Seeing Your Brand through Customer-Colored Glasses

By George Skaff, Nuance Communications

As a customer-centric brand, it's easy to fall into the mindset that you understand what your customers want. But, do you really? Or do you project your own perceptions of how a customer experience should look? If your brand is missing the mark in customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores or conversion rates, perhaps it is time to take off the business glasses and try on the customer glasses for a while. See what your customers see when they travel a journey with your brand.

Blurred Vision

Customer-colored glasses would give you an omnichannel view, in which the lines between all the channels used by the customer are blurred into one unified experience with your brand. These lines have been blurred by the smartphone, in which voice, social, email, SMS, apps, Web chat, etc., are all a part of the same experience, being held in the same hand. Wearing the customer-colored glasses, you can experience the customer's mindset. Following their steps, you will see those blurred lines and understand how consumers consider all the touchpoints of the journey as one long interaction, regardless of how many devices, how many locations or how many separate times they contact your brand. It's all part of the same experience, especially if their mobile device is involved.

How to Get a Hold of Your Customers' Glasses
 

You can get these customer glasses with a contact center that has an omnichannel view. Break down the company's silos and consolidate the data from all the different channels, creating one single knowledge base - one single view.

Customer-Colored Glasses Make Your Brand Look Smart

From this harmonious view, your customer experience team can gather the intelligence needed to direct the customer to the right agent. By knowing where they've been, what they've been searching, or what they've been asking, you can provide knowledgeable answers that cater to their needs. This is an important aspect of your contact center because by 2020, customers will expect companies to know their individual needs and to proactively address their current and future needs. (Walker)

An Advantageous View

Seeing the customer journey from the customer's perspective also enables your agents to influence the purchase process. By examining buyer behaviors throughout the customer's journey you can develop an appropriate engagement strategy for that customer. What channels did they respond to most positively? Where are they located? What search terms did they use? What have they purchased from your brand in the past? This kind of customer knowledge equips you to present the right content at the right time, through the channel in which they prefer to engage, leading them to the desired purchase decision. Proof? 58 percent of customers are willing to spend more on companies that provide excellent customer service. (American Express)

Go Ahead

So, put on those customer-colored glasses and give your brand an omnichannel view that enables your contact center to give customers a more satisfying experience and produces better conversions. Seeing your brand the way your customers see it will give you the comprehensive perspective that lets you understand what makes your customers loyal to you.

George Skaff is vice president of worldwide marketing for the enterprise division of Nuance Communications, a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Nuance recently acquired digital engagement solutions leader, TouchCommerce, of which Skaff was the chief marketing officer. George has over 25 years of progressive experience in the computer industry, and has demonstrated a proven business expertise in marketing and strategic partnerships for various sized companies in high technology and services areas.