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In Search of Customer Enchantment

In today’s business-saturated environment, how do you make the leap from customer apathy, to customer enchantment? It isn’t just your product that takes you over the line – how your business communicates with its customers is where the opportunity to delight and enchant truly comes into play.

Customer enchantment in New Zealand

Market research company Kantar TNS New Zealand has announced that, in general, New Zealanders are less than enchanted with the standard of customer service provided by New Zealand companies.

Kantar TNS has released the results of a survey revealing that only 11% of New Zealand customers are “left feeling ‘enchanted’” after a customer experience, compared to 20% of customers globally.

On the other end of the spectrum, only 4% have reported feeling ‘disenchanted’ – but that’s no cause for celebration, yet.

The remaining (very large) majority of customers surveyed have unfortunately fallen into the dreaded grey area of customer sentiment: 84% of NZ customers have been left wholly ‘unaffected’ by their interactions with businesses.

Becoming an ‘enchanting’ business

Having your customers feel apathetic towards or unaffected by your business leaves them open to being wowed by your competitors instead.

Indeed, Kantar TNS warned that the imminent arrival of online retail giant Amazon to New Zealand made it imperative for local businesses to now start seriously considering the creation of “memorable experiences” for customers.

But just what constitutes a memorable experience?

“Our research showed that truly enchanting experiences create memories by being both ranked excellent, and leaving the customer feeling delighted,” explained the research firm’s Executive Director, Nigel Green.

Three companies were singled out for special mention in this regard: “When it comes to enchanting customers, ANZ, AA Insurance and Air New Zealand take the top honours.

“The key to achieving this is to cut through the complexity, and to treat each communication channel with the attention it deserves.”

Take communication seriously

“Many customer interactions fail to leave a lasting positive impression on customers.”

“Businesses are spreading themselves too thin,” Green elaborated. “They have a Facebook page because they think they should, but it’s frustrating for customers if it’s not being monitored or the information is out of date.”

“Identifying the right communication channel for your customer is also key,” he added. “Not surprisingly, social media is a popular option for younger customers, and also for the sale of simple services or products. However, many businesses treat social media as an afterthought and don’t treat it as a communication channel in its own right.”

AA Insurance acknowledged Kantar’s accolade in a press release, and was certainly in agreement with their Executive Director. CEO Chris Curtin said: “The research has confirmed the importance that AA Insurance places on ensuring our customers can interact with us in their preferred way.

“This includes having real people answer our phones quickly to help connect customers with the right person first time, as well as offering a policy ‘self-serve’ option with My AA Insurance, and Live Chat – an online communication tool. We also treat social media – a popular option for younger customers – as a communication channel in its own right, and are committed to providing a prompt response.”

Enchant and delight – with smartphones

In our previous post, 6 Clever Contact Centre Mobile Customer Experience Strategies, we discussed six ways you can start taking advantage of the fact that since 2016, more than 50% of your customers are using smartphones to contact you, with the following benefits:

  • Stimulate sales
  • Stimulate repeat business
  • Streamline operations
  • Keep customers informed
  • Provide instant help to website visitors

Many of today’s customers are increasingly time-poor, and want things to be as efficient and convenient for them as possible. Sending them reminders and quick links to relevant information is a good way to delight and demonstrate that you value their time.

Customer enchantment made simple with Premier Contact Point

With Premier Contact Point, multiple channels of customer interaction – phone, email, web chat, SMS, and in early 2018, social media – are all easily managed by your agents in a single, browser-based application. So you can start enchanting your customers via the channel that matters most to them.

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