Which Technologies Help in Expanding Reach to the Customer?

 

To the customer, you are the company," reads the title of an article on Shep Hyken's website. In many ways, this statement rings true. What better way to stand out from the competition than making a connection with the customers?

As cliche as it sounds, what really makes a successful business is not the cost of the product or service. It is not the marketing or advertising budget or even the gross margin. What truly sets a company apart from its competition is how well its target customers receive its products or services.

On that note, lend me the leverage to quote the father of management thinking, Peter Drucker — "Quality in a service or product is not what you put into in. It is what the customer gets out of it."

It is worth noting, however, that the relationship between a company and its customer is not always as clear-cut or straightforward as the aforementioned quote suggests. 

For example, while a customer may demand certain specifications or performance levels from a product, it is naïve to assume that those are the features that will explicitly catch their eye. Most of the time, it is an emotional connection with the product or service that delivers impact and generates leads.

And what lies at the center of this connection? The answer to that question is a mix of brand, story, and technology. In one word: "reach."

To the customer, you are the company.

Reach is what generates sales. More specifically, it is what makes a sale. It is what gets customers to your business. It is what keeps them coming back. And it is what persuades them to buy the product or service you offer, even if your competitors are offering a similar product or service at a lower price.

Favorably, modern-day technology has made it easier to expand your company's reach. And that's precisely what we're going to discuss in this article.

The Challenge of Expanding Reach to Your Customers

A Google-commissioned BCG survey revealed that customers were 40% more likely to spend more than they had previously envisioned when personalization was a core component across the buying journey.

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A PwC study sheds light on the fact that service efficiency, convenience, knowledgeable service, and easy transactions are the key factors that customers value — with each of these surpassing the 70% mark on the "Level of importance for customer experience" scale.

Notice the similarity in the marketing value of these findings?

Customers do not buy a product or service; they buy an experience. And as enterprises tap into optimizing their interactions, they must define customized experiences to round out the buying decision process in its entirety.

In other words, you’re looking at something like "total experience" — well, if you'd want to brand it that way. But if this is known to you, what is holding you back from expanding your reach to your customers?

Apparently, a host of shortcomings surface when you dive deep into the CX measurement methods. Consultants at McKinsey label these as "Limited, Reactive, Ambiguous, and Unfocused."

Limited corresponds to an incomplete understanding of the customer's buying criteria and perceptions.

Reactive is a misinterpretation and miscalculation of services that adhere to the customers' requirements.

Ambiguous design results from a mismatch between what the company thinks its customers want and what they genuinely need.

Unfocused experience is a misunderstanding of the correlation between business goals and customer needs.

To complicate matters, these pitfalls appear in varying degrees and act as the basis for a company's inability to expand its reach. Not only are you missing out on opportunities, but your customers might be getting the short end of the stick.

What's more, not all of these shortcomings are avoidable. In fact, many of them fall in line with the challenges that enterprises face every day as they pursue a unique path to success. The CX leaders often find themselves aloof of the ground reality, mistaking a downturn in their performance for a setback in the metrics they are tracking.

For example, agile delivery models have their fair share of benefits and downsides. They encourage adaptability to change market conditions and reward a more customer-centric way of thinking. However, they also involve a leap of faith on the customer's part.

How to Expand Reach to Customers?

It's established that some challenges are intrinsic to a process or product, while others tend to result from the overall way you conduct business. With that in mind, let's take a look at some practical ways to expand your reach to the customers without losing focus on the customer experience.

Facilitating Omnichannel Interactions

Research released by PwC reveals that most customers are willing to pay a premium (as much as 16%) for an experience that gives them a sense of emotional attachment. Therefore, when it comes to creating this sense of attachment, the holy grail is to foster omnichannel interactions.

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Omnichannel communication refers to a brand's ability to expedite user engagement across different channels, devices, and touchpoints. While this might seem like a tall order for most businesses, it is one that can be accomplished with the right tools and strategies in place. Unlike multichannel experiences that remain fragmented at best, omnichannel interactions offer a sense of connection and consistency that engenders trust and loyalty.

It is not uncommon for companies to carve their omnichannel offerings into different disciplines — marketing, sales, product development, IT, etc. The CX leaders must identify which channel, device, and touchpoint has the most room for growth.

Moreover, they must also determine whether their current strategy is specific and targeted enough to provide an unparalleled customer experience. And if not… well then, that's an area fit for investment.

Increasing Product Visibility Through Effective Marketing

Many businesses subscribe to the belief that a brand must achieve scale before it can gain any kind of visibility in the market. Upon this premise, they fail to create a product that is grounded in the customer's needs. Instead, they produce a high-quality product (or service) that may not fit their customer's requirements.

As a result, they fail to expand their reach to the customers. To succeed, they must first delineate the product's qualities to their customers and then focus on generating awareness.

To do this effectively, they should determine the factors that make the product appealing and then unveil those qualities in an effective manner.

For example, if a business is looking to establish itself as a niche player in the eCommerce industry, it is advisable that they focus their marketing efforts on programmable spaces.

They can do this by enlisting the help of experts and strategic partners in other industries that can assist them in creating the right message. Undoubtedly, this strategy will pay off when it comes to market recognition and customer reach.

Making the Most of Product Data

"It's unusual to think about analytics as anything other than massive spreadsheets and incomprehensible algorithms, but true productization involves taking the target end-users into account." — Jedd Davis, Harvard Business Review

Akin to what we covered in the previous heading, the CX leaders should look at product data as a means to an end. In other words, they can further their reach to customers by taking a comprehensive look at their product and then determining how it performs for the audience.

A good way to do this is to segment users by characteristics, usage patterns, and demographics. This can help them better understand their audience and align the product with the right users. The next step involves implementing a set of KPIs that is relevant to their needs.

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