5 reasons why customers spend more to have good experiences – El Financiero

Isaac Solis, Presales Director Zendesk Latin America

In recent years, customer experience (CX) has gained prominence in leadership strategies, and the report CX Trends 2022 shows that 9 out of 10 companies already consider CX to be critical to the business. Especially in the post-pandemic period, consumers in Latin America are much more demanding about service quality, and even 71 percent of them may abandon the brand after a single negative experience.

To prevent customers from having to deal with this, it’s worth keeping an eye out for these 5 CX trends that can lead consumers to spend more with a brand:

1- They want to feel unique

Without the physical presence of the customer in stores and branches during the pandemic, remote attention and personalization was promoted and became one of the main requirements to serve the consumer well.

However, beyond personalizing, the great challenge is to bring the personal and humanized relationship that existed face to face to the digital environment. Understanding the customer problem and treating it uniquely requires complete visibility into all customer interactions with the brand, from start to finish. And the payoff is clear: 97 percent of Latin American consumers consider spending more with brands that offer personalized treatment.

2- They want to choose when and how to talk to brands

When we talk about treating the customer in a special way, it is very important to give him the power of decision and this strategy can start with the contact channels. Offer a variety of channels for the customer to choose the one they prefer to use to avoid the hassle of those who don’t want to talk on the phone or don’t want to wait for long email responses. In fact, 97 percent of consumers said they would spend more if given a choice.

Today it is possible to offer an immense variety of channels, from chat, WhatsApp, Messenger and social networks, all in an integrated way so that the service agent knows who the client is and the problems of each one. It is always good to remember that we are dealing with people from different generations, cultures and backgrounds, which makes this range of options even wider.

3- They don’t want to waste time

One of the biggest customer service complaints is the long wait for the problem to be resolved, and the CX Trends survey showed that 78 percent of customers in the region want immediate service. Makes sense doesn’t it? Today, in the age of immediacy, waiting for hours to be served is unbearable for any customer.

Worse than that, delays give the impression that the company doesn’t care about the customer or is disorganized, which may be true. If the support team can’t adequately talk to other areas or can’t find the information they need to resolve a problem, it’s actually a sign that the company is disorganized and poorly connected internally. And for 46 percent of service teams in Latin America, inefficiency in finding the information needed to respond to the customer is still a reality.

4- They don’t want to repeat the information over and over again

“I already gave my purchase number 30 seconds ago”, “I shared the purchase date with your colleague with whom I just spoke” are some of the phrases that we have all said. Going through problems and filling out long, repetitive forms should be a thing of the past. Today, 95 percent of customers spend more so they don’t have to repeat information during service. And when we get back to the point where consumers want to be recognized and treated as unique, it makes a lot of sense.

To avoid this, companies need to be efficient (and correct) in collecting and using customer journey data at every point of their interaction. Thus, if a customer starts a conversation on WhatsApp and decides to continue by email, he is recognized and does not need to identify himself again. Another important step is that there is collaboration and visibility between the areas of the company, so that the client does not have to be transferred from one department to another, or give unnecessary information.

5- They want to solve simple problems on their own

Many of the bottlenecks in customer service, both on the customer and agent sides, have led companies to adopt self-service channels, which include help centers, FAQs, and step-by-step manuals. It’s no wonder that 96 percent of consumers spend more with companies that have self-service capabilities, so they don’t have to deal with an agent and can resolve issues on their own.

Automation and Artificial Intelligence have also come into play driving the customer through these channels and offering bots service, where they talk to “robots” that can quickly find information and answers. 80 percent agree to talk to bots to answer the most common questions. And with that, the assistant gains a much more strategic and efficient role, being available for more complex problems and creating more human connections with them.

If we look closely at these trends, we are seeing a maturation of companies and consumers, who seek to create trusted connections to maintain lasting relationships. A lot has changed in the last few years and we are surely evolving so that both the customer and the agent can go home without frustration.

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