Customer Experience : getting to the next level

The strong competition and the race for innovation on the different markets give rise to a so-called "silent" transformation in our ways of consuming products and services at our disposal. This transformation concerns the customer experience which is expected to surpass price and product as a key differentiator factor by 2020.

 

Customer experience and personal data

Having a value proposition where customer experience is central requires companies to have in-depth knowledge of their customers in order to personalize the relationship and to build viable loyalty.

"To be personalized, distinctive and memorable, a customer experience must be sustainable and appeal to emotions. "

To this end, advances in processing customers web datas make it possible to know more about their privacy. In fact, identifying an individual's affinities and preferences offers the possibility of using personalized communication and marketing tools that will have higher conversions rates. On the other hand and in the near future data processing will predict the behavior of consumers, what is now called predictive marketing.

"Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber, said the company's next challenge was to anticipate the desires of its customers, by offering them a car when they take out their smartphone to order one."

 

The 3 levels of the customer experience

 

We can stagger the customer experience on 3 distinct levels, starting from the simple answer to the demand by the offer until the thrills. The ultimate customer experience will be at level 3 after defeating the end boss.

At level 1, we can see the customer experience as a value proposition that satisfies the customer's basic needs. It is therefore a simple answer of the demand by offering a product or a service, a taxi answers the need to move.

At level 2, the customer experience not only responds to the basic need but reduces dissatisfaction with the desired experience. We are talking here about the quality of the experience, ease of use and fluidity. The goal is to reduce the negative feelings that can be associated to the experience with the brand, so we must also make possible and easy access to customer complaints and take the time to treat them. You order and pay your taxi directly via your smartphone and you can consult the opinions on the various drivers around your position, moreover, a customer area is reserved for you to make your claims.
An essential step in the customer experience, level 2 improves the customer relationship because it meets a need that goes beyond the physiological need, it takes into account the complexity of use, to facilitate accessibility. Be careful, a customer experience that meets these characteristics is easily copyable, and does not demarcate your mark from competition.

At the third and final level, the goal is to deliver the desired experience to the client while addressing the emotional needs by demonstrating innovation. The aim here is to obtain tangible moments of enchantment, which result in memorable pleasure and emotions and which favor the recommendation of the product / service. Reaching this level of customer experience allows your product / service to stand out clearly from others because consumers will associate the perceived positive emotion with a memory, and that memory will be associated with your brand. Your taxi trip is not any, you feel privileged, you have the opportunity to put your own music and connect to the wifi to send some emails. The driver informs you of the traffic conditions and offers you a refreshment, you ride in luxury sedan with tinted windows give you a feeling of pride and serenity.

 

New trends in favor of customer experience

Artificial intelligence

The AI ​​will allow brands to have information about the behavior of their customers without having access to their personal data. Projections on the mental journey of consumers will be possible thanks to this technology and more and more precise over time. You will find an article to better understand the issues of artificial intelligence on our blog.

 

Collaboration inter-marques

 

Customer loyalty becomes difficult as markets are competitive, so consumers are more likely to turn to unknown brands for a new experience. The attention time of customers is therefore shorter and shorter and that is why collaborations between brands are destined to multiply to be able to communicate over a short period of time. They also have the advantage of being sometimes surprising.
For example, Sony and Burger King have teamed up for the launch of "Burger Clan". The concept is to offer gamers the ability to order food directly from Playstation's flagship online games.

 

Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing is the application of neuroscience in marketing and communication. It is a relatively new and controversial discipline because it is often subject to criticism. Its challenge is to better understand the behavior of consumers through the understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in a purchase or while facing an advertisement.
In order to illustrate the principle of neuromarketing, the Coca-Cola and Pepsi brand experience that was conducted by the researchers M. McClure and Read Montague is very relevant. The experiment was to taste the 2 products blindly at first, in this case 67% preferred Pepsi then in a second time a test knowing the brands, 75% preferred Coca-Cola.
The researchers show that consumers do not buy a taste, but an image, the emotions and the memory associated with a brand.

 

The blockchain

 

The blockchain is a technology that allows the storage and transmission of information in a transparent, secure and decentralized manner. The blockchain is often compared to a large, anonymous, non-alterable public accounting book.

The elimination of intermediaries that this technology allows, offers a better readability of the offer for the customer and thus allows him to more easily identify the provenance of the materials used. The products are traceable from the production process to the distribution: I am a brand that promotes well-being and I bring my raw material, cotton, from Uzbekistan or from Bangladesh, countries famous for children working in the fields, my customer experience proposition is impacted. Especially in our time when CSR (corporate social responsibility) has more and more impact on consumption, and so much the better!

We noticed that since 2017, more than 50% of business investment projects involve a better customer experience, stemming from a deep desire for customer loyalty and differentiation. A study conducted by a research institute specializing in customer experience (TemKin Group) shows that a loyal consumer is:
5x more inclined to make a second purchase
5x more inclined to forgive
7x more inclined to test a novelty
4x more inclined to recommend