Online brands can explode overnight, but keeping customers happy during your growth can be a challenge, so when is the right time to invest in technology to ease the load? Lokulus’s Chief Evangelist, Mark Chamberlain, explains the triggers he looks out for.
Is it right to invest in your business during economic uncertainty?
For retail entrepreneurs, knowing when to adopt a digital customer experience platform is a tricky business. There is the both the initial outlay coupled with the potential distraction while you consider, will your best selling product keep the same level of success as it has for the past 12 months? In a turbulent time such as this, this year’s airfryer is last year’s hot tub, retailers have to be psychics when buying their stock and therefore investment in the business is perilous.
A start up retailer can build a successful business with a team of under 10. This core team who share the same vision can lead to success, but as a business grows, this team and their valuable skills can become diluted. A new retailer will cherish its customer base and the personal contact between customer and business will bring understanding if the customer experiences hiccups, such as slow delivery. But future orders should run smoothly or the brand will almost certainly lose a loyal customer. How can a retailer ensure they are not dropping the ball as they move from startup to established retailer? There is a tipping point where a business demands a seamless digital customer experience.
When is the right time to invest in customer experience technology?
A good time to introduce operational change and a dynamic digital customer experience platform is once your team reaches up to over 10 people. It is important that your valued team doesn’t get bogged down with individual customer queries, especially if it can be solved simply with a chatbot or an online Q&A solution.
You need your team to use their unique skills, such as marketing and logistics for the overall benefit of the business, not to spend valuable time sorting out queries. Ultimately customers want to know answers to where their parcel is and how long till delivery, they demand fast accurate information no matter how it is delivered.
Make sure you track and learn
As with anything in a business, it’s essential that you track the progress and success of your customer experience strategy and learn from this. Make sure every quarter you’re producing a report to measure the impact of the technology and find new ways you can improve. This way, you’ll create a strategy that grows with your business, represents your business in the right way and ensures you’re maximizing the investment.
What is the real benefit of customer experience technology?
A seamless digital customer experience for your growing customer base is imperative for your long term brand reputation. The impact is huge, ranging from happy customers, through to a happy team! With a positive brand reputation your customers will happily return. By introducing a digital customer experience platform in the long term you will reduce your operational costs, the platform will automatically tackle the repetitive tasks leaving the customer service team to handle the tricker queries, so despite the initial investment the platform will set your business apart and ensure you are ready for further growth.
With a good brand reputation and capable team you will be in a good position to attract investment into the business or indeed exit if you feel the need for a new challenge.
Integrating your customer experience platform should be painless if you have invested in a good backend system for your ecommerce platform. The real challenge in a busy market place is to differentiate yourself from the competition, this can be done by offering the right products but also by giving the best customer experience.
One brand that goes over and above with customer service is Lakeland, should a product not meet customer expectations, the business has a no quibble replacement attitude. This has allowed them to grow from a local Cumbrian business into a household brand with a loyal customer following. As ecommerce has accelerated many high street names have gone out of business, this is partly due to their resistance to embrace a seamless digital customer experience that compliments their shops.
Don’t let your brand fall behind with gaps in customer service experience. Make it your differentiator so your customers continue to buy from you for the long term and your reviews mention the experience they received as well as the product. This will make sure any investment you’ve made in c/ex is covered by the increase in repeated sales.
