Everyone, including me, expects a seamless experience when they are interacting with different organizations. You could be inquiring something or purchasing a product from those e-commerce sites. For me, a great experience when it comes to buying something from an e-commerce site, would be that the process is straight forward and short, that I don’t necessarily have to involve support for me to finish the transaction. Just Short and efficient. Like what happened when I tried purchasing some stationery from the Text Book Center Site. Companies are starting to see the light.  They are embracing the principles that Apple, Google, and Philips Electronics have been advocating for a long time – differentiate yourself based on the experience you deliver to customers; not on the products you sell.

According to a CEI Survey, 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience.  But only 1% of customers feel that vendors consistently meet their expectations.  These statistics highlight the magnitude of the growth opportunity before us. What if you just increased the percentage of consistently happy customers by 5%?  For any company, large or small, that would be a game-changer in terms of revenue and profit. I know some people are willing to pay that extra coin to pay for a VIP seat because of the experience that comes with it. But I believe, whether a regular or VIP customer, the experience you get will determine whether you come back to that restaurant, or use that airline or go back to that salon.

The rise of cloud computing and social media has been the tipping point in the relationship between customers and vendors.  Empowered with readily available information, rich analysis, and access to peers around the globe, buyers have taken full control of their purchase processes and vendor relationships.

Customers expect vendors to invest financially, intellectually and emotionally in understanding and consistently meeting their evolving expectations.    The good news is that B2B vendors are starting to transform their entire organizations – people, process, technology – to align outward to customer experiences.

With the transparency that social media has brought, everyone can see how companies like Safaricom or Kenya power or Jumia are responding to customer interactions. We can also view how people review a company’s products or services, and some people make their purchasing decisions based on that. It is important that businesses invest in improving the experiences of their customers at every touch point to make the customer experience journey seamless and this will translate to happy customers who are not afraid to talk about and refer you to their connections.

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