The digital revolution is far from over. It may only just have begun. New devices, channels and platforms keep emerging, heralding new possibilities to do things faster, simpler, more personally. It expands frontiers. But it’s also forcing all businesses to act nimbly, to avoid being left behind.
As the competition intensifies, great customer experiences are both a necessity and an advantage. At Prospect, we help businesses turn digital-age challenges into measurable gains. More conversions. Longer customer relationships. Better effectiveness. Here’s our take on five of the toughest challenges – and how experience design can help you navigate them.
Digital is blurring the lines between industries, giving rise to new kinds of competition and new competitors. In the new paradigm, great customer experiences are both a necessity and an advantage. Customers buy experiences, not just products – and they’re increasingly aware that some brands offer better service experiences than others.
Make your service a differentiator by constantly offering more value. Experience design can help you find and deliver what matters most to your customers. For maximum satisfaction, consider your service in its totality. The new market leaders provide ‘magical’ experiences – services that seamlessly connect with, adapt to and bring value to customers, instead of making them to work for it.
All businesses need to attract and acquire new customers. New technologies can create opportunities that greatly accelerate growth. But there are risks. Having an idea may be the smallest part of it. Making it happen is the challenge. How do prioritise your ideas to make the most of limited time and resources? How do you prove a new technology works before launching it?
Focus on unmet customer needs. Experience design can translate unmet needs and new technologies into tangible products and services. Then, don’t wait. Instead of spending time debating your idea, use prototypes to check its effectiveness – and to get it to market more quickly, more economically and with less risk.
Digital has accelerated change. New technologies bring newly empowered customers and create new expectations and behaviours. Parallel industries are emerging, and with them new paradigms for customer experiences. Customers are becoming more connected, more informed and more willing to switch to a different brand if it offers them smarter, more personal experiences.
To meet your customers where they are, you need to constantly assess and challenge your digital offering. The best way to stay relevant is to set the standard. Experience design will help you find and improve any parts of your service that aren’t keeping up. Then create something entirely new that will delight customers, boost your brand recognition and create new behaviours.
Customer loyalty isn’t won and kept. It’s a constant struggle with the forces that could lead customers away from your brand – indifference, apathy, opportunism. One disappointing experience can be all it takes for a customer to look at your competitors again. Gaining new customers is much harder and more expensive than retaining existing ones. How do you develop long-lasting relationships?
Customers are loyal to great experiences. When your service improves, your customers will notice – whether it’s less complexity, more support, fewer silos or more personalised services. It’s not just about boosting satisfaction and trust. Customers spend more with brands that offer great service. Experience design helps you track the interactions and better measure effectiveness. Use the data to prioritise your investments and to offer incentives and rewards that reinforce loyalty.
Customers are increasingly frustrated when they have to re-enter data or learn a new interface just because they’ve chosen to interact with a business via a different touchpoint. These internal silos can be just as frustrating for your staff. You can’t provide great customer experiences if you haven’t empowered your workforce to be responsive, effective and creative.
Experience design bridges both sides of the service experience. With customised digital tools and centralised data for a clearer view of how well your brand is delivering. It can help you streamline business practices and processes and provide smarter assessments and training for your staff – empowering them to make quicker and better decisions for customers. And your costs will be lower as well.
Successful businesses are built on great customer experiences.
We design those experiences.
We’re serious about making your service work. For your customers. For your operations. And for your brand. Talk to us to find out how serious we are.