Could a record store survive today? If so, what would it take for a 1970’s style record store to sustain in present times? What does this have to do with customer experience solutions?
With the technology of old school records becoming antiquated, and the ability for a consumer to easily opt for an app or music sharing service to meet their music needs, what could a record store possibly do to entice customers?
It’s simple: Record stores are alive today, and it’s because of the customer experience.
Good times never seemed so good: CX sells
It turns out that there really are record stores whose customers could be consulted. According to them, there is still a craving for the sound quality produced by vinyl records, the atmosphere of a music store, and the art associated with the album covers – all of which fall under the purview of an “experience”.
Just as the power of the customer experience keeps keep vinyl records selling today, it also be facilitates the sales of goods and services in the modern era.
In face, the customer experience is just as important as price and quality when considering how to effectively sell a product.
Customer experience solutions: All you need is love (and outstanding CX)
According to Forester, the customer experience is how customers perceive their interactions with your company.
Assuming you agree with how impactful the customer experience can be on the well-being of a business, then I hope you would agree that CX should be included amongst other main product considerations, like price and quality.
So how does a business go about improving their customer experience? Because every business takes a different approach to helping a company face this challenge, it is important to match how customers interact with a business against customer experience solutions.
For example, your customer experience solution should have tools aimed at the online customer experience, focusing on the strongest trends coming from market research. Honing your online customer experience future-proofs a business to trends of younger generations, who are increasingly preferring this channel.
From this standpoint, businesses appreciate providing and growing online channels where their customers can bypass human interaction. According to our data at SAP, this is especially appealing to the younger generations who prefer digital first business models.
Count the headlights on the highway: How to approach buying customer experience solutions
So, you’ve recognized that CX is critical to your business surviving. Now how do you go about purchasing a customer experience solution?
Admittedly, the above question is general, but some practical advice that could benefit any business interested in the customer experience would be to take a close look at their portfolio and consider which parts could realistically be sold online.
It’s rare for a vendor to convince a prospective business to embrace the customer experience without there being some discovery on behalf of the business first. If you’ve heard talk within your organization regarding exploring options for improving the online channels, then it’s worth making an objective list of criteria to compare prospective solutions, then “try on” or demo the solutions that are determined to be the best fit.
Often customers wonder what criteria they should use to compare customer experience solutions, and this begs the question: What is most difficult for customer experience solutions to accomplish? The answer most often heard is order volume or a high number of customer transactions.
While it’s true that order volume is one key to determining which solution is best to facilitate an online channel, how well data can integrate with back end systems (for example ERP and e-commerce integrations), how seamlessly online customers can self-generate quotes when considering a business’s products, and whether front end solution stacks can recognize returning customers and provide relevant content throughout their journey are some of the most difficult but important tasks.
Closing time: Gather up your jackets, and move it to the exits
In conclusion, given the vast complexity of the idiosyncratic nature of creating an outstanding experience, a business could save themselves a lot of future trouble by carefully comparing the capabilities of customer experience solutions to the problems their customers are facing.
Remember, the issues facing customers are also facing customer experience solution providers. With today’s expectations, there is ample opportunity for the pioneers who use human intelligence to create a satisfying interaction with online customers, requiring only limited human interaction to grow their business.
