Chapter 9: Building Strong Customer Relationships

Customer Relations Versus Customer Service

Customer relations refers to the different methods and strategies that a business can use to forge, improve, and manage all interactions with its customers.^[1] Customer service refers to the support and assistance given to a customer before, during, and after a sale. Both are critical and work together to create positive customer experiences (CX).

The customer service team plays a key role in growing customer relationships, as they are usually the first point of contact for customers. In customer service, agents help customers in real time to solve issues and deliver a positive journey through the sales funnel. Companies can use the valuable data gathered from customer service interactions to foster customer relations and proactively strive to improve the customer experience and address problems before they impact customers.^[2] With that said, building customer relationships is not just a job for a single customer service team. It is every employee’s responsibility to ensure customers receive the best service and a positive experience when interacting with the company.

Some department employees are considered customer-facing and actually interact very directly with customers as part of their daily jobs. This includes groups like customer support, sales, and service representatives, but these are not the only teams that directly impact the customer experience and overall journey. Every team has an important role to play, and product development teams, human resources staff, supply chain managers, and maintenance crews (to name a few) need to understand how their daily efforts are connected to the overall customer experience.

A customer experience vision or mission statement and leaders that support and communicate the vision can help every department see their value and role in providing exceptional customer experiences that build positive customer relationships. For example, if the customer service team needs to provide information to a customer on their account balance, the employee interacting with the customer may require assistance from the Accounting department personnel.  If the assistance is slow or the information provided is inaccurate the service the customer receives will be below their expectations and result in an unhappy customer. It is critical that all department personnel understand that each has a responsibility to contribute to an overall excellent customer experience.

Every touchpoint a customer has with an organization should leave them feeling satisfied, valued, and impressed with the company.  Customers want to feel that they made the right choice when purchasing from a company, therefore, they have certain expectations around product performance, service levels, warranties, employee interactions, social media and website interactions, brand, image, community, and more.  Businesses need to ensure that they are supporting what they are promoting.  If a product is marketed with a lifetime guarantee, then you can believe that customers will expect that to be true.

Below are a few customer relations activities.

• Tracking customer behavior and providing personalized customer experiences.
• Automating customer feedback collection (e.g., surveys).
• Analyzing customer feedback provided during customer interactions.
• Making data-driven decisions and marketing strategies.
• Proposing solutions to frequent issues.
• Utilizing the right sales and marketing software.
• Providing omnichannel service and social media presence.
• Ensuring the customer service experience is consistent across customer touchpoints.
• Delivering live assistance and boosting customer engagement.
• Working with IT and technical teams to streamline customer interactions and decrease wait times.

Customer Experience Trends

In the Zendesk Customer Experience (CX) Trends Report the following customer experience trends appear. Companies need to embrace these trends to meet customer needs and expectations in order to build relationships. There are five trends discussed below.

Trend 1: AI is becoming more evolved and seamless

The retail sector has been experiencing a significant digital transformation over the past few years. One of the greatest drivers of this transformation is the combination of the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. Amazon widely uses AI in its retail operations, while Walmart and Target follow closely behind. Retailers are seeking the help of AI-based digital solutions to tackle challenges like changing consumer behavior, labour shortages, supply chain disruptions, and rising costs. AI is a powerful tool for retailers, enabling them to quickly analyze large amounts of data and make customer-focused decisions.^[4]

Using artificial intelligence retail solutions, retailers can provide smooth customer support in different scenarios – starting from automated checkouts to customer mood tracking. AI-based retail solutions also provide customers with personalized and immersive shopping experiences. Several reports suggest that customers would be a lot more loyal to the brands that added personalization features in their outlets. With retail transactional data, AI, and machine learning, brands can easily track and analyze past purchases, customer behavior, and loyalty cards to deliver more customized offerings. Customers can now take a photo of an item or product they like in reality and then utilize the image to search for a retailer selling it online. Utilizing AI calculations, retail organizations can run focused marketing and advertising campaigns based on customers’ locale, inclinations, gender, and buying habits.^[5]

Here are a few examples of companies that are using AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) in retail to improve the overall user experience and increase sales.^[6]

