Stepping back to take a thorough look at your customer experience design from time to time will help you make sure you’re optimizing your chances of converting leads to customers, and customers to repeat customers. In this article I’ll share with you what I consider to be the five main elements of a great customer experience design!
Overview:
Let’s dive in!
Match your customers’ mindset
Here, we’re thinking about attracting brand new leads into your business. How is it that they think and talk about what you do? It’s likely they don’t use all the same language and jargon that you do when referring to your services, so have a strategy for getting into your customers’ mindset when considering this piece of your customer experience design.
Hire an SEO pro, get hints from the “people also ask” portion of the search results, or simply look back on previous customer inquiries to identify what terms they’re using when they make their requests. You could even take those inquiries and use a word cloud generator to help you out with this.
Use this language in the key places on your website, social profiles, etc. so that it’s your business they find when searching for what they need. Yes, it will probably feel a bit awkward when you know a more technical or fun way to describe your services. But not to worry, you can still use some of this language over on your website as you consider the next element…
Intrigue, inform, invite
Now that you’ve successfully entered your lead’s radar by showing up in their search results with the language they use, what can you do to intrigue them to click through, inform them of how you can help and invite them to connect with you?
This shouldn’t involve click-baity headlines that don’t actually deliver what was promised. But it can start to give you some more flexibility in the way that you talk about your services. In addition to using the terms you know your customers use, add in some intriguing language to the meta descriptions of your webpages, which can also show in search results.
After a lead has been intrigued enough to click to your website it’s now time to inform them of how you can help. Confirm for them that you can deliver on what they were searching for, and answer the “who”, “what”, “when”, “where” and “how” questions before they have to ask them.
Related article: Streamline & Manage the Customer Experience
Also give them obvious invitations to take the next step and connect with you! These invitations live on call-to-action buttons or links like “work with me”, “plan your next event” or “contact us”, etc. Provide ample opportunities for your visitors to see and accept your invitation to connect.
Nurture the lead
The next element of a great customer experience design is considering how you can nurture this new lead. They’ve accepted your invitation to connect by filling out an inquiry form, making a booking or opting into your email list… don’t let all your hard work go to waste now!
Think about the info you’re collecting on your inquiry form that will allow you to send a personalized response. If you’re asking what type of event they’re celebrating, refer to it in your reply. Did they mention a specific thing they hope you can help them solve?
Repeating back to your customer some of the information they’ve given you can go a long way in building their confidence in you and nurturing your relationship. It lets them know you’ve taken the time to read their individual request and understand what they need.
Tip: In many cases, utilizing tokens in a CRM like 17hats (referral link) can help with this process, making it easy to quickly add upon a templated email response that pulls in a customer’s unique information before sending it off.
Repeating back to your customer some of the information they’ve given you can go a long way in building their confidence in you and nurturing your relationship.
Elevate their experience
Now, if you’ve nurtured a good relationship with your lead and have earned their business, it’s time to elevate their experience! What can you do to deliver top-notch customer service? Keep nurturing, keep showing them that they were right to put their trust in you.
(This is not to be confused with bending over backwards, going against your values to meet their demands or overdelivering on your product or service.)
It can be as simple as doing what you promised you could do in the language on your website, in a clear and efficient way. But maybe there’s also a way to add in just a bit of extra to make your service stand out from the crowd.
Consider small little bonuses that aren’t more product or more service, but things adjacent to what you’re delivering. For example, event service providers might show up with a small gift bag that includes hand sanitizer, tissues, a trash bag or other items commonly needed at parties.
Topping off a smooth booking and onboarding experience with a fun little surprise like that could go a long way in making their experience memorable.
Topping off a smooth booking and onboarding experience with a fun little surprise could go a long way in making their experience memorable.
Recognize three types of customers
Finally, your customer experience design should include processes to recognize three types of customers: those who are repeat customers, those who refer their friends and those who take the time to leave you a review.
Related article: 3 types of customers to recognize
If a customer falls into any of these categories, they’ve done you a huge favor by doing your marketing for you!
So, do what you can to acknowledge the previous work you’ve done with your repeat customers… thank the person who brought you a new lead… take the time to reply to reviews… because this is a great way to keep that word of mouth spreading for you.
Bad review? Well hopefully that by incorporating these elements in your customer experience, those are few and far between. But, mistakes and miscommunication are part of life, so if it causes a bad review use it as an opportunity to learn where your process can be improved.
Final thoughts on your customer experience design
There’s a lot of work to be put into designing a great customer experience! But just remember, this whole thing is a practice.
Cycle through one element each month for continual updates and tweaks. Or take a day every quarter to optimize them all. Utilize automation within a CRM or from tools like Zapier to help you along the way.
Try not to get overwhelmed by getting everything perfect; just start somewhere. My recommended order of the elements to address would be:
Elevating the experience (so your current customers have nothing but good things to say about you and your service)
Recognizing three types of customers (to continue building that powerful word of mouth foundation)
Nurturing your leads (so anyone new will start to benefit from this upgraded experience)
Making sure to intrigue, inform, invite (giving yourself a better chance to connect with more leads)
Matching your potential customers’ mindset (getting on the radar of brand new customers to bring into your process once you’ve got it nailed down)
If you’d like someone to help you build each element of your customer experience, explore my #stopthescatter + scale service to tackle this process together!