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Focusing on Customer Experience helps Brands Function Better

Guest Blog by Kartikay Sharma, CX Manager from Adobe Systems

Quite often, we see that a new brand comes up in the market and captures a sizeable chunk of it. The sole reason why this happens is because of the brand philosophy to adopt customer-first thinking while finalizing policies/products. Many times, these new brands are brain children of people who were once a part of large companies but along the way, they had felt their vision has changed from that of the organization.

When Apple took the world by storm in 2007, they believed in putting the power in the hands of end users. It was something nobody had done before in their industry. The introduction of the iPhone was the beginning of a new era, and it has been widely observed that this was also the end of traditional black and white devices. Some mobile giants stuck to their own design philosophies instead of going back to the market, studying the requirements of customers and upgrading the design/ideology accordingly. This led to their disappearance from the market.

If you could describe the brand Volvo in one word - that’s safety. In fact, their mission is to make people’s live easier, safer and better. From the early 1960’s, they have always put safety first in every innovation. Their obsession with it has grown and has successfully made them a thought leader in this automobile industry. This is why their core values revolve around people because they believe that only if you listen, understand, focus and talk to your customers, can you deliver on their promises and reach high levels of trust.

If you are window shopping, you are just browsing through the options to check out what’s on sale, etc. Do you always end up not buying something? No, right? However, if you go to a store to buy a T-Shirt, and there’s no one there to help you, would you still go through with the purchase? That’s where the brand has failed in providing you with the right customer experience. If the sales reps had put themselves in your shoes, they may have known that you needed their assistance. Since they didn’t, they lost you as a customer.

A wonderful example of how it should be done can be found in the Hollywood flick – The Intern. In the movie, Anne Hathaway orders a product from her own company to check on the quality of packaging and delivery. She ends up being disappointed because the packaging was all messed up. She acted as a customer, connected as a customer and then responded as a customer. As a CEO, she unearthed valuable insights about her customers’ possible painpoints.

This is why brands should understand where they stand from the perspective of customers.

I have tried this with my own team too. I played the role of a customer and called into my brand support line to understand the type of experience the average customer receives. While I was more than happy with the way they responded, it made me feel as though I understood my customer a little better.

There are many such examples to explain how important of a role customer experience plays in defining the growth of a brand.

A great product can go a long way to win over customers, but the service you provide after the purchase – that’s where loyalty can be built. Today’s customers are keener to shell out their hard-earned money for great experiences than for the product features. It’s also a myth that customer experience starts only after the end user faces an issue.

Customer experience begins the moment the customer has a need that you can fulfill.

About the Author

Kartikay Sharma is a customer experience enthusiast with over 10 years of experience in the service industry. He currently works as a CX Manager at Adobe Systems. He is also an avid travel and photography enthusiast during his free time. Visit his profile here.