1. They don’t see the end-to-end experience for their customers
Organizations are usually very siloed and they tend to look at processes without thinking about how they are interrelated across lines of business. That means their view of the customer is fragmented. It’s important to take a holistic view, evaluating the customer experience across all channels and touch points to ensure you really understand how customers view your business.
Often businesses focus too much energy analyzing processes and ignore important context that can better inform them about the customer experience. For example, when analyzing survey data, a bank may gather customer comments but often neglects to capture the type of accounts a customer has, the length of time they’ve been a customer, how and where they conduct their banking, and their value to the business.
2. They treat all customers as equal instead of focusing on high value customers
Many large organizations undertake customer research and collect mountains of data, but relatively few know who their most profitable (not largest) customers are.
The fact is that a few customers will typically represent the significant proportion of your profit, which means these are the ones you should target first when focusing on improvements. Start by tracking the customer journey as they interact with your business across touch points, and prioritize improvements to optimize “moments that matter.”
Be sure to monitor social media and engage dissatisfied customers to help transform negative sentiment into a positive customer experience.
3. They don’t invest enough in employee training to deliver the desired customer experience
In building a customer-centric company culture, employee training brings to life the values of the brand, and the tactical customer experience that reflects the brand. As opposed to differentiating solely on price or features, forward-thinking companies help employees – e.g., call center staff, sales and marketing teams, and senior executives — internalize corporate initiatives to improve the customer experience.
To increase the likelihood of success through a merger or simply launching a new product, employee training can help ensure everyone is on board with a consistent vision for the customer experience.
Improving customer experience is good for business. To get the most out of your efforts, focus on the big picture of how customers relate to your company, and prioritize improvements to generate the biggest wins first. This can help build momentum across the company to best ensure you meet your customer experience goals.