We live in the period of options. Today there are more options for customers than at any point in history. For executives who understand today's business reality of customer options customer experience is an emergency, not an afterthought. However today this is predominantly not the case.
In fact most of us see examples of terrible customer experience every week. It's likely you've had the experience of calling your bank and being asked for your account number five times by five people. Let's hope they don't ask you for your secure pin or random security "word" you created three years ago. How about a company that doesn't provide support on Twitter? These experiences are reminders that most companies still have the mentality of making it easier on their own company rather than easier for the customer. The companies that don't understand that making life harder for the customer is a customer experience killer. Can you imagine a customer climbing up 1000 stairs to reach you for help only to be told they need to go back down the staircase and climb another one? This is how it feels for today's customers.
.Not only do companies today need to exceed customer expectations but they need to make it easy for the customer to do business with the company. Technology can either make life much easier for the customer or much harder. Not having a seamless multi-channel experience is the equivalent of going to a DMV in 1940. Today's modern company is always one step ahead of the multichannel customer.
The companies that value customer experience go above and beyond to make themselves easily accessible to the customer on the customer's preferred channel. Your customers work hard in their daily lives. They have complicated family situations and jobs and a lot of balls they are perpetually juggling. Are you throwing another ball in the air for them?