• Walmart is already using AI to scan competitors’ offerings, and in the near future, it hopes to use robotics to scan its shelves to optimize its product mix.
• Sephora’s Color IQ scans faces to recommend personalized foundation and concealer shades, while Lip IQ helps find the perfect lipstick shade, making way for a seamless makeup shopping experience.
• Lowes uses LoweBot, a robot that assists customers in navigating its stores. These robots ask questions to help customers find products, offer directions, and share expertise while keeping track of inventory.
• Starbucks’ My Starbucks Barista app enables voice and text-based orders, allowing customers to skip lines and find their orders ready upon arrival.
• Netflix leverages AI to create a personalized home screen for every subscriber. When viewers create a new Netflix account, they’re asked to pick a few of their favorite movies and TV shows. Using AI, Netflix provides recommendations for similar programming and continues to customize its suggestions based on what you’re watching, how long you’ve been watching, and what device you’re using.^[7]

Play the YouTube video below to learn how businesses can use AI to personalize customers’ experiences.^[8] Transcript for “How to use AI to personalize your customer’s experience” Video [PDF–New Tab]. Closed captioning is available on YouTube.

According to Vonage’s Global Customer Engagement Report 2022 omnichannel, commerce that integrates the different methods of interaction available to customers (e.g., online, mobile device, physical store), enhanced by artificial intelligence will help meet the expectations of customers. Customers expect an efficient customer experience in the first channel they choose.  As seen below in Figure 9.1, the two channels set to explode the most are video chat and chatbot.^[9]

Trend 2: Consumers want conversational experiences

Customers want to receive immediate assistance, and it does not matter if it comes from an AI-powered bot or a real human agent. What does matter is that those interactions feel natural, friendly, and personal. As those conversations unfold, consumers expect anyone they interact with at the company to have the full context of their purchase history, previous interactions, and so on. Should a customer decide to stop an interaction and resume it later, they want a new support representative to be able to pick up the conversation seamlessly. Seventy percent of consumers purchase more from companies that offer seamless conversational experiences.^[10]

Trend 3: Customers are eager for deeper personalization

Most customers don’t want to be lumped into some demographic bucket—they crave experiences in which they are a segment of one, not thousands. For example, consider the barista who greets you by your name, starts whipping up your normal order, and then asks a follow-up question about something you talked about during your last visit. Consumers want that experience, whether it’s in a brick-and-mortar store or on an e-commerce site. Fifty-nine percent of consumers believe businesses should use the data they collect about them to personalize their experiences.^[11] How do you feel about that?  Do you agree?

In the Spotlight: Airbnb Customer Experience

Airbnb has revolutionized short-stay accommodation since it was founded in August 2008 and has disrupted the hospitality industry. When it first began, people might have thought that an idea based on inviting strangers to stay in your home would be doomed. However, it isn’t doomed, and quite the contrary. Per USA Today, Airbnb has more than seven million listings in 100,000 cities as of early September 2019, and they plan to go public in 2020. They also reported revenues of over one billion dollars in the second quarter of 2019, although there is no report on the profits.^[12]

Airbnb observed that consumers were looking for ways to travel differently and find better deals. They wanted to use their mobile technology to explore the world around them. Airbnb took advantage of these wants and positioned a solution that is high-tech.^[13]

Airbnb offers exceptional experiences by providing a platform for hosts to offer a wide range of activities. These activities can include sharing a personal hobby, teaching a language or cooking class, hosting an art or dance workshop, or organizing sports or pub crawls.^[14] Airbnb also offers a wide range of accommodation options, from cozy cottages to elegant penthouses.^[15] Airbnb has also improved the user experience for guests and hosts by providing flexibility, easier hosting, and improved service support.^[16]The company collects customer data to make better recommendations and match the right people together. Airbnb personalization is the adjustment of search results based on each guest’s unique profile. This includes what they clicked on, what they booked, and more.^[17]

Here’s how Airbnb is shaping the future of the travel industry:^[18]

• It’s aspirational.
• It’s built on pure trust.
• It’s price sensible.
• It’s personable.
• It’s innovative.
• It’s memorable.
• It’s responsive.
• It’s beautiful.
• It’s relevant.
• It’s human.

