Finding Common Denominators in “Wow” Customer Experiences

Customer experience, at its core, is all about making the customer say “Wow!” This kind of reaction not only creates a loyal customer, it also can turn them into a brand advocate. Word-of-mouth is among the most powerful forms of marketing, and having a customer recommend a product to friends is the most important compliment a brand can receive.

From our years of working with brands at Loyalty360, there seems to be no replacement for the human element when it comes to customer experience. Many customer experience surveys have cited that the people consumers deal with played a significant role in the positive experiences that they later shared with others.
Brands routinely talk about making emotional connections with customers because those connections are the ones that typically lead to true customer loyalty and advocacy. Emotional attachment to a brand is a powerful thing that lifts customers to a newer and higher level of engagement and experience.

Ownership of issues is a crucial fulcrum of customer experience as well.

Too often, we read or hear about poor customer service that leads to social media commentary that leads to disgruntled consumers questioning their customer loyalty to specific brands.

But, as TeleTech points out in a new study, there are identifiable traits, or common denominators, that can be found across valuable customer experiences. These “Moments of Wow,” noted in the study, are valuable customer experiences that show how important human interaction can be to build long-lasting loyalty.

TeleTech recently surveyed 50 consumers, contact center associates, and business leaders via online surveys and LinkedIn to share their own moments of wow. Here are some of the common themes revealed from these moments: Empathy, surprise, delight, and solution.

Respondents shared most of their wow moments from the retail, travel, or banking industries. What’s more, the wow moments came after a customer had a problem that needed fixing.

Online behemoth Amazon was the most mentioned brand name among these wow moments.

Many of these experiences are one-time events, the study noted. Most respondents reported that they rarely have experiences that exceed their expectations (67 percent), but when they happen, it’s most often in traditional service channels. The highest-ranking wow-worthy channels included experiences through voice (62 percent), in person (48 percent), followed by mobile/social and email (tied at 29 percent).

According to the study, what matters most to customers is to have their issues resolved and feel that they are being effectively listened to by the company they are dealing with. Conversely, in the study customer service associates pointed out stories where they could relax the rules and move away from transaction into a real conversation with customers to resolve their issues. According to some associates, these moments of showing their human side gave them a sense of purpose, which influences employee satisfaction, retention, and advocacy.

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