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Forrester research found that 78% of consumers who feel positively about a brand will stay with it, 81% will spend more on it, and 90% will recommend it to others.
With 4,900 banks and 5,700 credit unions in America, you have to work harder to create relevant customer-centric experiences because, consumers now set their expectations bar based on their best ever experiences.
You’re not just competing with Wells Fargo’s customer experience, you’re competing against Amazon!
According to Forrester’s 2018 Customer Experience Index Study, “poor” and “good” experiences has decreased while “OK” experiences have increased. Overall, service is moving towards the middle … people see service as just, “OK.”
Is, “just OK,” good enough for you?
In short, consumers feel that most everyone over-promises and under-delivers … because most companies do.
You have to put the customer at the center of everything … not just on paper, but in your corporate culture.
Success is not in the plan, but in the execution.
- Define: Only 36% of companies said they have a well-defined customer experience vision. What will you do to put the customer at the heart of every corporate decision? You first need to define your brand and tie it into the entire customer journey.
- Make it tangible: Your team should know more than just your vision statement. They should be able to define how they, personally, bring it to life.
- Hire: Take a page from Disney’s success, only hire and retain those that fit your corporate culture and can fulfill the promise of your customer experience vision.
- Train: Hiring will assure that customer focus is in the staff’s DNA. Ongoing training will assure that it is consistent and continues to evolve and improve.
- Tools: Often ongoing training is not enough. Provide the team with any tools necessary to deliver on your promise.
- Measure: We do not achieve that which we do not measure.
- Reinforce: Celebrate all successes, individual and team. Share positive customer experience stories.
- Reward: Not all rewards are monetary. Find what motivates your team and drive them to continue to improve the customer experience.
The key to culture change is consistency. I recently met with a credit union that starts every internal meeting by reciting their “Global Ends Statement.” It kind of reminds me of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance each morning in school. Call it a mantra, call it brainwashing … whatever you call it, it sets the tone for the meeting’s outcomes.
The power of the customer experience is seen when you review the fastest growing brands.
Fastest Growing Brands From 2017 to 2018
PayPal (85% change in brand value): The PayPal motto is, “we put people at the center of everything we do.” Much like Disney employees a “cast,” PayPal’s 8,500 service agents are called “teammates.”
Netflix (73% change in brand value): Netflix is known for efficient, consumer-friendly browsing powered by personalization. They’ve adopted advanced personalization that uses information from what customers liked or didn’t like and viewing history to recommend shows that are specific to each individual.
Tesla (60% change in brand value): As an early leader and innovator in electric-cars, Consumer Reports found that Tesla has the most loyal customers of any car company, with an overall satisfaction rating of 90% and 80% of customers buying or leasing another Tesla for their next car. Tesla owners see their purchase as a global statement and activism. That higher-purpose drives loyalty.
Amazon (49% change in brand value): Amazon is powered by amazingly easy and personalized technology. But ask Jeff Bezos about Amazon’s success and he’ll cite the company’s brand promise, “to be the Earth’s most customer-centric company.” Bezos once wrote in a letter to shareholders, “Our focus is on customer obsession rather than competitor obsession, eagerness to invent and pioneer, willingness to fail, the patience to think long-term, and the taking of professional pride in operational excellence.”
What is at the foundation or your customer experience vision?
- Personalization?
- A higher-purpose?
- Customer obsession?
Is your institution handcuffed by compliance, operational issues and immediate bottom-line results? Or, do you have the drive and dedication to honestly start and end all corporate decisions with the customer experience? To be more than just, “OK?” To be a brand that 90% of your customers will recommend? To be like the fastest growing brands in the world?
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