From Telstra Enterprise. End-to-end customer experience is the journey a customer takes from their initial thoughts or considerations to the actual purchase of a product. But the journey doesn’t end there!
A customer’s initial buyer experience may have been sensational. The website was easy to navigate and the checkout process was simple and streamlined. But after two weeks the product they have ordered and paid for hasn’t arrived or it has arrived damage or with items missing. They send emails which are not answered. In exasperation the customer calls the service number to be placed in a lengthy queue.
The journey that started of brilliantly has ended in disaster. The reason for this failure is that the different touchpoints and associated customer interactions, have been treated separately and in isolation. The bigger picture has been missed.
Delivering great customer experiences requires a strategic approach across multiple departments and lines of business within your organisation. It’s not the responsibility of one department or the contact centre. It’s about the ability to build a holistic view of the customer’s experience and their motivations with every interaction they have with the brand.
From the beginning to the end
The customer journey begins with the customer thinking to purchase a product and ends long after they leave your shop or website. The actual purchase is only one stage in a series of stages that encompass the entire journey. The customer may need support to fix any issues or to obtain maximum use or value from the product.
Your success depends on looking across the entire series of interactions in the customer
journey, instead of focusing on individual interactions. By taking a holistic view, you can rapidly move the customer forward to quickly complete their intended action.
There’s no need to repeat prior steps or previous information. Anticipate the most likely
next steps on the journey, then proactively notify the customer of key events and information. This reduces both customer effort and the resources needed to complete the customer journey—benefiting both your customer and your business.
To get a holistic picture of the experiences a customer has with your organisation and their motivations at every touch point, requires the entire customer journey to be mapped out. From this you can understand where customers are experiencing points of friction in their journey and ways to remove them. Ultimately, you want to create seamless experiences for your customers regardless of when and how they chose to interact with your brand.
Improving the End-to-End Customer Experience
A seamless experience means a customer can interact with your brand in any way they choose, whether that’s via a smartphone, tablet, desktop or at a physical outlet.
To learn more please download our ebook Three Strategies to Improve the End-to End Customer experience.