Oct 30, 20235 min read

Unmasking Customer Experience (CX)

Updated: 3 hours ago

I love Halloween – and I love Customer Experience (CX) even more.

In the world of CX we often find valuable lessons in unexpected places.

Now is the perfect time to explore the fun that is Halloween and use it to help build stickiness for a customer-centric culture.

That is, unless you’re afraid of a little fun. Let’s embrace the eerie charm and enchanting magic of the season and consider these five key points inspired by Halloween.

UNMASK CUSTOMER NEEDS TO PROVIDE PERSONALIZATION

Just like Halloween costumes reveal unique personalities, your CX should reflect your customers' individuality. Start by gaining a deep understanding of your customers through data and insights to understand their desires, preferences, and expectations. That will allow you to tailor your products or services to meet their specific needs. You can invest in personalization across your omnichannel experience and ensure that your customers perceive offers as “just for them.” This can extend into the in-store experience where you utilize insights to build products that customers want to buy and allow for a level of customization that continues to drive emotional connectivity.

Beware of the data hoarders, though. Often, especially in large organizations, data is collected but not shared in a way where it can be acted upon.

CREATE AND REWARD MEMORABLE MOMENTS

Some of my favorite memories revolve around Halloween and our family traditions. OR example, for years we have camped at Fort Wilderness at Walt Disney World for several days leading up to Halloween and enjoyed the spooky fun around the campgrounds' of the best memories were created by the Cast Members giving just a little bit extra, which is a reminder that your team is the driving force behind emotional connections. Invest in employee training and development to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to provide exceptional service. Finally, foster a culture of engagement by recognizing and rewarding employees who go above and beyond for customers.

SURPRISE AND DELIGHT, NOT TRICK OR TREAT

Surprises that delight can turn ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences. Customers love it when there are small moments they didn’t expect that bring just a bit more to the service moment. It is about going above and beyond, but it doesn’t take as much extra effort as you might think to set your service apart. Remember that the perception of service in the marketplace right now is that it is average to below average at best, so if you can deliver on the basics every time and then just a bit extra every now and again, you’ll find that you receive credit for outstanding hospitality. I was reading a story about a handwritten note left for a Delta Airlines frequent flier thanking him for his status, and it was a reminder that those small gestures take little time and cost almost nothing, but have surprising impact when it comes to building loyalty.

CHANGE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE SCARY, SO EMBRACE IMPROVEMENT

Just as Halloween evolves each year, so should your CX strategy. Over the years costume trends change, favorite treats change, and we’ve even started dressing ou pets up for the occasion. Be open to change, adapt to shifting customer expectations, and explore emerging technologies.

You can embrace a culture of continuous improvement within your organization by keeping your finger on the pulse of the most relevant datapoints for your business.

Regularly evaluate your CX performance against key performance indicators (KPIs) like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES), and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT).

As you evaluate feedback and data, be sure you pay attention to verbatim comments and use sentiment analysis to give context to these open-ended responses. Use the insights gained from feedback to refine your strategy and enhance the customer experience continually.

To keep innovation and improvement at the heart of your strategy, you’ll need to embrace this feedback and act on what you learn.

Feedback, whether positive or negative, provides valuable insights – telling us what to do differently and what not to change. Make it easy for customers to provide feedback, keep your questions short and precise, and share how you used their feedback to improve your operations.Customers love knowing that their feedback had meaningful impact.

So, Halloween, while steeped in ghosts and goblins, can offer us some ideas to improve our customer experience. As I’ve mentioned before, holidays and traditions can give us fun ways to reinforce the culture you are trying to build. It is about creating moments of emotional stickiness that allow for understanding and retention of these key principles.

Building culture is not a one-and-done, so embrace the spirit of Halloween to help make it just a little less scary.

That will definitely help you keep you customers at the center of everything you do.

Crafted by a human, not AI!

Meet Tony Johnson.

Tony is the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) for 4xi Global Consulting and leader of the Evolving Experience practice. Tony is an internationally recognized thought leader and influencer in Customer and Employee Experience. He hosts the wildly successful Customer Service Academy podcast and is the author of two books on leadership and CX.

Tony has worked with some of the top organizations across the globe, including 3M, Baylor Scott and White Health, University of Virginia, Siemens, SHRM, and more.

Tony is available to help your organization with:

Executive and leadership coaching
CX and EX strategy creation
Inspirational keynote talks
Fractional Chief Experience Officer
Fractional Chief Training + Development Officer

Evolving Experiences, a 4xi brand, focuses on Customer Experience (CX) and Employee Experience (EX) as growth engines. By creating fierce loyalty with both employees and customers, organization can differentiate themselves in an ever-changing and competitive marketplace.

Let’s talk about your employee experience, guest experience, fan experience, student experience, patient experience, or traveler experience to craft compelling moments that build lifelong loyalty.

Evolving Experiences

Tony Johnson is 4xi’s Chief Experience Officer and leader of the Evolving Experiences© practice. Before joining 4xi, he was the Customer Service Officer for Aramark, a global food and facilities organization. Tony is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), award-winning speaker, and globally recognized employee and customer experience expert.

Tony is the author of 3 books on leadership, employee engagement, and customer experience and hosts an industry-leading weekly podcast, Customer Service Academy.

For more information about 4xi's Evolving Experiences©, you can contact Tony directly at tonyjohnson@4xiconsulting.com

4xi: Inspiring a brighter future, together.

4xi Global Consulting & Solutions is a team of talented leaders from both the client-side and service provider side, creating an impact on the Human Experience (HX) for people at work, in education, rest, and at leisure.

We believe in a people-first, experience-led philosophy; whether client, employee, or guest – their experience is the fundamental foundation of success.

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