Revamping the Customer Experience Sector

What are some of the major challenges and trends that have been impacting the customer experience management space lately? As economic conditions across a lot of industries get tougher, the pool of customers get smaller and their expectations get higher. We live in period where customer expectations of a brand are at an all time high in my opinion. The demand for convenience, transparency and services that once seemed premium have become a standard. Customer centricity and exceptional service is embedded in the way Kennards Hire operates and continuing to be bold and innovative in challenging economic conditions is how we’ve found differentiation within the industry. As mentioned, convenience is an expectation for customers and at the heart of our latest innovations. In recent weeks, we have just launched an industry first 24/7 returns service for customers. This means, customers will have access to a number of branches after hours to return their equipment at a time convenient to them. The evolution of this concept started with understanding the behaviours and interactions of our customers with our brand. We knew that a lot of our customers were busy, time poor and had even less time to do their jobs. This prompted us to consider how can we empower our customers to take control of their schedules and we developed an After Hours returns service accessible by all customers. Moreover, the redevelopment of our eCommerce channel also focused on transparency and convenience. In an industry that traditionally kept its pricing close, we quickly learned that what seemed like a premium service is a market expectation for our customers. Keeping up with customer expectations is critical as delivering to these standards aren’t impressive anymore but rather a deterrent to those not offering it. How do you envision the future of customer experience space? Technology will continue to play a role in the evolution of customer experiences and set the perceived standard. Importantly, I believe people and the service they provide is just as important as the services we deliver and how we deliver them. The future of customer experience to me is the unification of improving the employee experience to deliver an intuitive, repeatable service that translates into a consistent and seamless customer experience. This means, not only providing convenient service promises or products to your customers but also providing your employees the tools and processes to intuitively and consistently deliver them. What piece of advice will you give to your fellow peers working in the customer experience management space? As mentioned earlier, I feel the customer experience an organization provides is as important as its products or services. For me, this is what being a customer centric organization means. When a customer has a negative product experience, it is often your service, people or processes that salvage a negative experience and turns it into a positive one. I think this really summarises our purpose as the custodians of customer experience at our respective organisations. At Kennards Hire, we’re true believers of making it easy for our customers and I think if that is embedded from the roots of the organization, then you’re manifesting successful outcomes.