As I moderated 5 different panels at Virtual Seamless KSA last week, there was an overarching theme – customer experience is at the fore-front of the ecommerce and retailing. The merging of the digital with the physical world, a kind of augmented reality, the experience that customers go through is the key determinant.
What struck me in most conversations on this matter is the focus on the technology to facilitate the experience. The ecommerce and retail industries are driven by a ‘tech-stack’ to drive their customers’ experience.
When speaking to senior leadership of client organisations, I always ask them: What emotions do you want customers to feel with you at each touch-point? Starting with the ‘What’ leads to the ‘How’, not the other way around.
We have all been customers in the digital world. We know what has made us tick, and we know what has upset us as we navigate digital journeys. Our online experiences should be easy and make us feel good. However, more often than not, we are left wanting.
One thing has come out of CoVid19 – brands and retailers have had to empathise with customers’ fears in relation to e.g. sanitation, minimizing contagion or offering product alternatives when supply chains broke. However, it should not take a pandemic to encourage brands to stand in the customer’s shoes. And, even more critically, there should not be glaring process oversight.
I will give you an example.
As home-bound in the Dubai lock-down, I, like many others, resorted to the internet to buy gym equipment. My products were delayed in arriving by over a week. However, the retailer made the effort of automating messages to keep me tracking my purchase. Full marks for that.
Where the retailer fell over is in that the second of the 2 purchases I made was unavailable. Not a problem, I understood that the product may face supply chain issues. The problem came with my money. I had no reversal of funds on my credit card. Nor did I have any communication regarding the whereabouts of that money. I looked on my account online, nothing. I resorted to contacting a live agent who informed me that, and lo and behold, my money would be transferred to the retailer’s online wallet. Rightly so, I requested that that money was transferred to my card, the one I paid with.
In the midst of CoVid19, it is Trust that has been the critical driver for consumers. To gain trust, consumers need to see that retailers / ecommerce brands act with their (the consumer’s) best interest in mind; however, when a company thought it better for me to chase after my funds, as a customer my trust was violated.
The moral of this story is focus on what you want customers to feel, then design the journey (s). And even then, ask yourself at each and every point, are we endorsing that emotion? Are we living it in each and every use-case and touch-point?