There are two golden rules in the User Experience world:
- Act with your user in mind.
- You are not your user.
These apply equally well in the closely related field of Customer Experience. For “Act”, we could substitute any customer-facing activity – design, write, market, advertise, build, develop. The key here is that whatever we do must be done with the customer’s needs, circumstances, and perspective in mind.
Most of us fully intend to keep the customer in mind. We probably think we do center our actions around the customer as much as possible within the business goals and constraints we have to deal with. But this is where Rule #2 comes in:
We are not our customers.
Our circumstances, goals, outlook, and needs are different. And with the best will in the world, we are bound to make mistakes in customer understanding – unless we take the time to listen to our customers.
This is fundamental to a good customer experience. And it also happens to be very budget-friendly.
That’s why we can still work on creating a better customer experience during slow economic times. At its core, CX doesn’t have to be wildly expensive. Connecting with and listening to customers will give you a lot of insight to work with. How you do it will vary; it could be by survey, direct conversations, social media outreach, analyzing your existing customer data, or some combination of methods. But improvement need not be expensive. And it all starts with asking and really listening.
In tough times, customer experience can be the deciding factor in whether a person does business with you or your competitor. We can’t afford to neglect CX or put it off. Fortunately, improving CX can be done at whatever level and budget you have. Start where you are, and start by listening to your customers.
|