The Ticket to Customer Experience Success in Kenya
Have you had such an experience here in Kenya?
You reach out to a company on call and you get very good service. You try to reach them via email or social media and you get a bad experience?
Have you had to repeat your story to a company several times when you contact them on different channels?
Most companies have perfected their in-store and telephone service experiences but other channels have not been given keen attention.
In today’s world, the customer’s decision making, on whether or not to purchase a product or service from a brand, is now highly influenced by the customer experience at the different stages of the customer journey.
The expectations of the modern customer are constantly changing. Businesses that will survive, are those that are able to adapt to these changes through digital transformation in the effort to understand who their customer is and their journey.
A majority of the Kenyan customers use their smartphone to research about a product, service or a brand. These makes mobile phones a vital part of the customer’s digital experience.
Customers today have multiple avenues to interact with a brand. They will find out about a brand via the online search engines, social media, mobile Apps among others.
This has seen many businesses in Kenya today operating on different channels such as social media platforms, email, websites, live chat, SMS etc. Connecting these channels represents an omnichannel approach and this is what is now required to cater to the modern customer.
An omnichannel customer experience has the ability to provide crucial insights pertaining to the customer’s interactions and behavior across the customer journey.
Let us try to understand what an Omnichannel Customer Experience is and how as a business owner or manager, you can implement one for your organization.
What is Omnichannel Customer Experience (CX)?
An omnichannel customer experience is made up of individual customer touchpoints, over a variety of channels, platforms and devices that seamlessly connect, allowing customers to pick up where they left off on one channel and continue the experience on another.
The digital omnichannel approach offers access to an organization’s offers, product, services and customer service support to potential or existing customers on all channels, platforms and devices.
An omnichannel customer experience allows a customer to smoothly switch between different channels that an organization conducts its business on; in which these channels are connected and provide seamless continuity and personalization to the customer, as they change from one channel or device to another.
For instance, a customer may begin communication via Instagram and then switch to WhatsApp. With an Omnichannel approach, the initial conversation should carry through to WhatsApp.
That means the customer agent should have access to the previous conversation to understand the issue or request as opposed to asking the customer to repeat themselves.
The digital omnichannel approach involves various channels for sales, marketing and customer support. It aims to deliver a united and similar customer experience regardless of the channel used by customers to engage with your business.
Omnichannel customer experience is not to be confused with Omnichannel marketing as they vary from each other on a notable scale.
The Difference – Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel Marketing Omnichannel marketing is a way for brands to advertise their products or services using a consolidated approach in regards to the graphics, offers and messaging, over various channels and devices.
It ensures a business reaches customers where they are with a suitable and on-brand offer.
Omni-channel marketing sees to it that branding and messaging is similar among channels. It delivering an effortless buying experience at every stage of the customer’s journey by acknowledging and addressing the customers across their preferred platforms.
Omni-channel marketing includes merging the various channels together for instance on an App, social media or website, for promotional experiences. It involves communicating with consumers through interconnected digital and conventional marketing channels.
For example, a customer may get an email if they abandoned cart while shopping online and in addition, a retargeting advertisement on their social media such as Instagram or Facebook or receive a promotional SMS.
By combining the strength of each communication avenue, omnichannel marketing can be adopted to deliver a more powerful brand message, enabling the marketing team to reach target buyers at the right time hence broadening the chances of converting them into a lead.
Why switch to an Omnichannel Customer Experience platform for your business?
A well designed and effective omnichannel platform produces exceptional customer experiences.
Benefits of Adopting an Omnichannel Customer Experience
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Better Insight on The Customer’s Journey
An omnichannel customer experience approach collects all the customer interactions together in one platform. It gives a great overview of the customer journey. As a business owner, you get to draw important insights on how to improve the business.
Additionally, implementing an omnichannel strategy allows you to collect all of your customers’ data in one place therefore enabling you to offer superior customer service.
This is because you have visibility into where customers encounter issues, granting you an opportunity to improve your offering.
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Higher Customer Retention
An Omnichannel customer experience allows customers to interact with a brand through their preferred channel while still making a smooth transition throughout the interaction.
This therefore boosts customer satisfaction and is one of the most effective customer retention approaches.
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Greater Reach
Having an Omnichannel sales, marketing, retail and customer service support strategy in place allows you as a business to reach your customers wherever they are.
Customers no longer have to keep searching to find your brand, they only need to decide how they would want to contact you.
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Increased Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
An omnichannel CX strategy makes it easy and simple for customers to reach out to your business. This therefore makes omnichannel customers beneficial to a business over the duration of their lifetime.
The commitment in providing consistent service portrays the promise by a business to continue engaging with the customers for the rest of their lives.
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Increased Sales and Profits
Adopting an omnichannel CX approach indicates that there will be various entry points which improves the chances that a customer would choose your brand.
If and when a potential customer is ready to make a purchase, it is much easier to buy from your business if they can find the product or service on different channels and platforms.
Organizations who make omnichannel customer experience the core of their business are able to significantly improve customer satisfaction and customer retention.
