THE CORNERSTONE OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE – DESIGN THINKING
How to leverage the power of design thinking to create a personalized, authentic, and seamless customer experience and increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.
We are constantly bombarded with the idea of a new digital era, a new generation, essentially a new breed of customers. But for quite some time, these customers have settled on their desire for a very personalized and simple customer experience when it comes to buying a product or using a service. Most of our current customers belong to the so-called ”Generation C”, defined not by their year of birth, but by their way of life - extremely connected in all areas through digital devices and channels, expecting nothing less than a personalized, authentic, and seamless customer experience at all times.
If you want to stay ahead of the competition, embracing digital transformation and creating exactly this type of customer experience is a must!
But how can this be achieved not only by large, technologically savvy companies but also by smaller ones from various industries?
The answer is: by applying design thinking methods. The experience and emotions you evoke in your customers beat having the best or cheapest product/ service on the market. The value of a great customer experience is in fact priceless for the customers, and it should be so for you as well.
Let’s dig a little deeper into how applying design thinking can change the way you look at your product/service and help you increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Design thinking is essentially a mindset that puts the person, or customer, in the center of everything. It is the process of figuring out all the possible wants and needs of that person, and the best way to satisfy them. The findings of this process are incorporated into your product or service.
Putting yourself in your customer’s shoes includes not only asking questions and giving opportunities for the people to let you know but also observing them in their natural habitat. This requires applying empathy and trying to really understand the conscious and unconscious choices that somebody is making and why. Think-aloud testing is a useful method to do this, as you can really access the emotions behind someone’s choices as they are making them.
Another benefit of using a design thinking method is the fact that it allows you to predict and anticipate the demands, desires, and behavior of your customers and any possible pain points in their customer experience. This saves time and resources, as you can make changes beforehand and end up providing a remarkable and personalized customer experience.
Some key takeaways from this article are:
- put the customer in the center of everything you do;
- use empathy to better understand the wants and needs of your customers;
- invest in customer experience research;
- make your experience as user-friendly and as simple as possible!
Providing this type of customer experience guarantees your customers are satisfied, remain loyal, and generate profit!
To find out more about how you can transform digitally including improving your customer experience along the way, check out this article: Digital transformation from A to Z
