If you want more customers, don’t drop prices or even improve product quality. This is what works best. 

Improve the customer experience.

Nearly two-thirds of customers say they’d switch providers if they got better service or experiences from another organization.

“The finding that consumers are easily swayed to switch to product and service providers that offer a super customer experience demonstrates the harsh reality of today’s business and loyalty landscape,” says Verint’s Ryan Hollenbeck, senior vice president of global marketing and executive sponsor of the Verint Customer Experience Program.

Do you offer the superior experience?

But it’s good for you if you’re the organization offering the superior customer experience.

“The customer experience gauntlet has been thrown; customers demand exceptional service in exchange for their business or they will take their business elsewhere,” says Hollenbeck. “The question now is, how do brands respond?”

Balance the act

The key is being able to offer customers the right balance to self-service and personal help.

“Organizations need to turn to automated solutions to cope with increased volume and demands, but they must ensure they continue to provide the high-quality experience customers expect – including the ability to engage with a human when needed,” says Hollenbeck. “Their customer engagement strategy needs to empower customers with the ability to switch seamlessly between digital and other channels.”

Here are keys to the balancing act.

Personalized service best practices

These are the top five things customers say are critical to personal interactions. The service pro:

• Clearly explains the solution or answer. This is the ultimate sign that a company and its employees have listened to and understand customers.
• Acknowledges the situation and is sincere in the response to it. Empathy is mostly about responding to customers’ emotions. Employees want to recognize the situation and acknowledge the emotions customers feel.
• Shows urgency in resolving the issue. When employees tell customers, “I want to get this resolved for you right away,” they can express urgency whether the matter is urgent or not. It tells customers that they’re worth the immediate attention.
• Gives the next steps and/or a timeline. When things can’t be resolved immediately, customers are assuaged just knowing what will happen next and when.
• Re-states the issues and uses layman’s terms. Skip the jargon and $10 words. Customers want to hear that you’re on the same page as them.

Self-service best practices

To create a seamless self-service experience, make it:

• Searchable. A one-size-fits-all FAQ page doesn’t get the job done anymore. Instead, create a search function with a search bar on all pages, or embed links on a “table of contents search page” that is no more than one-click from your home page. That can help customers jump to the information most relevant to their questions rather than scroll to find.
• Interactive. You want to offer information in several formats to meet different needs and preferences. Some customers learn by watching, so YouTube videos are helpful. Others might like online diagrams or written tutorials to troubleshoot.
• Shareable. Once customers search for information on your website, service page or app – and hopefully get what they requested – you want to get some information from them so you can make every experience better. Ask them to rate the information they found. Give them the option to post their feedback to social media. That gives you valuable feedback, and other customers who might have the same questions will get an opportunity to find answers in social media quickly.

Resource: Adapted from Internet