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Tried-and-Tested Employee Engagement Strategies That Unleash Higher eNPS Scores

Blog Post By Judith Aquino

Savvy brands understand that excellent customer experiences are a vital part of business. Yet consumers across the globe indicate that many brands still have work to do when it comes to meeting—much less exceeding—their expectations and earning their loyalty.

Here’s the percentage of respondents by country who agreed with the following statements:

I don’t remember when a brand exceeded my expectations.
Australia: 66%
France: 72%
Germany: 68%
United Kingdom: 66%
United States: 59%

When I have a bad experience with a brand, I move on.
Australia: 78%
France 79%
Germany: 76%
United Kingdom: 76%
United States: 69%

So, what does this mean for brands? As this study and other research suggests, customer experience has stagnated. As more and more companies compete on customer experience, what was once considered innovative is now table stakes. When was the last time you were wowed by a retailer that offers buy online, pick up in-store options or the ability to complete a purchase from your phone?

Indeed, as we learned from our own study, leaders are becoming more critical of what it means to be a customer-centric organisation and in fact, fewer leaders claimed that their organisation was customer-centric in 2018 compared to previous years.

Finding common ground

1. Focus on the experiences that matter – Transformation for the sake of transformation is a waste of resources and time. As Arthur Nowak, Senior Vice President - Asia Pacific Markets, notes, “it is essential to have a clear view of how and where the transformation creates value for an organisation and its customers.”

2. Let the customer lead – It may seem obvious, but customer insights are helpful for making decisions that affect customers. However, only 35 percent of executives said they had been studying digital customer behaviour as an indicator of which technologies to invest in, according to a report by Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter, a Prophet company. Companies are “making investment decisions without necessarily understanding or having access to the data that would guide it,” he says.

3. Understand what drives loyalty – Research has shown that delighting customers doesn’t build loyalty. But increased friction or points of frustration within a customer journey are four times more likely to drive disloyalty, reports the Customer Contact Council. It is important to build customer journeys the deliver frictionless experiences. But should an issue occur, customers want it solved quickly. Instructing contact centre agents to delight customers in problem resolution “is likely to be ineffective, a waste of time and effort, as well as costly.” agrees Arthur Nowak, SVP APAC Market at TTEC. “Framing the role of the contact centre in an organisation as not only about resolving friction quickly when it occurs but also to be proactive with solutions to prevent similar friction from impacting other customers. It gives employees a better foundation for action and helps to deepen the contributions they can make to customer journeys and customer experiences..”

4. Know when to ask for help – Unless your organisation is consistently up to date on the latest best practices in customer acquisition, success, growth, and fraud prevention and detection services, consider whether an experienced partner can provide fresh ideas and solutions for keeping your customers satisfied.

Consumers today have more options than ever and have high expectations for engagement, responsiveness, and frictionless support. As a result, consumers are often unforgiving when their expectations aren’t met or their trust is betrayed. Therefore, the sooner business leaders understand that what they consider a good experience may not look that way to the customer, the sooner brands and customers can begin talking to each other—rather than at each other.