Airbnb is one of the most inspirational and progressive brands in the world, regardless of industry. This is mainly due to its forward-thinking and absolute focus on the customer experience. The question is, will the Airbnb experience become the future of the travel industry? And what can travel agents do to start offering their current customers some of what Airbnb has made central to their overall customer experience?^[19]

Trend 4: Consumers well-being and sentiment are reshaping CX

Sixty-six percent of consumers who often interact with support said a bad interaction with a business can ruin their day. Sixty percent of consumers have purchased something from one brand over another based on the service they expect to receive. On the frontlines of support, agents know all too well how their company’s customer experience affects consumers. Thirty-seven percent of agents say when a customer cannot complete tasks on their own, they often become noticeably angry, frustrated, or stressed. Fifty-three percent of agents say that how their organization approaches service leads directly to negative customer behavior, and because leaders aren’t formally tracking sentiment, their organizations fail to remedy these persistent issues—what’s out of sight ends up being out of mind.^[20]

Trend 5: CX teams are breaking down silos

For too long, leaders have viewed their customer service organizations as cost centers, not drivers of revenue. As a result, that mindset has created siloed teams with little connection to their wider organizations, leading to disastrous side effects: agents lack relevant customer data, which then hampers efforts to provide exceptional (or even satisfactory) experiences. But as business leaders have begun to discover, customers expect data to be widely shared so their experiences can be personalized and immersive. Leaders now realize that silos must be broken down, with true integration between customer service, sales, and marketing. Doing so promises great returns: increased efficiency, better customer experiences, and finally, more revenue.^[21]

Create Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty happens when customers give a company repeat business over time. When a company provides great value in its products and services, and the customer experience stays consistently good, then the business will reap the benefits of customer retention.^[22]

Listed below are some of the ways businesses can develop meaningful customer relationships and create long-lasting customer loyalty.^[23]

1. Communicate Company Values. Share values with employees and customers. Create more effective marketing strategies for new products and services.
2. Know the Customer Journey. Create journey maps to assess the gaps in the current service offerings. Recognize how each customer persona’s service experience differs.
3. Provide Exceptional Customer Service. Train and support employees. Use AI Chatbots to improve service. Have meaningful conversations with customers so that each interaction is not purely transactional.
4. Activate Loyalists. Ask brand ambassadors to help spread the word.
5. Show Customer Appreciation. Develop a Loyalty Program.
6. Connect in a Deeper Way. Create a Community. Increase the personalization of customer interactions for each customer profile or segment.
7. Ask for Feedback. Conduct Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSAT) as well as employee surveys then use analytics to improve service.
8. Continually Improve the Customer Experience. Offer personalized service. Use video chats and co-browsing (agent and customer are browsing at the same time) to engage customers. Compare competitor company journeys and create better differentiators.

More on Know the Customer Journey (above)

Mapping the customer journey for the personas, or target segments, a company wishes to reach can help the business better understand customers’ expectations, then the business can tailor customer experiences to fit the customer’s needs. Mapping helps businesses measure the progress of optimizing processes against the customer experience desired by customers. The mapping process brings together sales, marketing, and customer support to define what customers need to know before they buy, what they need after they buy, and how these interactions can be enhanced. ^[24]

Not only can journey mapping help businesses identify issues that may be negatively affecting a positive customer journey, it can also help businesses identify new growth opportunities.   During the mapping process, auditing content can reveal areas where the company may be losing customers so that the business can strengthen those areas. A journey map can help steer the team toward company priorities. A journey map that expresses the needs of the target audience helps to ensure that the team stays true to what customers need and want.

When should journey mapping be done? Customer journey mapping can be done whenever the business wants to do any of the following tasks.^[25]

• Assess the gaps in the current service offering.
• Increase the personalization of customer interactions for each customer profile or segment.
• Create a more effective marketing strategy for new products and services.
• Recognize how each customer persona’s service experience differs.
• Develop a new experience while keeping the important moments in mind.
• Compare competitors’ journeys to the company’s and create better differentiators.

