Customer Experience (CX)Opens a new window is the nucleus of any business strategy for success and growth. This article discusses how to improve customer experience with an eye on the latest trends of 2019.

Most marketers work with the maxim that providing an excellent customer experience is crucial to differentiate them from the competition. The recipe for a superb customer experience includes proving connectedness, human touch and consistency, at speed, while utilizing the right technology, all in the right proportions. This is as crucial for B2B marketers as it is for B2C marketers. Let’s look at how B2C marketers can get their CX right in 2019.

Also Read: Reshaping the Customer Experience in 2019 Opens a new window

How to Improve Customer Experience in 2019
 

1. Be Proactive

Customer Experience begins at home. Customer focus should be ingrained in your company culture. Empowering customer-facing teams to turn around bad experiences is key to delivering superior customer experiences.

Your strategies should include steps to reduce customer effort as much as possible. Some proactive approaches you can take include:

• Reaching out to customers and offering support before they contact you
• Routine calls or emails to identify issues and ensure continual satisfaction, instead of waiting for feedback or a ticket
• Delivering in-depth content and recommendations to aid and inform purchase decisions
• Monitoring customer behavior by tracking usage, service requests, cancellations, and visits to your FAQs sections to address problems promptly
   

If you can unravel what the customer is thinking and dive in wherever necessary, it will maximize customer gratification and earn you brownie points.

2. Implement Predictive Personalization

Real-time and predictive personalization solutions optimize customer engagement and enhance the experience for customers. Artificial intelligence and machine learning systems have the ability to learn all about your customers and predict how you can personalize their experiences.

Personalized CX also includes:

• Focusing on what the customer needs, rather than what you want to sell
• Delivering customized experiences with relevant content based on browsing behavior, queries, etc.
• Providing predictive product recommendations based on purchase patterns
• Optimizing product pricing and offers to suit real-time individual preferences
• Content personalization across channels and devices with dynamic interfaces for each visitor
• Knowing the opportune time and place to approach customers, through predictive analytics
   

3. Connect Man and Machine

AI, machine learning, recommender systems, chatbots, new age CRM and CDPs, virtual shopping assistants, you name it and technology offers it. Technology can make the customer journey smoother and redefine processes for companies. Humans can achieve exponential results when they are connected to an optimal tech stack.

Human-tech collaboration can:

• Make the customer journey simple and engaging.
• Help maintain a seamless link between employees, products (or services) and customers.
• Automate mundane tasks and provide human interaction only when necessary.
• Help employees focus on pressing issues, whereas technology can take over repetitive processes.
• Orchestrate complex, content-driven customer journeys in real time.
   

Also Read: Beyond Chatbots: How Artificial Intelligence Can Humanize the Customer ExperienceOpens a new window

4. Leverage Zero Party Data

Owing to data compromise revelations and regulations such as EU GDPR, California’s Consumer Privacy Act, etc., customers now want to have more control over the kind of data they share and how it will be used. Though marketers may initially feel the heat from diminishing access to third-party data, they will eventually embrace and leverage ‘Zero Party Data’.

Zero-Party data, according to this Wayin blog on a Forrester ReportOpens a new window , is “data that is intentionally and proactively shared directly with you by the consumer … A type of data that is never inferred through income or device matching, nor is it merely observed through spending behaviors or cookie data.”

Some of the advantages of zero party data are:

• Brands can build direct relationships based on trust with the customer
• They gain access to cleaner, updated, and quality data sets
• Better personalization of experiences
• Ability to redirect third-party data budgets to improve customer experienceOpens a new window

Also Read: 

Customer Service Vs Customer Experience (CX): Key Differences And SimilaritiesOpens a new window

5. Implement Paid Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs and offers are popular with customers, but paid, or VIP loyalty programs are gaining traction.

The benefits of paid loyalty programs are:

• Members tend to utilize benefits, share more personal information (beyond contact details), and follow brand messaging.
• They give a sense of exclusivity to the customers, which brands can leverage to enrich the customer experience further.
• They instill a sense of belonging in the customer.
• If the program is rewarding enough, customers keep coming back for renewal.
   

6. Be Consistent and Current

Business verticals can no longer operate in silos. Marketing, sales, and service teams will have to collaborate to provide a consistent experience across all channels and touchpoints.

How will the customer experience ecosystem evolve?

• Brands will have to create memorable moments throughout the customer journey — right from the first point of contact, to conversion and after sales.
• Relevant content, offers, recommendations, etc. will need to be served based on the stage of the funnel.
• A consistent, coherent, and frictionless experience will need to be executed as the customer moves across channels.
• Data-driven initiatives will need to match specific customer behaviors and needs.
   

As customers become more careful in sharing their data and raise the bar on expectations, the onus is on marketers to catch up. The key is to study and follow the fundamentals — understand, humanize, and empower your customers. Be proactive, build trust, and value customers to create exceptional customer experiences.

Also Read: Top 5 Customer Experience (CX) Predictions for 2020Opens a new window

Do you have more tips on how to improve customer experience in 2019? Share your thoughts in the comments below.