Looking Forward With Certainty

Two things became very clear to me back in 2003. One was that business struggled to find a competitive advantage in a market that was fast becoming “a world of sameness” and two, the future success of a business was going to very much tied to the quality and consistency of its customer experience.

It’s been seven years since we started Customer Experiences Ltd and began our journey to educate New Zealand business on what a long-term strategic approach to the development of a customer experience actually is.
Due to those efforts and advancement made in this area by key international companies more New Zealand organisations are starting to get onboard.

There is no doubt that we would like to see faster progress. Even with a major recession change has been slow, mainly due to the fact that most companies believe they are delivering a superior customer experience. However, only a small percentage of their customers actually agree. This coupled with the requirement for changes in leadership style and business culture for a customer experience strategy to be successful have been two of the limiting factors.

Future Certainties

It’s good to know that there are areas we can be very certain of, in what most see as an uncertain future. If you need motivation to work on these five areas of your business there can be no better than the fact that the majority of businesses are not. This is because either they don’t understand the positive impact they well have or they lack the knowledge and expertise.

1) Unless there is concerted effort to build genuine relationships with your customers, loyalty will continue to decline and marketing costs will increase. Your customers have an abundance of choice and choice in today’s market is power.

2) The internet will continue to play an increasingly powerful role in commerce. However the quality of the e-commerce customer experience will be just as important as all other experiences with an organisation.

3) The growth of customer word of mouth recommendations via websites and social media will become even more powerful. As a result word of mouth recommendation will play a major part in a company’s growth or demise.

4) Employee disengagement will continue to increase in this country. It is already at a very high rate and is severely impacting our productivity and the quality of customer experiences. Placing your people as your number priority will arrest this damaging trend.

5) Creativity especially with the rapid development of technology will be the new competitive advantage. Creating a culture of creativity and capitalising on ideas at speed will keep an organisation ahead of its competitors.

We believe that organisations who are focusing on these five areas as part of a customer experience development strategy will make the most significant progress in 2013.

Other benefits to flow from this focus include a reduction in marketing costs, lower employee turnover, the ability to attract the right people and the major benefit in a commoditised market, a sustainable competitive advantage. 

In 2013 business must realise that in a world of excess, uniformity and repetition, people buy experiences, not products or services. When people feel good about their experiences, they will not only return but will tell their friends and many others through social media.

Chris Bell is the Managing Director of Customer Experiences a company that specialises in the development of high quality customer experiences.
    For further information chris@customerexperiences.co.nz mb 027 2792360 www.customerexperiences.co.nz