Customer satisfaction goes beyond having an attractive space, friendly employees, and timely attention to complaints. Companies like Éxito generate a customer experience that anticipates their needs and is consistent across all channels.
More and more companies are adjusting their business strategy, and even their organization chart, to create, implement and improve the customer experience.
Marcela Quintero, Director of Experience and Success Service, shares how they went from focusing on service to considering that it is part of the customer experience. “Service is no longer a differentiator, it is something that all customers take for granted, so now our goal is to make life easier for people and their interactions with all brands” .
One of the characteristics that a customer experience must have is that each interaction is homogeneous and for them, its planning, execution, evaluation and improvement is key.
In the case of Éxito, the challenge is great because it is a multi-brand, multi-channel and multi-format company, but in the last two years work has been done to achieve it. Marcela Quintero explains how they are doing it.
Knowledge
Listening to the customer is key. You need to know what dreams and what hurts in order to anticipate your needs. To find out how he sees, what he says and what he thinks of a brand, the following are analyzed: social networks, call center metrics, what it says at store service points and in the emails sent to customer service.
The customer journeys for each brand and channel are very important because they allow us to determine if the customer experience that was proposed is fulfilled in the different interactions.
learn from others
A benchmarking exercise was carried out to find out what customer experiences are like today in sectors other than those of the business, for example: banking, airlines, health, insurance.
Design, adjustments and commitments
From listening and knowledge, a matrix is created that allows finding out what aspects must be modified to improve the experience, from this, actions are prioritized and processes and protocols are adjusted.
Knowing the customer and the dynamics of their interactions was essential for Éxito to quickly adapt to the new needs of consumers due to the pandemic. To satisfy the desire for security , Buy and collect was enabled , which allows you to make purchases by WhatsApp and go through them to the stores, the response capacity to homes was multiplied and the points of sale were adapted with biosecurity measures higher than those established by state regulations.
Marcela Quintero emphasizes that in order for the customer experience to materialize, it is essential to have the support of the directives to make the changes and with the participation of all the members of the organization, it is no longer just the responsibility of the employees of the point of sale.
In order to offer a satisfactory customer experience, it is necessary to maintain clear and timely communication that allows consumers to be made aware of the promise of value, as well as the characteristics of the products and services offered.
Changes in measurement tools and approach
We went from measuring the level of satisfaction through face-to-face surveys with 55 questions to using metrics with variables defined by the client, to receiving data immediately and obtaining more spontaneous responses with just three simple questions: would you recommend us? Were you satisfied? And from 1 to 10, what was the level of effort in the interaction with the brands and the different channels?
In order to obtain information more quickly, these agile mechanisms were enabled to give customers greater facilities to comment on the experience or answer questions:
to. An email is sent to the customer the day after the purchase.
b. The purchase strips have a QR code.
c. In the boxes there is POP material with QR code.
