Lack of cooperation is a huge and consistent obstacle for retailers across the globe in achieving optimal customer experience. It’s up to an entire company’s culture, from the top down, to prioritize CX.
The recent CommerceNext webinar, “The Secret to a Great Ecommerce Experience? Collaboration!” covered these ongoing issues in ecommerce with the help of some of the most collaboration-forward minds in the industry.
What we learned:
- Employ tools that enable visibility and collaboration across functions, including Net Promoter Score, C-SAT, A/B testing, etc.
- Company culture is at the heart of any successful CX.
- Treat your customers right, and you’ll be rewarded.
Speakers:
- Jeff Gerstel, CMO, B&H Photo
- Vivian Chang, VP Growth, Clorox DTC
- Tyler Wozny, SVP Digital, Madison Reed
- Asim Zaheer, CMO, Glassbox
- Moderated by Scott Silverman, Co-Founder, CommerceNext
Keep reading for the webinar’s key insights or watch the recording below.
The Value of Customer Experience
Customer experience is a big piece of the ecommerce, and it’s well on the way to being the new competitive battleground in ecommerce companies. It’s a massive business priority with two-thirds of companies now competing primarily on customer experience. Additionally, as many as 84% of customers say experience is as important as the products or services they receive, while 66% say they would pay more for great experiences. In terms of business impact, a one billion dollar company could expect an additional $700 million in earnings within three years of CX investment.
Creating great customer experiences is one of the biggest challenges in ecommerce. Why? Glassbox found that siloes, such as organizational structures and objectives, differing systems of measurement and varied data tactics, are huge barriers.
Prioritizing the Customers
Oftentimes, finance and marketing sectors might have disagreements about pricing. But, this is the dance. Retailers must find a balance between giving customers the fair prices they want and keeping the company afloat.
According to B&H Photo, “If you treat the customer right, they’ll treat you right. Have a long-term view.” Often, small decisions can erode the experience, but when aggregated, they could kill the company.
Clorox seeks to make customer experiences “as seamless and convenient as [they] can, because good customer experience drives revenue.”
Of course, customer relationships go far beyond an individual purchase. All brands on this panel prioritize paying attention to how long a customer continues to interact with the brand, and finding ways to keep customers engaged.
Tools Necessary for Collaboration / CX
Though it’s a common tactic, B&H Photo has found that Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a consistent data measure for CX. They can break each customer sector down and judge its success, such as by phone, customer service, in-person, etc. From the top-down, the company prioritizes collaboration, and they use “an embodied company effort to really truly show results.”
Madison Reed uses a C-SAT score, or customer satisfaction score, to judge their customers’ experiences across any of their channels. They request feedback and create metrics to measure how successful their CX is at any given time. They also look to incorporate the voice of their customers by speaking to hair colorists in the field, reviewing customer service calls, getting direct feedback from customers through front desk workers and more. Across their companies, they aim to foster good relationships, while also using common language and metrics to encourage collaboration.
Glassbox recommends A/B testing by piloting based on the objective a company hopes to achieve. Companies must have strong leadership for organization of customer experiences, because, “Multiple leaders equal no leader.” Try these three recommendations for increased collaboration from Glassbox:
- Revisit your tech stack – check that you can detect experience and engagement issues.
- Make sure you can prioritize issues and easily collaborate with peers.
- Use a single source of truth (hint: data) across the organization to quickly fix errors.
Company Culture Vital for Collaboration
For B&H, company culture can be defined by the reaction of different sectors of a company to conflict, or by decision making. What is the urgency for solving issues, and what is the tolerance for unsolved issues? This attitude comes from the top down.
Clorox takes a long-term perspective in company culture. The easiest levers to pull in high intensity settings, will not always be the ones to do the hard work that a company needs. In a company that has a respected, well-meaning and defined culture, they won’t strictly chase acquisition of new customers over customer retention. All customers are valuable. Additionally, strong company culture aligns with openness to feedback and recognition of failing sectors. It is easy to have blinders and ignore opportunities for improvement.
Similarly, Madison Reed hunts for the lies they tell themselves about their customer experience. Though it may appear as though their unboxing, booking and online experiences are incredible, a company embodying a strong culture will recognize these blind spots and fix them.
Customer experience is an important part of marketing, and is gaining popularity among retailers. To learn more check out our podcast, Conversations With CommerceNext, or read some of our blogs: A New Year, A New Ecommerce Reality: Differentiating Through Digital Experience and Elevating Customer Experience For Ecommerce Growth.
