What is Transforming Customer Experience?

Transforming customer experience is the process of fundamentally altering the impressions businesses make on their customers so that their customers have a higher opinion of the brand. Transforming customer experience typically requires organizations to optimize processes and technology, and align employees and the organization on customer experience strategies and goals.

Gartner determined that most businesses currently compete on the basis of customer experience, making it critical that every impression a customer receives of the brand - from Facebook ads to storefront window displays - is of a consistently high quality. Businesses that are successful at transforming customer experience can realize the following benefits:

• Increased customer loyalty
• Increased customer retention
• Higher revenue
• Higher customer satisfaction
• Increased customer lifetime value

How contact centers can contribute to transforming customer experience

Customer service is a touchpoint that can make a high impact impression on a customer. Finding resolutions to billing issues, website glitches, or product defects can be the most important interaction a customer has with a company. This means contact centers need to do their part in transforming customer experience. Here are some options.

• Customer service with competent and empathetic agents. Consumers don't just want fast and accurate agents - they also want to interact with people who have good soft skills. A robotic conversation with a live agent can leave customers feeling cold and empty, rather than "warm and fuzzy".

• Effective self-service. Since most resolution journeys begin with a DIY attempt, contact centers need to make it easy for customers to help themselves. Smart self-help solutions like conversational IVRs and AI-powered virtual agents can enhance the customer experience while also reducing costs.

• Omnichannel experiences. Being able to move seamlessly across channels is a customer expectation and can also be a competitive differentiator. When transforming customer experience, offering omnichannel experiences should be at the top of every contact center’s project list.

• Modern technology. Trying to transform customer experience is nearly impossible without also transforming contact center technology. Archaic, legacy systems are a barrier to meaningful change.