I'm betting most businesses have never put fingers to keyboard to create a customer experience strategy. It's hard work, and requires stages and a lot of co-operation. I've had the experience, and it is very worthwhile - if difficult to keep the boo-birds from saying it's too long, too fluffy, too... well, they just aren't all that committed. Here's a nice infographic from Magento (the e-commerce folks) that reminds us about the value of a customer experience strategy and provides some useful tips. Reach out to us if you are looking for help.
Charting the Near-Future in Customer Experience
This article calls retailers to action - to address customer loyalty as an important priority, and to get busy with the emerging (and complex) possibilities for improving customer experience. I feel she spends more time addressing segmentation that might be warranted - since segments will dissolve, in my opinion, as we get to true marketing personalization. But there must be some small steps towards that brighter day of true, individual customer intimacy. I particularly appreciate this note: "A loyal brand customer is far less likely to be driven by price, but more by the emotional value of the purchase – how it makes them feel and the positive impact of their purchase on their lifestyle." Buying is about emotions, let us not forget nor neglect.
Retention is the New Black
I just love it when I see reference to survey and big data that tells us the importance of a retained, loyal purchaser. This article shares data from an Adobe (software company) study indicating that 1 returning purchaser is worth 5 new shoppers. It points out that the cost of a customer retention program could be traded, successfully, for a customer acquisition program. I also appreciated that the article presents an approach to cultivation that is worthy of our gaze, suggesting that businesses "...Have a plan for your customer on days one, seven, thirty, and on." It might actually be that simple. Know who they are. Plan for them. Execute. The article does spend some time on a 10,000 foot view of behavioural email campaigns, which is of value. It also addresses the concept of an onboarding guide, which I had not encountered before, but which seems like an emergent best practice to me.