Certain brands are setting trends, and others are only following them.
If your company works in the rapidly changing retail or electronic commerce region, you will benefit from the new trends for consumer experiences.
Knowing that the business will adapt its customer service approach to suit marketplace insights, take advantage of the opportunity to satisfy customers’ most compelling demands, and develop a customer experience to die for.
Customer Service Trends in Retail and E-commerce
Consumers prioritize the customer experience
The product was king at one time.
The king was dismissed. Today, people buy less and are looking for more experiences. There has been a step away from the sale of goods to the sale of services in industry and e-commerce.
For example, some brands, such as Puma, have developed experiential retail design stores where consumers can wear the new sneakers in an in-store football simulator. Others, such as IKEA, have used increased realism (AR) to help the client imagine how a product will be used – without agreeing to purchase it.
Consumers expect a hyper-personalized experience
Courting is exclusive to engagement. Before a consumer engages in a company, he must believe that he has spent a few years first knowing them.
Due to their low data collection capacities, retail and e-commerce firms also grapple with practical consumer personalization. “Personalization is nothing but a conversion of knowledge into help,” according to Google’s Managing Director Kiran Mani. In the next two years, the revenue of $800 billion will be transferred to e-resellers who are personalizing their sites and others who do not.”
It is for your team to gather customer data at every contact point and to offer tailored guidance during the purchasing journey – from the initial discovery period to the product or service reviews, up to post-sale support, whether your retail or e-commerce company wishes to win the fight for consumers’ ‘heart and soul.’ Your staff will finally predict the demands of its clients from a 360-degree view, placing the business head and shoulders above the market.
Gladly lends the business and its clients a robust and core plan for an organization worthy of salt from courtship to engagement by cultivating and sustaining a life-long dialogue. Gladly uses innovative processes that build on the history, contacts, and previous customer experiences with agents that provide them radically personal assistance to consumers. In addition to enabling customer service agents to deliver customized messages, the customer support app Gladly allows them to propose hyper-appropriate goods and services.
Consumers value brand hones, transparency, and openness
Some marketers advocate honesty, but those who genuinely pursue openness are still trumpets in the hearts of consumers.
Southwest Airlines initiated a transparency awareness initiative in 2015 called “Transference.” According to the low-cost airline, honesty is a “philosophy in which clients receive transparent and equal treatment, and low prices are low – no unexpected ticket costs, exchange rates or secret fees.”
Beyond a publicity trick, the effort by Southwest Airlines won the hard-earned customer trust and distinguished the carrier from its competition. It notes that some integrity takes time to communicate the company’s mission, goods, and services.
Consumers want brands to stand for something
Customers aren’t faithful to brands per se, but they may be loyal to brands’ faiths.
According to a survey conducted in a 2012 Harvard Business Review by the Corporate Executive Board, ‘64% citing common beliefs as the primary explanation for customers in our study who said they have a brand partnership.’
Some popular retail and e-commerce brands have formed a cult by expressing their passion for social issues. TOMS Shoes, for example, has developed a sales model, “One for One.” It means that TOMS Shoes delivers a kid with free shoes for any retail sale.
However, the position of a firm should not be so significant as TOMS. The critical thing is to put a problem irrelevant to the bottom of your enterprise. You might, for example, sell your business loyalty programs to promote your company’s ideals and clients in their social causes. So, the business should provide a percentage of the proceeds from Betty’s sales to a foundation it funds instead of giving Betty a cheaper product.
In expressing the brand’s intent, your company is ready to establish a real emotional relationship with its clients, providing an outstanding basis for consumer loyalty. If the consumer can connect with (and feel positive about) your business purpose, they will be more likely to be loyal.
Bottom line
Other developments in consumer engagement include an increase in behavioral contact centers, self-help, and semiconductor customer encounters. Gladly, whatever the theme of customer experience.
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