When this pandemic struck, small businesses that had quickly shifted towards the importance of empathy and human connection were more successful than others. Messages of comfort and positive support assured customers and employees that they were cared for during so much uncertainty.
Your customers expect you to deliver exceptional experiences no matter what is happening. In fact, customers often need better experiences when they are dealing with disruption or uncertainty.
I believe the best customer experiences are also about delivering more human experiences for your customers. This will enable your business to differentiate in a way that delivers increased value to your customers while improving retention and loyalty.
The customer experience is about how you make the customer feel throughout their entire journey with your business. The more positive the experience in making your customer feel loved, admired, and respected, the more they value your business, spend money, and tell their friends about your business.
So how do you drive this more human experience? There are two important components that become the foundation of your human customer experience.
Responsiveness:
Think about your business and your customers being in a relationship. Your customers’ needs change over time, particularly during the pandemic. Your ability to be responsive and to be proactive to those challenges and changes is essential to keeping the relationship intact. Responsiveness is the ability to adapt to change going on in your industry, your customer needs, government impact as well as spikes in growth or in lean times.
When you and your employees are responsive, you are able to quickly change your business to meet new demands and show up where you can best continue to serve your customers, all while still driving revenue. Responsiveness is a human quality.
Empathy:
To relate to customers, you need empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand other people’s emotions and feel their point of view. It’s being able to imagine yourself in someone else’s situation and understand why they feel the way they do.
It’s about listening to and understanding your customers, making a connection that goes beyond simply answering questions, solving problems or providing service. It’s what makes us human and diferentiates the small business experience from the big box stores and on line retailers.
To create more empathy, you need to hire people who are naturally empathic, train them to communicate empathetically, and intentionally value empathy across the entire customer experience. It needs to be a deciding factor in every decision you make in your business, including when using technology.
With responsiveness and empathy as key anchors of a more human experience strategy, take a closer look at your customer experience and what your customers value most when they interact with your business or employees. Does it meet or exceed their expectations? When you do, you will create a unique and memorable customer experience in your business. Now that would be Magical!
Need help! Contact Coach John today!