More on Activate Loyalists (above)

Connect with brand ambassadors as these are the most ardent supporters of the company’s brand and its values, and are the customers the company should seek out. These consumers are the ones who mention the company and/or its products and services on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms and tell everyone how much they like your brand. These highly satisfied customers help a company understand who is connecting with the brand and why. It’s up to the company to find these supporters and learn about them, so the company can find others who fit the same profile. These people will become the company’s brand ambassadors out in the world. The business should engage with them often – and possibly surprise an existing customer with special gifts to thank them for their loyalty, a strategy known as “surprise and delight” that can help increase retention and cultivate customer loyalty.^[26]

Importance of Building Customer Relationships

It’s more important than ever for businesses to create strong customer relationships. Building any long-lasting relationship requires nurturing and personalized experiences. Customers don’t want to feel like their interactions are transactional. Transactional relationships often attract customers based on price alone who are looking to fill a short-term need without building a long-term relationship with a brand.  Businesses that seek to create long-term, repeat business, focus on providing excellent customer experiences because they understand that retaining customers is less expensive than obtaining new ones.

Below are a few of the benefits companies gain from creating positive customer relationships.

• Higher Customer Retention
• More Customer Loyalty
• Better Business Reputation and Brand Credibility
• Ability to Maintain Prices
• Increased Competitive Advantage
• Improved Employee Morale and Attitude

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a technology for managing all company relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. The goal is to improve business relationships to grow the business. A CRM system helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability. When people talk about CRM, they are usually referring to a CRM system, a tool that helps with contact management, sales management, agent productivity, and more. CRM tools can now be used to manage customer relationships across the entire customer lifecycle, spanning marketing, sales, digital commerce, and customer service interactions. A CRM system gives everyone — from sales, customer service, business development, recruiting, marketing, or any other line of business — a better way to manage the external interactions and relationships that drive success. A CRM tool lets you store customer and prospect contact information, identify sales opportunities, record service issues, and manage marketing campaigns, all in one central location — and make information about every customer interaction available to anyone at your company who might need it.^[28]

The enterprise-wide approach to CRM allows all departments to share information within the software allowing for more efficient, consistent, and effective service delivery.  Here is an example of how CRM software might help turn a negative customer experience into a positive one. A customer receives an order but is missing a part, so they call into the customer service contact center. The friendly customer service agent lets them know the part will be ordered and shipped as soon as possible. A few weeks later, the customer calls back to ask for an update because they have not yet received the part. A different agent handles their call apologizing for the delay, and informs the customer that the part should arrive in just a few days. Now the customer is losing faith in this company and wondering if the part is actually coming soon. The customer may also feel that it is their job to follow up in a few days in order to ensure they receive the part they purchased. Yet later that day, the customer receives a call from a third agent who informs them that the order is delayed, which they already knew.

The scenario above is an example of miscommunication between agents. CRM software can solve that problem because each agent can track their interactions with the customer, leave messages for each other, check shipping plans, part stocks, and more.  This way each agent can review what was said, and what is happening with the customer before they reach out to the customer a second or third time.  If CRM software had been used in the above example, the third agent would not have phoned the customer at all.  The second agent would have checked the shipping records to see exactly where the part was and how long it would take to deliver and might have been able to put a rush on it.  The second agent also could have scheduled a follow-up call in the CRM software for two days out and let the customer know they would reach out in a couple of days to ensure the part was delivered (reassuring the customer that they need not worry).  CRM software can also be programmed to notify a service representative when an order is going to be delayed so they can proactively reach out to a customer with an updated delivery time, notifications such as these can also be automated with an option for the customer to speak with a live representative if they prefer.

Research has shown that forty-eight percent of customers have switched brands for better customer service, and ninety-four percent say good customer service makes them more likely to make another purchase. Customers say that the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.  Due to rising customer expectations, service professionals need visibility into the entire customer journey in order to engage empathetically and efficiently. Sixty-two percent of service pros say all departments use the same CRM software In order to track the customer journey effectively. Customers are continuing to turn to digital channels and therefore, contact centers remain critical.^[29]

Play the YouTube video below to learn about CRM software and how it works.^[30] Transcript for “What is CRM and how does it work?” Video [PDF–New Tab]. Closed captioning is available on YouTube.

References

(Note: This reference list was produced using the auto-footnote and media citation features of Pressbooks; therefore, the in-text citations are not displayed in APA style).