Achieving success in today’s highly competitive global marketplace requires more than just delivering quality products and services. Entrepreneurs realize that irrespective of the quality they offer, their products and services will most likely become commoditized in a relatively short period of time. Moreover, today’s global online marketplace provides consumers more choices and unprecedented access to information. It empowers them to shop as per their preferences and as per what is most important for them, whether it is brand, price, service or any of several other things. The differentiator that separates companies now is the experience they create for their consumers.
It is thus easy to assess that companies which recognize the importance of creating better consumer experience and which are proactive in their efforts, achieve significant revenue and reputation benefits. Companies that embrace such initiatives could see a rise in their product and service purchases. Given the volatility in the marketplace, there is no better time to optimize the experiences your consumers have every time they interact with your organization.
Do remember that consumers view their interactions with a company holistically. Yet, most organizations put consumers through complex websites, sales processes and consumer support. Consumer-centric companies must be willing to look at and address the end-to-end consumer experience, including the related people, processes and tools. By focusing on the consumer, every aspect of a company’s business can be optimized to have the greatest impact on the consumer experience and, ultimately, the company’s bottom line.
Tools to Create Improved Consumer Experience
1. Companies should start making consumer-centric strategies to deliver an impressive consumer experience. However, defining and implementing consumer focused strategies are far more dependent on the people employed than infrastructure. Companies must set the priorities and strategic direction for consumer strategies and reinforce their commitment and involvement in related efforts.
2. Companies that take the time to develop cross-functional teams have been the most successful in envisioning and implementing more robust consumer strategies. Consumer insights and intimacy are needed to develop a meaningful consumer strategy. There are many well-known ways to gather consumer insights, but the most valuable and also the most under-utilized two sources are the consumers themselves and employees or partners who interact directly with the consumers.
3. Once a consumer strategy and vision have been defined, it is important to ensure that they are manifested in key consumer touch-points. The key to a good consumer experience is to support consumers in every interaction. Do not try to manage them to do what you want, but rather, learn what they want and respond appropriately to their needs. Incorporating the voice of the consumer into business processes is critical, as most organizations do not intuitively know what experiences their consumers want or expect.
4. All employees, and not just frontline employees, in a company are responsible for delivering experiences that delight consumers. It is important for all employees to understand the role they play and to feel enabled to deliver experiences that are aligned with the defined consumer strategy and vision. To deliver improved consumer experience, make sure you have considered the following:
• Are your employees provided with the training required to build the knowledge, skills and behaviour that will enable them to perform successfully in the long run?
• Are your employees empowered and given the freedom to make real-time decisions to positively impact the consumer experience?
• Are the right incentives and rewards in place to encourage and recognize desired behaviour?
5. Optimizing consumer experience initiatives should be approached with a test and learn mentality because it is as much an art as it is a science. Entrepreneurs must begin to make informed decisions about how to engage with their consumers based on the qualitative and quantitative data available at the time. Prior to implementing any consumer experience changes, clearly articulate the expected benefits and develop a measurement plan that will enable your company to evaluate whether the expected benefits were realized. If the desired results were not realized, be willing to continue refining the process. Not achieving the desired result should be viewed as a vital learning experience that should be incorporated into future enhancements.
What Industry Experts Have to Say
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Arun Kharat, founder and director, Wings Travels, suggests ways to deliver improved consumer experience: “Design a product or service that has mass appeal. Plan a product; once it is done, first try it out on yourself and your close associates. Your own feelings about the product and the feedback from your associates will help fine-tune and refine your product, which will then have instant appeal when you launch it. You need to place yourself in the consumer’s shoes. This will make your product more relevant and effective and increase trust in the company and in the product.”
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Aparna Bhatnagar, founder, Green and Good Store, says, “For an entrepreneur, this is easier said than done, as funds are often limited and you need to provide a good experience within a limited budget while competing with larger organizations that can spend much more. I think it is important to remember the basics and execute them as best as possible. Essentially, giving a good consumer experience is about respecting the consumer just as you respect a member of your family or a good friend. It is all about relationship building. Respect their right to decline your product or not like your product or service. Listen to them, especially when they complain, because that is the best way to find opportunities for improvement.”
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Anup Jain, director, marketing, Pizza Hut India, reveals, “Over the last few years, we have observed a change in the behaviour of food lovers. Taking this into account, we have simultaneously taken steps to reposition our brand and offerings. Pizza Hut has transitioned from a quick service restaurant to an affordable, casual dining restaurant to provide an enhanced dine-in experience to our consumers. We have laid great emphasis on every small detail that is essential to achieving this transformation, right from revamping the restaurant ambience to initiatives such as the ‘Chef’s Table’, which have been highly appreciated by our consumers. We have begun serving wine at our outlets in Bangalore and will soon take this to other cities, too. Understanding the pulse of our consumers and reacting quickly to their needs is the key to success and it has given us the opportunity to get closer to our consumers and grow our business.”
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Sundeep Malhotra, founder and CEO, HomeShop 18, says, “Our philosophy is to build credibility and gain consumer trust and confidence in building India’s best alternate distribution platform. This is evident from the fact that we have over 25 per cent repeat consumers. We believe in what we call the ‘More for Consumer’ strategy and regularly launch promotional activities that directly benefit our consumers. Improved consumer experience is directly proportionate to enterprise growth. The constant growth in our repeat consumer base from 0 per cent to 25 per cent in just two years in line with HomeShop18 reaching sales of Rs 330 crore in 2009-10 (80 per cent greater than in the earlier fiscal) proves that improved consumer experience and enterprise growth are highly integrated.”
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Pankaj Agarwal, cofounder, Click India, an online classifieds company, shares, “Similar to a shopping experience at a store, where we only stop and pick up a product that is attractively displayed, for an online company, too, presenting yourself and your products and services well can make a world of difference to how you are sized up in the market. Listening to and analysing consumers’ latent and spoken needs are critical. We try to understand things from the consumers’ point of view and configure our platforms to meet their needs. It is very important to take user feedback into account. We use various technological tools to research and track user behaviour and effect product changes accordingly on our website.”
Thus, in optimizing consumer experience, it is vital to recognize that consumer demands shift as companies and consumers mature. Therefore, entrepreneurs must continually assess consumer experiences to make sure that their consumer strategies are still relevant and achieving the desired results. The vital point is to make the consumer experience unique, to deliver an impactful consumer experience.
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