The new face of the customer experience

The customer experience may, in some ways, never be quite the same again so – as iManage’s Dean Leung cautions – best be on guard when it comes to trends ignored at peril.

Dean Leung, Chief Customer Success Officer, iManage

dean.leung@imanage.com

Whether you’re a software vendor, a service provider – or working in professional services - a focus on the customer experience (CX) is essential if you hope to be a successful organisation.

This effort is complicated by the fact that, for many organisations, customers come in two flavours: the end users of the product or service outside of the organisation, and then “internal customers”– which is to say, their own employees.

As a new year gets rolling, what CX trends do organisations need to keep top of mind to best serve these groups, and to drive the overall success of the organisation?

News Flash: Anyone Who Joins for Money, Will Leave for Money

There’s a fierce battle for talent right now. Thanks to a persistently tight labour market, potential employees are asking for outrageous pay, and more often than not, they're getting it, simply because organisations can’t afford to leave an open post unfilled.

Before organisations pat themselves on the back for successfully filling any staffing gaps in their departments by hiring one of these individuals, however, they should realise that anyone who goes to an organisation solely because of money, will leave for money as soon as there’s a better opportunity somewhere else.

In order to hold on to talent, there needs to be something other than money that binds the individual to the organisation, and that’s where culture comes in. Company culture is more important than ever – and it’s the secret sauce that prevents a company from being viewed as an interchangeable “commodity” by its employees.

Establishing and maintaining culture might be seen as more challenging during a pandemic when employees often aren’t physically located in the same place, but it simply requires an intentional effort from all parts of the organisation. By taking the time to foster culture rather than hoping it organically develops on its own, organisations will go a long way towards creating the kind of work environment that employees will want to stick around for.

Values Matter – for Potential Employees and Potential Clients Alike

Members of Gen Z – the cohort born from 1997 onwards, whose eldest members started entering the workforce in the past few years – are the most diverse generation yet, and they want to work for companies whose values align with their own.

To that end, they’re very much invested in what a company is doing from a diversity, equity, and inclusion standpoint, an environmental perspective, and other social responsibility issues that are of importance to them. As alluded to earlier, the tight labour market means that employees have their pick of employer at the moment, so they’ll be happy to find one whose values speak to them.

Lest companies think young employees are the only ones asking about these sorts of things, rest assured potential clients are starting to as well. Increasingly, they are using their RFPs to request information about the demographic makeup of senior leadership or the size of a company’s carbon footprint to help them decide which companies they want to do business with.

The most successful organisations will be those that take these matters seriously and thoughtfully rather than implementing a superficial “checkbox approach” – something that potential employees and potential clients can see right through. In part, this means showing a consistent, ongoing commitment towards “walking the walk” rather than participating in “one off” events or making “one off” hires and then putting the issues aside for other priorities.

“By taking the time to foster culture rather than hoping it organically develops on its own, organisations will go a long way towards creating the kind of work environment that employees will want to stick around for.”

Tech Touch Only Gets You So Far – Human Touch Still Plays a Role

Companies can’t do one-size-fits-all marketing when they engage customers – they need to finely hone their personas and continually refine them to drive engagement.

Does tech play a role here? Absolutely – you need a tech touch to be able to scale and maintain a single 360-degree view of the customer across all touchpoints and to present the information that is the most useful and relevant to them for their journey at the moment they need it.

It can’t be entirely about the tech touch, though – you also need the human touch. Companies need to be able to know when to bring in the appropriate expert (read as: human) to provide the appropriate advice for individuals in particular stages of the journey where and when they reach a fork in the road.

Recognising where people need that helping hand – and that human touch – shows that the company is not only engaged in the success of their journey, but also that they recognise exactly how to amplify positive experiences for customers, while minimising any potential negatives.

Customers Aren’t Afraid to Vote with Their Feet If They’re Not Getting the Experience They Want

What happens when even the biggest, most entrenched giant is revealed to be just one subpar customer experience away from losing millions of customers? We found out several months ago when Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp experienced an unexpected outage that took their services offline for nearly six hours. The result? A competing service, Telegram, gained 70 million customers in a single day, many of whom were defecting from WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.

Meanwhile, what happens when customers decide that they actually don’t like having to go to a car dealership and be subjected to a high-pressure sales pitch when they want to purchase a used car? You see the rise of innovative disruptors like Carvana, who take the dealership out of the equation and put the experience of the customer at the forefront.

The message for companies of all sizes is that providing an unparalleled customer experience is more important than ever. Customers have plenty of options – and if you’re not providing a smooth CX, those customers will be more than happy to take their business elsewhere.

Security Is Expected – Always

You wouldn’t walk into a bank and ask them not to let any criminals steal your money – you expect that they are taking all necessary steps to protect against these hazards.

Likewise, the expectation of security is now inherent for any product or service that customers procure from a vendor. You don’t ask whether or not the new phone you just purchased is secure or whether or not the transaction data your credit card company gathers is secure – you expect it to be, and you’re rightfully appalled if the vendors fall short on this front.

For companies who are now managing a hybrid workforce – a scenario where they’re no longer protecting sensitive data within the four walls of a physical office but across multiple remote locations – the expectation from their customers is that security will still be completely airtight, regardless of where someone is conducting their work.

The trick for companies is to execute this strong security while not interfering with end user productivity and the ability to seamlessly get work done. This means providing their professionals with tools that incorporate comprehensive security at a foundational level – without making daily workflows more difficult for users. If a product has a clunky interface or delivers a cumbersome experience, users will revolt and find workarounds – possibly less secure ones – to press into service.

Simply put: CX matters, on multiple different fronts. Delivering first-rate CX isn’t easy, but there are few things that will pay more dividends – from attracting and retaining talent, to keeping clients satisfied, to strengthening organisational security – in the coming year.

imanage.com