Customer Experience Strategy: Your Online Presence has a Life Offline
Usability begins with a customer centered approach to your company. The website is one of your most persistent faces in the world. It needs to represent you as you would be seen by your target audience. The internet above all other markets encourages dismissal of self-involved, product oriented sales pitches. Friendly customer focused competitors are only a click away.
Many companies intend that their websites create enhanced customer experience. Online forms capture user complaints and feed them through to customer service representatives. Cookies and databases allow information to be fed to visitors according to recorded history and profiles. The information is timely and convincing. The message is delivered consistently and without error.
In a sense such a website is empowered to solve customer relations by
- providing information
- answering queries
- funneling calls to the correct person
- presenting a clear image of the company and its hospitality.
This in turn leads to an expectation of delivery in other channels: a phone call should solicit a knowledgeable representative familiar with online promotions and able to help customers through contact forms and shopping carts. It should be possible to track deliveries online. The web is fast. Emailed queries should receive almost immediate response.
If your site is intended to be the kindly 24/7 face of customer service, always available to handle a query, then it should be accommodating, flexible and friendly.