The business benefits of improved customer experience are firmly established, and organisations are waking up to the potential returns a CX strategy can cultivate.
Dimension Data reports that over half of organisations can demonstrate improved customer loyalty from enhanced CX. Furthermore, the Institute for Customer Service report that over a quarter of customers express a preference for excellent CX, even if it means paying more.
Equally clear are the implications of a fractured, substandard performance. A recent survey by PwC has shown that globally, 32% of customers say they would walk away from their favorite brand after just one poor experience.
Moreover, across industries, there is a substantial gap between consumer expectations and the level of service being offered (see below). Organisations therefore need to first identify the points at which customers are encountering difficulties, and then work towards finding innovative solutions to solve those problems.
Common Causes of CX Friction
1. Complexity
The nature of complex customer journeys means a single transaction can have multiple stages, requiring action on both the part of the customer and the organisation, with each additional touchpoint increasing the potential for breaks and delays.
2. Document Exchange
Different channels tend to suffer from different problems. For example, telephony journeys still commonly involve making the customer wait for documents to be sent in the mail or go into a store or branch for identification, despite technological advancements.
In these instances, the customer’s expectation of a quick and convenient service is not being met, creating breaks in the journey, where they might reconsider their purchase, or look towards a competitor who can deliver a similar product or service sooner.
3. Regulation
Delivering compliant sales in telephony can also present a challenge, as increased regulation means more hoops to jump through and boxes to tick. Current processes often require agents to read scripts in a lengthy and unengaging manner, creating significant frustration that can taint a customer’s view of an organisation, not to mention risking non-compliant sales through agent error.
4. Moving Between Channels
Poor channel integration, particularly between assisted journeys and self-serve platforms, can be a significant cause of breaks and delays. In fact, customers often flit between at least two channels.
For example, 73% of consumers sometimes, or often, research products online and purchase in store, and 57% of consumers sometimes, or often, research products in store and purchase them online. One clear friction point is when a customer encounters a difficulty in a self-serve journey and looks for support from a service assistant.
As markets across sectors reach saturation levels and traditional price orientated battles between rivals become increasingly unsustainable, customer experience is rapidly becoming the point from which organisations can stand out from the crowd.
This means ordinary is no longer the norm, and organisations who fail to meet expectations risk stumbling down the customer experience chasm.
So, mind the gap!
