Customer experience: bring the human touch back to your commercial relationship!
The customer experience, CX for those in the know, is not just about selling a product or service to a consumer but creating real interaction, and possibly even stirring emotion. It extends throughout the relationship with the customer, through communication, physical or digital (or phygital!) points of sale, and even public relations...
Even more now in the context of COVID-19, the quest to keep up ties with your customers is of crucial importance. Let's look together at how to leverage your customer relationship to bring the human touch back to your customer relationship!
The customer experience serving loyalty
The customer experience is an exceptional tool for putting together your relational marketing strategy. It results in the creation of bonds with customers at each stage of the relationship so that you can better understand their expectations by establishing positive experiences... and thus build their loyalty. With this strategy, we are no longer dealing with customer satisfaction but entering the affective realm. Customers consequently develop a new relationship with the brand through unique experiences: an emotional bond is created. It is thus possible that a company that succeeds in stirring this emotional bond sees growth of up to 85% in its sales compared to the competition (according to a study conducted by the Journal of Consumer Research).
To effectively understand what the customer experience encompasses, let’s look at some examples! We’ll start with Netflix. Reigning supreme in its field, this streaming platform knows exactly what its subscribers like, thanks to their data. Its algorithm offers viewing suggestions and customises the interface with playlists – a winning strategy that banks on quality digital content and simplicity in the CX! Disneyland Paris, meanwhile, has succeeded in creating an immersive experience in its magical world. The Disney brand has proven its ability to significantly influence the perception of the customer experience. Leroy Merlin, too, deserves to be mentioned here, as an illustration of the customer experience all along the shopping journey: with concept stores like “The Flat” in Paris to define future customers’ and guide them in their decision-making, a smooth and consistent omni-channel shopping journey, including in particular a mobile application, the “DIY Comes to You” platforms so that customers can find the right professional to install their products once home. These examples show you how diverse the range of action is when it comes to shaping the customer experience.
Public relations, your trump card in the customer experience
Different angles are available to you to create experiences for your target populations. Let's focus on what that stands out: public relations. In the current context of heavy digitalisation and social distancing, the enthusiasm around on-line shopping has never been so great and the “low-touch economy”, i.e. with less contact between people as well with objects, is emerging. More than ever, it is important to create bonds with the brand, and give a new ring to the customer experience. Public relations offers us the chance to revitalise this emotional connection by inviting prospects, clients and/or ambassadors to spend an exceptional moment in a privileged setting. It is by creating shared memories that you will succeed in bringing the human touch back to your
