Why Customer Experience Is the Essence of Operating Model

Imagine this scenario: You work day and night to work on a feature that most of your customers demand. But your competitor changes their entire user interface to make it more customer-friendly. Now, you’ve lost many users, haven’t you?

That’s the power of emphasizing customer centered operating model.

Around 96% of customers assert that their customer experience plays a substantial role in deciding their loyalty toward a brand.

Customer experience, like digital-first, is now a sphere most companies focus on. Yet, the efforts are only at the forefront. When you fail to revamp your backend to enhance your customer’s journey, you fail to provide complete customer satisfaction.

For example, a food-delivery app may add a feature to order from outside the city. But the same app fails to build a customer support system that responds quickly to queries regarding an order placed.

That’s why GrowthJockey believes that putting customer experience at the core of your operating processes is essential.

Read ahead to understand customer experience and why it matters in your operational process.

Customer Experience: Decoding the Term

The Customer Experience (CX) is the total of all customer interactions with a company.

It includes every touchpoint— from the first time they hear about your brand to post-purchase follow-up. Creating a positive customer experience is essential for any business that wants to retain customers and grow.

Many factors contribute to customer experience, such as product quality, customer service, and your brand’s overall look and feel.

Creating a positive customer experience requires attention to all these details and more. Happy customers are more likely to buy from a company again, recommend the company to others, and give positive reviews. All these factors can lead to more sales and more profits

If you want to improve your customer experience, there are a few things you can do.

First, take a close look at your customer journey and identify the pain points. Then, work on making improvements in those areas.

Next, build a holistic customer experience journey by integrating your operating models with your face value.

At GrowthJockey, we help you to understand your target audience from level zero and build a roadmap for customer-oriented growth.

However, the first step towards a successful CX means nothing if the second step does not follow it correctly. If you want to understand why customer experience is the essence of your business operating models, read ahead.

Customer Experience Helps You Understand What Really Matters

‘Feeling unappreciated’ holds a top rank on the list of reasons consumers switch companies or brands. And what does that say about the brand, then? Nothing but sheer neglect.

Ignoring customer experience is like ignoring salt in your food. It makes your brand bland.

But what happens when you refocus your attention back on the customer? What are the benefits of making this shift?

For one, you will be able to better understand your customer’s needs and wants— allowing you to create products and services that better serve them. This will lead to happier customers and more loyalty to your brand.

Additionally, by focusing on the customer, you’ll be able to create a more humanized and personal connection with them. This connection will make your brand more relatable and likeable, which can lead to social proof.

Note that social proof doesn’t always have to be direct. It can also come in the form of reviews, testimonials, and associations with trusted individuals or brands.

Look at this tech giant who prioritized customer experience and enjoyed the benefits.

Netflix: A Champion of Customer Experience

Netflix increased its subscribers from 21.5 million in 2011 to 158 million in 2019. They involved no fancy advertising or marketing strategy. All they did was add value and personalization to their customer’s experience.

Here is how Netflix allows for customer satisfaction:

• Personalization: Netflix uses the power of AI and Machine Learning to understand a user’s genre preferences and personality. This allows the platform to personalize the content screen and make recommendations.

• Free Trial: The first month of using Netflix is always free. This instils a sense of trust and familiarity among users. It helps them get a chance to know the brand and thus invest in it.

• Offline Downloads: Netflix lets users download offline in advance and watch without an internet connection. With no ads in place, why would one ever leave this platform?

• Bonus: Netflix’s team’s dedicated social media presence for each of its original productions is just the cherry on the cake!

Now, you have a fair understanding of what an improved customer experience looks like. But we say fair because it is still incomplete.

Imagine getting a personalized experience while watching Netflix, but their team fails to respond when your card is overcharged. This indicates the flip side of the same coin- a customer oriented operating model.

Integrating Customer Experience into Your Operating Model

To stay ahead of the competition, you must integrate customer service into your company’s operating models. There are a few different ways to do this, but the most important thing is ensuring that customer service is ingrained in your company culture.

Interestingly enough, companies that work towards the customer experience approach witness a hike in employee engagement by almost 20%.

But why does a customer centered operating model cause such a stir? Read on ahead.

Based on your industry, your backend processes may be at the front end of your customer satisfaction. For example, the banking and insurance industry is one such area.

In this case, customers must constantly get in touch with service executives to resolve queries, start a process, or file a complaint. A single negative experience may result in a loss.

Secondly, your products or services mean nothing if your users have to spend time and effort on its logistics. That should be your problem, not theirs.

Amazon is an excellent exhibit for this case.

Amazon: The Customer Oriented Operating Model

Everyone knows how Amazon changed the e-commerce game with their all-in-one marketplace. Moreover, it was a revolution not only for buyers but also sellers. Amazon’s ‘prime’ features doubled the value provided to its customers.

But that’s old news. Amazon is now leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to integrate its operating model and serve an improved customer experience.

For example, Alexa helps make Amazon’s services accessible to everyone. This especially helps those with physical impairments. The photo search feature is another value-added feature that reduces search costs.

Additionally, Amazon operates on chatbots for customer support. These are designed to code, learn and retrieve responses based on customer keywords and order IDs. Think about it, when was the last time you had to call an Amazon executive physically?

Most companies stop after using a customer-centric approach for their marketing or product development. Nonetheless, those who integrate their operating models with the essence of customer service provides- soar higher.

Top leadership recognizes customer-oriented operating models’ role and uses it as a best practice.

Ashutosh Kumar, the CEO of GrowthJockey has led as a CXO for OYO India, Reliance Jio and Airtel. Using his years of expertise, he leads the team at GrowthJockey with a vision to keep the customer experience at heart.

Wrapping Up

The fact that customer experience is at the heart of the business is not new knowledge. Everyone knows how to use a customer centric approach in their go-to-market strategy.

However, many stand still when their operating processes fail their customers. Thus, integrating customer experience into your operating model is more imperative than ever. Taking inspiration from industry giants like Amazon, one can learn about its impact.

Such a change in your internal process can be complex to achieve. GrowthJockey can help you build excellent business solutions across strategy, marketing, product, engineering, operations, and sales.

At GrowthJockey, we are fully committed to developing customised operating models that effectively address the critical challenges faced by our clients across various industries. Irrespective of your company's size, whether it's a small-scale enterprise or a large corporation, you can now benefit from our tailored solutions. Take the decisive step towards unlocking the next level of growth for your brand by reaching out to us today!