Tips to Building a Successful Omnichannel Customer Experience
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Conduct Research on Customer Personality
There is a need to obtain deep customer insights in order to understand your customer characteristics. Customer personas give exceptional benefit to your business by showcasing different segments that make up your target audience.
The key to understanding who is your target customer and what motivates them to buy your products and services is using data-driven research.
Understanding how customers interact with your business across channels ensures every team in an organization is working with a complete picture of the customer journey eliminating any gaps or siloed operations among departments.
As a business, you are then able to spot patterns in behavior, interests and intent and then engage with customers on the right channels and at the right times.
A customer journey gives a visual timeline of how your customers interact with your brand at different points of their buying journey. It starts from the point they research about your brand. It then focuses on all the touch points that lead to a purchase and beyond.
Working out a customer journey starts with identifying the steps a customer takes on the way to make the purchase. This information then gives you an understanding into what customers expect. It also guides you on how as a business, you can exceed those expectations.
Being able to spot the customer touchpoints is important. It enables you to have a clearer understanding of what your customers are feeling at each stage of their buying process. It also provides key information about the different platforms and channels.
You are also able to identify where gaps and issues arise. This helps you make the necessary adjustments. This in turn optimizes the shopping experience across channels to increase sales and improve convenience.
Additionally, you can personalize the interaction at the identified touchpoints. This helps to build enhanced experiences for your customers and design effective marketing strategies.
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Identify and Involve the Stakeholders
Implementing an omnichannel customer experience can sometimes be a complex process and will take time to complete.
A cohesive internal approach is required to ensure the successful implementation of an omnichannel CX. In this regard, you need the buy-in and contribution from multiple departments. These departments include; product team, sales, marketing and customer service.
Involving these teams early on will make it easier as you try to switch into an omni-channel way of working. It is less hectic down the road when you get people excited in the beginning. Once everyone understands the goals and objectives of the omni-channel initiative.
It is best to start small and then make adjustments to the customer journey across all platforms as you go.
An ideal way to go about it would be to begin by adjusting experiences in your main channels first. The next step would be rolling out these experiences across the multiple supporting platforms.
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Adopt the Right Technology
Using the right technology is essential to deliver seamless experiences across diverse touchpoints and channels.
Customer service agents should be able to reach out to your customers through multiple channels. These channels include; voice calls, live chat, mobile apps, video and more depending on the customers’ preferred method of communication.
Data from the different channels and platforms needs to be assembled into a single customer view. This is key in creating a proper omnichannel customer experience.
This way, regardless of the touchpoint, the team has all their information available all the time.
Tools that can be used to improve omnichannel customer experience include:
- Chatbots – Set up chatbots to engage with customers 24×7 and provide real time responses to simple queries.
- Live chat – This helps provide real time assistance to the sales and support related questions and enhance customer satisfaction.
- Live engagement tools – With co-browsing, customer service agents can work together with customers. This is by sharing their browsers and guiding them through a complex exercise.
In addition, with a video based call center, customer service agents can identify issues faster and deliver personalized solutions.
Feedback from customers is crucial. This is because it offers the organization information that can be used to improve the omnichannel customer journey. It also facilitates a more cohesive customer experience.
It is therefore important to collect and capture feedback at every customer touchpoint. This opportunity to engage with customers to identify how they would want to interact with your brand.
Surveys are a good feedback collection tool. They can be sent out through email, social media or mobile apps.
A website popup could also be generated so that customers rate their experience and give comments and suggestions.
Analyzing Customer Feedback Can Assist in Improving the Omnichannel Customer Experience.
This is how,
- Implementing a system to assist in collecting feedback, analyzing it, and acting on it frequently.
- Reducing friction and solving specific problems and challenges for your customers at different customer touchpoints.
- Using the feedback received to develop an in-depth understanding of your customers in order to serve them better.
In conclusion…
Creating an Omnichannel experience is the key to the future success of an organization. Every organization needs to develop its own unique omni-channel experience infrastructure. Omnichannel customer experience is today’s differentiating factor. It has made communication seamless across multiple channels to help customers improve their experience.
Traditionally, businesses told customers what products or services they needed. The modern way views customers as the ones in power telling businesses what they need.
To achieve great customer experience, it is important to focus on personalizing each customer interaction. This will in turn enhance customer retention.
When customer satisfaction improves, your customers become your brand ambassadors sharing their experience between friends, family, and social media. This therefore motivates other people who didn’t know about your business to reach out to you.
Over the last 16 years, Jackie has built a remarkable career in Customer Service in different capacities and industries.
As a Customer Experience Trainer, her mission is focused on helping businesses make more and retain more customers through unrivalled Customer Experience.
She has an in-depth CX understanding that stems from personal experiences, learning & research all fueled by my passion and commitment to see customers happy and organizations thriving.
She is the Co-founder, CEO, and Senior Consultant at Customer Centric Kenya, the consulting and training firm of choice.
Her tailor-made training-approach has been a key strength. The companies she has worked with have appreciated some key aspects:
→ The well-researched and packaged modules.
→ The depth of training and tailoring.
→ The applicability and follow up.
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