Providing a perfect customer experience is all the hype these days, but how does one actually accomplish this?
Does your business study what your competitors are doing and try to keep up with them? Or do you pay attention to your customer desires and tailor individual experiences to each consumer? Are you researching your customer pain points and work to alleviate them in an effort to provide a seamless buying experience? Finally, does this process differ across different countries and cultures, despite living in a global economy?
I travelled to Singapore to find out.
The face of things
Living in California and working in a global role, I have done my fair share of traveling, primarily to Europe. The furthest I’ve travelled is to India many years ago, so a journey around the world to Singapore was definitely a change in scenery and culture. As a technology nerd, most impressive to me was experiencing first-hand how they’ve harnessed the power of technology to benefit consumers.
Upon stepping off the plane, I navigated an easily-formatted Changi airport and breezed through a speedy Immigration process. Unlike US airports, there wasn’t a painful three hour line, filled with tired, angsty passengers and exhausted officers. There weren’t officers sitting in small cubicles, looking at passports and asking questions one by one.
There was, however, an automated face recognition process that took your photo as you scanned your passport, then sent you on your way. Facial recognition is an example of new technology that can simplify the entire traveler journey, from going through Customs and Immigration at the airport to purchasing goods from a retail store. That was a great way to start my journey, as I’m sure it was for all the other tired folks who travelled halfway around the world to Singapore!
Connecting customer experience
Upon checking into my room at the hotel, I discovered a cell phone with a note saying it was for my personal use should I find that my phone didn’t get connection. What an incredible customer experience!
Phone connection in different countries is a real issue faced by travelers on a daily basis. By making it easier for me to enjoy my trip and have the answers I needed at my fingertips versus worrying about using all my phone data, or worse, my phone not even working, the hotel demonstrated that they were thinking of me and what I might be experiencing while I was there.
Companies need to understand their customers’ pain points in order to provide an outstanding, seamless, and personalized customer experience.
Fluid experiences
Cloud Forest is the largest indoor waterfall in the world, and I was fortunate enough to see it while I was there. Studying the massive structure got me thinking about how the consumer buying journey should be: Fluid and seamless, with no hiccups, and no back tracks.
My perception of the waterfall was also likely different than everyone else’s, which translated to the customer journey being different for everyone. Simply because two people want to purchase the same toaster does not mean that they are going through the exact same buying process. These experiences need to be individualized because at the end of the day, the experience is what people remember, not just that they purchased a toaster. Leave it to me to look at a waterfall and immediately think of the customer experience!
From the trip to Singapore, I’ve learned there is so much more we can do to improve the customer experience. We need to use technology and innovation to make lives easier, from the consumer to the business. The buying journey needs to be fluid, from the moment the consumer searches for a product on the web, to their point of purchase, and even to when the product breaks and the customer expects a perfect customer service experience.
Creating outstanding customer experiences means making each step of the consumer journey a memorable one, complete with personalization and outstanding service, across all mediums. Thanks to technology and growing understanding of what the customer truly values, the journey becomes easier each day.
