Long ago in a galaxy far away exceptional customer care kept people coming back for more. Companies worked overtime to wow their customers. Adages like "the customer is always right" were corporate rules to live by.
Then things changed.
Companies became less focused on delivering exceptional experiences and customers cared less about having them. Sometimes you can look back and identify the catalyst that started the change. It's only a theory, but I think that the economy contributed to the corporate decisions to scale back service and life challenges kept people from noticing enough to care.
A recent study by the Corporate Executive Board found that service was four times more likely to lead to disloyalty than to loyalty. Customers who had to put forth a high level of effort to resolve issues were more disloyal 96% of the time even when the solution was satisfactory. With the demands of today's life, people don't have discretionary time to invest in purchases. Simply put, easy trumps exceptional when it comes to delivering what people want.
The first step to making it easy for your customers is taking a walk in their shoes
Ask people unfamiliar with your business to "shop" it on a regular basis. Give them a list of things to find or do and a rating card for them to complete. Fix the problems and monitor the results. (This is presuming that you have a benchmarking system in place so you can see the effect. If you don't, get one.)
Next, spend some time thinking about ways that you can streamline the experience and then test your ideas to see what works best. Since people have different preferences, consider adding quick-step processes to your current systems instead of replacing them. Here are some ideas to consider:
- Add one-click buying to your website.
- Place QR codes in your catalog or direct mail piece. When scanned it should land on the item with an option for one click buying.
- Use transactional emails to provide status updates every step of the way when people place orders. If you tell them before they ask, they'll be happier and you'll reduce your customer care costs.
- Create a comprehensive and easy to navigate frequently asked questions page on your website. People have been trained to look for FAQ's. Making it easy for them to find the answers increases sales, satisfaction, and search results. Updating it often improves the information and your search results.
- Make your website easy to navigate. If in doubt as to what to do, copy Amazon. They invest heavily in testing to see what works best.
- Use your analytics to improve your game. Website metrics tell you a lot more than how many visitors go to your site. Drill down into the data to find where people get lost and find ways to keep them moving towards purchasing.
- Go mobile. Make your website mobile friendly.
- Rethink the shelving reset process. Relocating items may increase impulse buying, but it can also alienate customers. When people pop in for a quick purchase and have to search the store to find the item, it doesn't make them happy.
As always, test everything. Testing is the only way to know if your new idea is brilliant or a bomb.