A research report by Webex entitled “It’s time to solve the customer experience trilemma” speaks about what is needed to increase customer loyalty so that the bottom line can follow. Immobile, which is part of Webex, took the time to speak to 2,000+ consumers and concluded that in order for businesses to improve customer loyalty, all three areas of the CX trilemma are put into focus.
In this short overview, we’ll walk you through the main findings.
Three areas of the CX trilemma
The three elements that companies must focus on to keep customers coming back for more are:
- Resolution– the speed and convenience customers have to get information about products or services and/or solve their issues.
- Rapport– is there a meaningful connection between your customers and the company?
- Relevance– do the customers receive the right experience at the right time?
Reasons for customers to come back
According to the statistic, people are repeat customers due to price (76%), with customer experience being a very close second at 75%. Furthermore, 47% claim that good customer service is more critical nowadays than 12 months ago.
What is more, 75% of the customers surveyed said they would use a company again if their issues were resolved promptly. Another 66% claim that they would come back to companies with a quick response time. Plus, 63% have said they would come back to a business where “nothing seems like too much trouble.”
All the above statistics fall under resolution, which is a cornerstone that is hard to define. According to the report, this is due to the shifting definition depending on the communication channels customers use.
However, 67% of customers list the phone as their preferred mode of contacting a company, with email being close at 64%. But when a company contacts a customer, the customer would prefer the communication through email (71%), with the phone being at 56%.
Empathy makes customers want to come back
According to the report, rapport is about empathy that many businesses can lack due to the chase of profits. Respondents of the survey say that the lack of the “human side” of communications can lead to poor customer experiences, making them lose loyalty to the brand or business. Customers say that having to repeat information (64%) or chase to gather information (64%) harms the rapport between themselves and the company.
After a bad customer experience, 64% said they would stop supporting the company, while 51% would complain and seek compensation. Either way, this will negatively affect the company’s bottom line.
While omnichannel is the way to go when it comes to opening communication venues, customers feel more of a rapport when they can see and talk to representatives directly. This is why 54% prefer real-life face-to-face contact, 43% prefer video chat and 28% like talking on the phone.
Timing in communication
This leads into the “relevance” trilemma part. There are two essential aspects to this, with the first being the channels that customers want to use for communication. The second is that the employees deliver relevant and personalised information while also keeping customers’ data safe.
The survey mentions that 55% of the respondents want two-way communications (phone and face to face), and 37% would instead use one-way communication (text messaging). However, 8% say they are not sure. The top frustrations in communication with businesses are the inability to speak directly to a person (48%) and losing contact during a live chat (40%).
Webex’s “It’s time to solve the customer experience trilemma” goes into a lot more detail about the three areas of the CX trilemma that companies have to intertwine together to increase customer loyalty.
You can download the research report here.