Every business talks about improving customer experience or creating a great customer experience, but most organizations drop the ball and never really deliver one. Creating an exceptional customer experience is pretty simple if you have your customer in mind at every contact point.
Great customer experience is the new lead generation
If being found offline and online by prospects is the new form of awareness for lead generation, then trust is the new form of lead conversion. Trust happens rapidly when people choose to talk about you. A great customer experience is the most effective form of lead generation.
Map the contact points
One of the most useful and valuable tools your (or any) business can create is a Customer Contact Point Map. The idea behind this tool is to use it to map all the ways your customers or prospects might come into contact with your brand and then go about making sure that each contact point is designed to create a better customer experience.
Ive put together a list of seven contact points here, but it can vary a lot depending on your business.
- Marketing – Promote your educational articles, tip sheets, how to guides, seminars and benefits instead of products and services. Deliver flowers or cup cakes for no reason. Make asking for referrals a condition of doing business with you.
- Sales – Make the sales process easy and fun by choosing a relaxed environment to sign deals, educating with price guides, comparison sheets, or case studies, employing one-click buy options online or recommending similar products or services online with purchases.
- Service – Create policies and guarantees your customers love and want. Maybe a new customer kit detailing the who, what, when and how of your organization or a way to measure the results customers are getting.
- Educational Content – Why not educate your prospects and customers with videos, workshops or guides on how to better use or get more from their purchase
- Delivery – Create a certificate for your new business relationships. Ship your packages with partner coupons. Deliver your product on bikes or your software on usb drives.
- Follow-up – Have your CEO write hand-written notes of thanks or make it a point to measure the level of service every customer is getting
- Finance – No one likes getting the bill! Dress your receipts or invoices up with key marketing messages, new offers, and positive quotes. Add personal notes, jokes, or let a graphic designer loose to make your invoice a remarkable contact point.
All of the things mentioned above are examples of contact points that could enhance your customer experience and get people talking, but it’s the collective focus on the entire map that really pays off.