open to new ideas, staff learn that they have intrinsic value within the company, and even if their ideas don’t work out, it is still useful as a means of learning from mistakes. Also, it helps build a stronger, more resilient workforce that will be able to look at what is not working and improve it until it does.
Today, companies no longer have the luxury of testing out new ideas over a period of many months or even years. During the pandemic, many retailers used their time to implement quick strategies in local stores as a means of testing out new ideas in hopes of keeping their finances afloat without sacrificing the customer experience.
Embracing a rapid testing and evaluation mentality will help retail companies collect massive amounts of data – including CX data – and is even more beneficial in the long run, as these rapid cycles allow companies to regularly try new things and gauge customer reaction, which can be equally effective in helping staff understand what works and what doesn’t, and whether these changes have the potential to be implemented across the company.
Documenting and sharing learning points
Since customer experience data plays a key role in organizational success, retail companies must ensure that documenting lessons learned from testing does not become a burden, but something that staff are willing to actively participate in.
By encouraging employees to record their experiences of mistakes and successes, the company can build a framework for financial success and can benefit greatly from new staff who want to get a jump start.
This can be achieved by creating user-friendly digital channels within the company where tests can be described and lessons learned, or by holding weekly in-person (or perhaps video) meetings to discuss both successful and unsuccessful tests and strategies.
The world of retail is constantly changing, and the pandemic has meant that many companies looking to grow must now embrace a data-driven mindset, set goals, use data and document their learning experiences to truly ensure they are doing what matters most, which is keeping customers happy. Only by truly embracing the customer experience as a vital tool within the business will companies be able to navigate what is expected to be another unprecedented year full of obstacles and challenges.