In a team meeting with our Customer Experience division, Eric Carrasquilla framed how we help clients by playing the “Never Have I Ever” game. He put up 5 fingers and put one finger down for each thing he experienced. It got me thinking about the poor customer experiences in my life, including those where I told myself “it’s just the way it is” in that industry. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I’m going to need a few more hands to get through this game. Here are a few examples that came to mind that you can maybe relate to. (Play along and put a finger down for each one you’ve encountered.)
Never have I ever…
- Driven to my eye doctor’s appointment during an ice storm only to learn the office closed for the day and they forgot to tell me
- Gone to pick up a prescription at a pharmacy that was not filled yet, forcing me to spend 25 minutes sitting in the parking lot and then re-entering the drive-thru lane, only to find myself stuck behind two cars
- Been unable to log into my account and subsequently forced to call customer service, then have to repeat my issue to three different agents over the course of an hour
- Received an unexpected phone bill amount where I attempted to read the fine print on the back of statement because I couldn’t figure out why I was randomly charged more than usual
- Had a clothing store blast me daily with multiple promotional emails and texts for an item I paid full price for the week before
Now how many fingers are left up? Each of these “Never Have I Evers” had the potential to be a positive interaction that could have left me saying, “Never have I ever had such an exceptional experience.” Things could have been different if each of these businesses knew me, my concerns and my current state. If they intervened or acted quickly to respect my time and availability. If they communicated with me proactively, caring about what I was trying to get done.
How Can Brands Improve These Customer Touchpoints?
Companies have opportunities every single day to create personalized experiences for their customers and reap the benefits of being easier to do business with, digitally.
This means disproportionally using digital channels to drive loyalty and growth. It equates to catching up to digital disruptors of the world who are continually raising the CX bar far above any “Never Have I Ever” scenarios I mentioned earlier. But doing so requires agility in generating customer insights and leveraging these to drive personalized, real-time contextual interactions.
Here’s what I mean:
As a brand, when you get this right you can say, “I’ve been able to get going quickly, prove the value and elevate a customer experience!” (Now put a finger down)
As a customer, when you get this right, you can say, “I’ve been able to get what I need to keep going, making this the best customer experience. I’m a fan for life.” (Now put a finger down)
How Can Brands Deliver Personalized, Contextual Interactions in Real Time?
Better business results. Quicker time to value. Higher customer satisfaction.
These are all the reasons why we here at CSG launched CSG Xponent Ignite—an industry-specific, customer experience solution that gathers and analyzes customer data to deliver personalized experiences, no matter the time, place or complexity of the moment. It pre-packages high-impact journeys such as doctor’s appointments, RX refills, account login, bill pay, and cross-sell offers. We’ve created an easier way to get started and realize impactful results to customers and brands.
Circling back to my Never Have I Evers, here’s how it should be: instead of if a brand acted quickly, respecting my time and preferred ways of interaction, it becomes a matter of when the brand does it—sending relevant and timely messages to me, as a customer.
CSG Xponent Ignite can…
- Streamline a routine doctor’s visit: Suppose the doctor’s office sent me a proactive notification based on weather conditions, alerting me of closure with the option to schedule and manage appointments across my diagnosis journey. Xponent could detect whether I kept attempting to schedule an appointment, confirming or helping me reschedule if needed. And after the visit, I’d get a follow-up with a post-appointment survey to make sure I was satisfied with the care I received.
- Proactively engage on status for RX refills: The pharmacy could have sent me an alert to let me know my prescription arrived but isn’t ready yet. Then I’d have gotten real-time updates as the prescription progressed from received, in process and ready. Then I’d get the option to make the payment digitally, making it the most efficient experience possible (because sick kids make for awful backseat drivers).
- Simplify account login: The business could have offered me a way to self-serve to resolve the issue. But if I preferred to call into the contact center for login help, I’d have been quickly routed to the right agent to resolve my concerns the first time.
- Articulate changes in bill pay: I’d have received notification from my wireless provider letting me know what’s changed in advance of the invoice and the option to pay.
- Provide relevant cross-sell offers: The retail brand could have tracked me through an intelligent journey system, which would realize I just bought a product a few weeks back that’s promotion now. Then it would retroactively give me the discount and suggest similar items that I equally love—and would then purchase, delighting me in getting a deal and strengthening my loyalty as a shopper.
CSG Xponent Ignite can help you orchestrate these experiences quickly by using pre-built journeys and connectors, working with existing services and data repositories already in place. You contact us here to learn more.
We all love a good game of “Never Have I Ever,” but not when it comes to customer experience. Save the party games for your next get-together and instead turn the need for easy digital interactions into the reason why customers stay with your brand. (Now put a finger down)
