Remote operations
Marc Prempain
15 April 2024
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The recent and ongoing digitalization of many industries has created a vast shift in how customer experience is delivered and handled, as well as in how customer service and support are managed. Everything happens fast and on-demand, and everyone expects to have their matters handled immediately.
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Customer expectations towards customer experience have never been higher, with 54% of customers admitting they have higher expectations for customer service today compared to one year ago. What’s more, the standards of the more tech-savvy customer base, those aged 18 to 34, have jumped as high as 66%. How do you spot those high customer expectations and use them to improve your overall customer experience performance? We will explain it all.
To fully understand how important customer expectations and needs are, we firstly need to establish what these terms actually stand for. In a nutshell, customer needs are the physical and psychological drivers that motivate people to purchase a product or service – and distinguish why this particular one will suit them better than another very similar one from a competitor.
Truth is, the businesses that try to manage without paying any attention to their customers’ needs and focus solely on their own ideas do not last very long. Those who listen to what their customers communicate to them about their customer experiences, how your customers feel about the performance of the company’s workforce, how satisfied they are with its services, and what are their further customer expectations towards the business can reach a much stronger position on the market arena.
Understanding customers and their needs thus allows you to give your customers more positive experiences, tailored perfectly to their current purchasing patterns, which in turn builds high customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Take it from customers themselves – 56% of them indicated that they become loyal customers to brands which “get them” and as many as 75% are more willing to share personal data with a brand they trust. What’s more, exceeding their expectations seems to be even more important than simply meeting them – 63% of customers say they believe the best brands are the ones that not only listen to them and strive to meet customer expectations, but work on exceeding them across the customer journey.
As mentioned before, customers’ needs and wants have different forms and reasoning, which are both physical and psychological. Although both equally important, physical needs are considered to be a less powerful driving force in decision-making and shaping customer expectations. Whether or not there is an urgent physical need, psychological needs guide the customer through the purchasing process and make them pick which item or brand to choose.
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But how do you know what your present and future customer base’s needs and wants are so that you could address them accordingly? The only way we can identify and meet psychological needs is by asking the customer directly, or studying their behaviors and using your findings to make predictions of further customer expectations. There are some important practices to help you anticipate customers’ anticipations.
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Firstly, make sure you monitor and use feedback provided by your customers. Either collected through customer feedback surveys, customer interviews, or reviews found online on your social media, customer data coming directly from customers themselves is the most valuable indicator of what their needs, wants, and expectations are. With this thorough personal information, you will be able to further develop your products to release new versions based on what your customer base desires. For optimal customer data organization and analysis, consider using a dedicated ticketing solution like ViiBE.
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Secondly, put energy into observing your competitors. Paying attention to what products your competitors release and how they conduct their business is more important than you think. Companies offering similar services and products to yours can serve as a key inspiration for your customers and their consumer expectations – if they see a product that is more tailored to their wants or needs, it is very likely to influence their expectations and encourage them to stop doing business with your company. It is thus essential you stay up to date with what your competitors are doing, their current position on the market, and what customers think about their offerings.
Now that we established how to measure, meet, and exceed customer expectations, what are some customer needs you may encounter when running a business?
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The most common customers expectations and needs are usually:
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Other, more complex psychological customer needs could be:
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Holding onto your customers’ feedback and implementing changes accordingly to how they perceive your brand is critical to understanding their customer expectations and how to best deliver personalized experiences they desire.
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Why is it so important? It is worth noting that businesses that excel at customer experience have up to 1.5x more engaged employees than companies with poor customer experience. And in times when 76% of customers find it easier than ever to switching from brand to brand whenever they feel even slightly unsatisfied to find an experience that matches their expectations, making sure you keep as many of your customers for as long as possible is crucial.
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Whether you run a big or a small business, when you can prove to a customer that you understand and anticipate their needs, they will be much more likely to choose or come back to you instead of shopping around your competitors. Many businesses are thus making it a goal to provide exceptional customer experience to promote customer retention and keep their customers coming back. Such customers will then be the best driving force of your business expansion – word of mouth travels faster and has much more power than you think.
Satisfied customers are the main goal of any business – they become loyal to your brand, and are eager to attract other potential customers, consequently promoting the success of your business. One of the best ways to preserve your customers’ excitement about your brand is to have a strong customer support system that will listen to their feedback, learn from their experiences, and implement this knowledge into creating a strategy that will not only meet their wants and needs, but also exceed their customer expectations.
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