Imagine connecting with your customer, knowing what they like, items they most probably are looking for or even their current state of mind? Science-fiction? No, it is a possibility with Customer Experience Management (CEM).
Next week, Ian Rheeder, facilitator, speaker, chartered marketer and master at Persuasion Science will address delegates at the South African Council of Shopping Centres’ (SACSC) Gauteng Chapter Breakfast which will take place at the Balalaika Hotel in Sandton, on Thursday, February, 22, 2018.
Ian will talk about understanding the latest thinking behind service marketing which is said to put you and your business a ‘decade ahead of the pack’. According to Ian, Customer Experience Management is about top management mapping out the experience before shopping even begins. “By understanding the neuroscience — or how the brain absorbs experiences through our senses — managers and leaders will have a competitive advantage over those who do not understand the inner-landscape of the brain,” he said.
This entertaining talk will drop many ‘bomb-shells’ discoveries that will leave you altered forever.
For instance, can you confidently answer these questions?
- Why does shop assistant training seldom work?
- What are the four neurotransmitters manager or leaders need to create in staff?
- Can you build trust instantly in a selling or service environment?
- How do we do it in a multi-cultural South Africa?
CEM is the collection of processes a company uses to track, oversee and organise every interaction between a customer and the organisation throughout the customer lifecycle. The goal of CEM is to optimise interactions from the customer’s perspective and generate customer loyalty. To manage the customer experience, a company needs to create a strategy that combines all customer interactions. CEM requires companies to have a multi-dimensional view of customers, with integrated and up-to-date data on their accounts. Increasingly, customer experiences include interactions through traditional channels, such as website purchases, phone calls and live chat as well as social media, text and other emerging communication mediums such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Messenger.
Better customer experiences provide a huge upside for companies, but the wide variety of available technologies, from Web analytics to software suites, can be paralysing.
Companies should focus on four principles to improve customer experience management (CEM):
- Purposeful leadership. Executives and managers must promote a clear, consistent and compelling vision of the company to develop valuable customer experiences, Temkin said.
- Brand values. Employees who have a strong knowledge of what the company brand means can use that understanding to drive how customers are treated.
- Employee engagement. If employees don’t care about the company, customers won’t either. The company that hires employees who align with its mission and objectives will provide better customer experiences, Temkin said.
- Customer connectedness. Companies must seek out customer feedback and use it as a key part of the decision-making process across the organisation.