Will Customers Pay More For A Better Experience?

Posted on June 19, 2013

Survey says…yes! According to two separate reports (RightNow and Desk) as many as 86% of consumers say they will pay more for a better customer experience. And even just one good experience means that they will probably come back.

That being the case, if your focus is on your balance sheet in an effort to increase your top line…you’re probably looking in the wrong place.

How are you going to start providing a better customer experiences?

There are many different ways but anticipation is a great place to start. By starting with anticipating what your customers want you can be prepared to provide it. You take a look into the future of your customer and put the processes into place that will provide what your customer desires. When you get this right it starts a cycle that feeds itself in a positive way.

Three out of four customers say they have spent more with a company due to repeated positive experiences. So not only will customers pay more for a single better experience, they will keep coming back because of the increased likelyhood for yet another good experience. The news get better. The more often a good experience occurs, the chances for the good experience to be shared with someone else goes up.

Anticipating what your customers desire and being ready to provide it can mean the difference between keeping a customer, getting them to come back and having them share their experience with someone else. That’s a win, win, win situation.

Take a peek into the future of your customer. What needs to happen in your organization to provide consistently positive experiences for your customers? Need help? Call 770.425.9830.

Do You Really Know Your Customers’ Experience?

Posted on June 12, 2013

Every business has a customer experience but it turns out that most are not really aware of theirs. There is a saying “Perception is reality”. If that is in fact the case for most people, it would be wise to find out what your customers’ reality is concerning your business.

Check this out. One of the latestes surveys indicates that even though 80% of companies believe that they offer “superior” customer service, only 8% of customers think those same companies deliver “superior” customer service. That’s a huge disconnect between what the company believes and what their customers think about them. One of the biggest reasons for this may be that less than 5% of dissatisfied customers actually let the business know. You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken.

Here are some ways to get your customers talking to you and about you.

Be responsive…now! Over half of the folks surveyed said that they would only try once to reach “support” before throwing in the towel. That means they just clicked the back button and went to your competitor.
Train your staff. Almost 3/4 said that they would give up a brand because of rude or incompetent staff. Maybe you need to review hiring practices or training curriculum.
Don’t be difficult. Offer different ways for your customer to get in touch with you. Phone numbers that are easy to locate, email forms that don’t ask for too much information or better yet, instant chat for instant solutions.

Truly discerning what your customers’ experience is with your brand takes some digging and often getting an outside perspective is the only way to see reality. If you need help seeing your customers reality, let us know. We’re happy to help.

ECEW Conference

Posted on May 8, 2013

Join Mike at the fifth anniversary of the European Customer Experience Conference.

Held in London, this conference offers three days of customer experience expertise. Day one and two provide exceptional speakers and interactive sessions covering such topics as Customer Experience Design, Employee Engagement In Tough Times and Building A Compelling Brand Promise.

Get “spot on” answers and guidance to common scenarios facing businesses today and learn:

How to deliver customer experience consistently?
How to find new ways to communicate with your customers?
How to motivate your staff to deliver good customer experiences?

This conference has a great balance of speaker presentations, interactive expert sessions and of course, networking opportunities. You’ll not want to miss out on this one.

Learn more and sign up for the conference here!

Sign up for the conference, and don’t miss the workshop on day three!

Day three is devoted to a workshop lead by Mike Wittenstein, CEO of Storyminers and Martin van Krimpen, CEO of Business Value Coach (Buvalco). This workshop is exclusively for the newly-minted customer experience manager. You will walk away with a wealth of tools, tips and practical information to get you ahead of the curve.

Some of the topics covered will be how to build a successful customer experience program and get management commitment. Also, learn how to make your organization ready for the customer experience program and finally, how to keep the program alive and growing.

ECEW Workshop

This workshop will be the perfect wrap-up to the previous two days of learning, and you will leave with your own Toolkit designed to help you achieve the goals set within the workshop.

So whether you come by plane, train, boat or automobile, don’t miss out on this great opportunity to learn how to grow your business through great customer experiences.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Best Customer Experience Strategy-Keep Your Promise

Posted on March 27, 2013

As children, one of the first things we are specifically instructed not to do is lie. Maybe this is why our experiences with brands that overstate their promise is more memorable than those experiences that just barely meet our expectations. Neither is a desired outcome.

Best Customer Experiences

Remember PF Flyers? When Mike Wittenstein was a kid, one his first experiences with a brand overstating their promise was with PF Flyers. Collaborating with professional athletes and advertising during popular children’s programming, PF Flyers promised that wearing their athletic shoes would make you “run faster and jump higher”. So when the time came for new sneakers, Mike decided to give them a shot. He tried them on. And, even though he thought they were not as comfortable as the shoes that he had been wearing, he bought them anyway wanting the advertised benefits of super, athlete-like qualities. Naturally, he went to school wanting to test the promise against the other kids. But, the promise to perform better didn’t pan out. It turns out that they were just another pair of sneakers.

Truth in advertising has come a long way since then. But, even still, when a brand doesn’t deliver on the benefits that its message states, the consumer is left with a poor experience. Releasing products before they are tested, promising something in the future and then not delivering. These are some examples of how companies today fail by overstating a promise and delivering poor customer experiences. It’s not that they are designed to do a poor job. It’s that the design is not thought out with careful and strategic purpose.

Design thinking allows you to start with your desired outcome and work back so that each element involved is on track to deliver. Customer experience design is a business strategy that accomplishes many goals. In the end, giving your customer an experience that they value brings value back to your business. Everyone wins.

Designing experiences that value your customer and bring lasting value to your business is second nature to Mike Wittenstein. Learn more about Mike and customer experience strategy.

¡Hola Madrid!

Posted on March 26, 2013

AECOC is the name of a Spain-based trade association for manufacturers. Over the years, they have helped bring leading concepts to their members and this year is no exception. The 2013 Tecnhomarketing event will be in Madrid on May 29th, 2013.

At AECOC, attendees will learn about Anticipation–the art of anticipating customers’ needs–from customer experience expert Mike Wittenstein. Scheduling, web analytics, big data, tablets, just-in-time, and mobile will be addressed.

“Demographics are dead,” according to Wittenstein. What matters more, he says, is to know where/when your customers are in their journey, their role, and their intent. Using anticipation information lets you serve B2B and B2C customers better and make more money at the same time.

Event Info + Registration