THE better you serve your customer, the greater the possibility of attracting more and retaining more customers.
As we celebrate the customer service week, I engaged Praxedes Dube (PD) who is a dedicated customer experience manager with a passion for enhancing client satisfaction.
As she pointed out, she likes making discoveries through research and content reading in striving to create memorable interactions.
In addition, she is interested in personal growth and empowering others.
JN: Customer service goes beyond a week as we celebrate it in October. Why is it important to think, practice and include customer experience in daily corporate spaces?
PD: It is important so as to make extra revenue, create loyal customers, grow the brand and push it into the market, enhance customer retention and turn customers into walking marketers.
Customer experience helps you to capture customer life time value that is as long as that particular consumer or service user (customer) is still alive.
His footprint will always mark the footfall of the customers in that particular organisation.
Every positive memorable experience will always remind the customer to come back or gives him no reason to go next door.
Relationships are also made when customer experience is fully practised, enhancing business growth and more referrals through customer feedback and fostering brand loyalty as improvement is done on a daily basis and corrections administered.
Creating relationships protects relations with customers who experience mistakes down the road.
Customer experience is vital tool to turn customers into brand ambassadors when satisfaction is made know the brand has a full defence force.
JN: What is customer experience when juxtaposed to customer service?
PD: Customer experience are all the customer interactions he has within an organisation.
It is the totality of cognitive, effective, affectionate seamless and memorable service rendered to a consumer (customer) pre-, during and post stages of the customer journey.
On the other hand, customer service is an act of helping customers in the present moment, solving immediate problems answering questions and meeting the expected needs.
Customer experience goes beyond expectations as it values relationship building.
It creates a “Wow” experience and leaves a customer with news to spread.
In essence, customer experience shapes the customers perception of a brand.
JN: What do you think companies should do to improve customer experience?
PD: The most important first step is to map your customer journey.
This is to have the set standards, values and procedures that you are assuming or intending your customer will take throughout his visit in your organisation.
Consider customer’s discoveries, engagement and service delivery. There are facts the customer will discover on their own. Are they positive or negative?
Empower employees by constantly educating them.
Use Omni channel approach to improve customer experience.
Lastly, value customer feedback to name only a few improvement aspects,
JN: What are customer care failures you feel cripple the retail spaces in Zimbabwe, that bring dissatisfaction to the customer.
PD: Long waiting times due to probably inefficiency and or unnecessary or unjustified delays.
There is also the issue of unsatisfactorily resolved customer complaints. A customer should never leave with doubts in their head about the solutions they have been offered for their complaints.
More so, avoid dictatorship. Engage and allow the customer to feel as part of the solution.
Then there is indifferent staff attitude, where in some organisations, you find staff members too busy for the business.
Customer’s presence needs to be acknowledged.
Sometimes unnecessary conversations can be a put off.
There is a serious need to know how to respond to a customer.
Remember, there are some in-house issues that can be a turn off for the customer.
Your purpose in the organisation is to deliver excellent service and drive the organisation to the top.
The other issue is system failures. These can include network failures or slow data network systems.
Customers also take note of ambiance: Is the environment welcoming? Is there any atmospheric mood change as you enter the premise?
Housekeeping issues must be kept in check through soft lighting, calm welcoming music and appropriate department labelling. All these contribute to a positive ambiance.
JN: What is your word of motivation and advice to leadership/ management on the subject of customer experience?
PD: In this fast-changing world, there is a need to invest in customer experience trainings.
Customer experience is not negotiable and is not for a particular department.
It is a practice every individual in an organisation has to adopt.
There is no specific individual in an organisation responsible for delivering the experience, but everyone, regardless of their position.
Customers have no time to be kept or being referred to the next person. No one is too special to attend the customer.
Trainings should also include groundsmen and or security guards because those are the first points of contact with your client/ customer.
They have power to build or destroy the brand.
As leaders, you should stay curious when it comes to customer experience. Never stop learning. Experiment and push boundaries.
- Jonah Nyoni is an author, speaker, and leadership trainer. He can be contacted on X @jonahnyoni. WhatsApp: +263 772 581 918