How to Deliver an Incredible Customer Experience to Capitalize on Revenge Spending
As most of the world is seeing light at the end of this long dark pandemic tunnel, the businesses that survived it want to know one thing: how bright is that light? Will post-pandemic times be fueled by an economic boom?
The answer to that depends on who you ask. The prognosticators do not all agree. There are two certainties: 1) there is a tremendous amount of pent-up demand for what people have missed out on the last 15 months and 2) customers, consumers, clients, guests, patients, tenants, employees, co-workers, or whatever you call your customers, are now pickier than ever with which companies they do business with.
While the effects of the pandemic have been long-lasting, many consumers are getting excited about the opportunities for social interaction. However, not everyone will be jumping back into the social rebirthing immediately; there probably will be some trepidation as people adjust to their newly restored freedom. “Social skills are like a muscle,” says Richard Slatcher, a professor of psychology at the University of Georgia who studies the effects of relationships on health and well-being. “If we are out of practice, it will take a while to get back on the social bike, if you will, and ride it again. It has now become second nature to keep your guard up. We’re habituated to this new normal, so it will take a while to return to the old normal.”
Revenge Spending
According to Fox Business Network’s Charles Payne, there’s reason to be extremely optimistic. Over the last 12 months, consumer savings are near record highs. That, combined with government stimulus money for both businesses and consumers, means that there is a lot of money and the ability to spend it as consumer confidence picks up. The question is which companies will capitalize on the economic spike? Brands that consistently deliver superior customer experiences and a high level of employee engagement.
For many, it’s been a year they lost out of their life. Everyone feels cheated. Many experts are predicting revenge spending which could potentially lead to incredible growth over the next decade, hence history repeating itself like the roaring 20’s.
Revenge spending is a key reason to expect economic growth in the foreseeable future. Some are predicting a resurgence of social events, such as concerts, sporting events, travel, reunions, parties, business conferences, and conventions. Payne predicts that customers will want to make up for lost time, which will be great for the economy.
Although there has been tremendous job loss and countless business fatalities, companies that are obsessed with the customer and employee experience are exploding. It is critical that leaders invest in building experiential consistency at every touchpoint in the customer journey, by ensuring customer service training be provided continuously to all existing, new, and future employees. Excellent customer service companies understand that customer loyalty is won and lost with your customer-facing team members.
According to Hubspot, 75 percent of customers “don’t accept advertisements as truth,” yet 90 percent of customers “believe brand recommendations from friends.”
Excellent customer service companies intentionally allocate their advertising and marketing budget towards their customer experience strategy. Why? Because they know customer expectations and customer satisfaction are not the same for potential customers versus retained customers.
Boosting your customer retention rate by as little as 5% can increase your profits anywhere from 25% to 95%. New customer acquisition is extremely expensive compared to retaining current customers—5 to 25 times more expensive. Loyal customers bring in more revenue, are less likely to price shop you, refer more, and are more forgiving than a new customer when things go wrong. The bottom line is the more you invest in customer service skills, the more happy customers you will have.
Make it Personal
Organizations must not let relationships (customers and employees) become mere transactions. Customers will stay loyal to the brands that help make them feel alive. The most successful companies in the world are not characterized by the best products in the world, but by redefining our expectations. Let’s face it, most products and services today are of similar quality. Excellent customer service is about delivering a personal touch throughout your entire customer journey.
Being able to build true sustainable relationships is the biggest competitive advantage in a world where automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are eliminating millions of jobs and disrupting entire industries, businesses, and careers. In the digital revolution, human interaction, compassion, empathy, and communication skills become a premium advantage.
With the increase in the digitization and automation of customer interactions, your employees must be focusing on building relationships with customers. The most memorable customer experiences are the ones where an emotional connection was made, where both customer and employee felt something.
Episode 40 of The Customer Service Revolution Podcast – Starting Your Customer Service Revolution Journey
Chief Revolution Officer John DiJulius of the DiJulius Group talks with Dave Murray, Senior Customer Experience Consultant for The DiJulius Group about how to start your customer service revolution journey. John and Dave discuss the key customer experience strategy that world-class brands all have in common.
You will learn:
- The actual definition of a Customer Service Revolution
- What Making Price Irrelevant actually means
- Which is more important to building an outstanding customer experience organization: Hiring or Training
- How service aptitude is the most important ingredient that separates world-class customer service organizations from every other business
- The three things that determine anyone’s service aptitude
- How most businesses have negative cues that produce a bad experience and don’t realize the impact it has on creating angry customers
The Irreversible Impact to Businesses of the Pandemic That Will be Felt Long After it is Over
Customer Service Quote of The Week
A just cause is a vision of the future that does not yet exist. And you will commit all your energies to advance that vision and attracting people who believe in your vision of your future. So much so they may turn down a better opportunity somewhere else because they want to be around people who are committed to building a world that doesn’t exist.
– Simon Sinek
Tickets are Now Available for the Customer Service Revolution
The 2021 Customer Service Revolution conference is IN-PERSON October 5-6 in Cleveland. Tickets are limited.
We are offering both in-person and virtual options for the two-day 2021 Customer Service Revolution. For the ultimate experience and peace of mind of our in-person attendees, we will take every safety precaution. As a result, we will be limiting the number of in-person tickets that we can sell. Our virtual tickets will also provide access to every speaker that the in-person event will. All in-person ticket sales will be fully refundable.
Your future success will be around the customer experience strategy and the percent of customers who cannot live without your company.
