Customer experience tends to focus on functional aspects of service deliver; ease of use, accessibility, speed and convenience. For consumer goods brands, product quality is central to the customer experience. Online, the rules are the same, though the nature of the consumer interface makes consumers less tolerant of failure. Why battle against a slow or poorly designed website, when there are countless other websites just a 'google' away?
If your content, product or service delivery is infallible, providing exceptional customer experience 100% of the time, the knock on benefit of consumer engagement is invaluable. Trust and loyalty are difficult to build but can be destroyed easily (Toyota?). Whether you are confident in your service, or aspiring to better, it pays to be pro-active about customer experience and consumer engagement.
For an example of a great online shopping experience, John Lewis is one of our favourite.
The clean crisp feel, rigorous adherence to brand guidelines and simple, 'shopper friendly' navigation make it on of the top online retailers in the UK at the moment.
There is also a real sense that the website has been built around a multichannel proposition. Store finder and even call centre telephone number are clearly displayed at the top of the screen, demonstrating that customer experience is the priority.
Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) is another way of engaging customers and building loyalty. One of our favourite CRM programs is from The Economist magazine. They have found an interesting balance between free and paid online content, where subscribers to the magazine get access to articles and can select topics they would like to hear about via email.
For help developing your online customer experience get in touch with Zoocha!