Customer Experience has “direct link with loyalty” |

Ideas, tips and techniques for new generation selling and customer support.

04/28
2009

Customer Experience has “direct link with loyalty”

Fist clenching stress ball with smiley face Good news, bad news:

In a new report (abstract), Forrester Research now says customer experience has a “direct link with loyalty.” That’s good: today you need all the loyalty you can get, and if your competitor slips up through clumsy cost-cutting, it’s your opening to acquire their frustrated abusees.
But Forrester also says customer experience is “in its adolescence”: players are awkwardly stumbling around, trying to find their power. And that’s not based on customer complaints: that’s from a self-test!

As we grind into the gritty part of the slowdown, businesses who lack genuine buoyancy are sinking, and only the ones with substantial value are bobbing above water:

Sinking: Players who, like GM, depended on unsustainable consumer trends (the preference for SUVs)
Swimming: Players like Best Buy, legendary for its focus on customer experience. Even in the downdraft of Q4 2008, they earned $570 million. Half a billion! And that’s despite a decline in comparable store sales (Best Buy’s version of same store sales).

When somebody tries to do business with you, it’s a precious moment. Give them a good experience. Tips from the “no lines, no waiting” perspective:

Customer experience matters.
When someone wants to do business, don’t make them wait.
When somebody is a customer, keep ‘em. Make ‘em love you.

Food for thought: some real-world case studies of how TimeTrade users in many industries are doing this with appointment scheduling, pre- and post-acquisition, often as part of a larger customer experience strategy.

Posted by cterry

Filed under: appointment scheduling

Tagged: appointment scheduling, customer experience, customer satisfaction, customer service, downturn, economy, retail, waiting