What Coca-Cola™ can teach site care consultants about Customer Experience

Some of the best brands in the world have the best customer experience. It has become an essential tool for harnessing brand loyalty.

About 53 years ago, 1971, a little known British band recorded a song that would launch brand loyalty for one of the biggest soft drink companies of all time.

The Hillside Singers wrote and produced “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” specifically for Coca-Cola™. As a kid, I remember the commercials. (source)

The song originally became a TV commercial, like the one I remember as a kid, and variations have been created along the way.

Having a bad day? Someone buys you a Coke. You smile and pass it on. Eventually, we all gather on a hillside, holding hands, singing the song as our own Kumbaya.

It was powerful.

Coca-Cola™ created an experience, whether real or imagined, that increased brand loyalty. Experience is powerful. It sticks in our brains, and it helps us remember the brand. And having a good customer experience is paramount to keeping customers loyal.

Today, we look at four ways to improve customer experience for Site Care Consultants.

Defining Customer Experience.

So, how do we define customer experience (CX)? According to CX expert Brittany Hodak,

“First, it’s essential that you understand what CX means. In simple terms, customer experience is the specific impression your customers have of your brand. This impression is earned throughout the entire buyer’s journey, from first learning about your brand to making a purchase.”

I like this definition, as it is simple. The key word here is impression. You are creating an impression, a lasting impression, that sticks with the customer.

HubSpot has an excellent guide for customer experience and explains what is distinctive from Customer Service. According to HubSpot,

“Customer experience, on the other hand, involves every interaction a customer has with your brand (throughout their customer journey) and their impression of those interactions.”

HubSpot adds interaction to its definition to appear alongside impressions. Here, we see that interaction and impression as the two linchpins of a customer experience. HubSpot explains that customer service lives under the same umbrella as customer experience, so they are definitely related.

I think HubSpot has a great differentiation. According to the Kustomer blog, the individual interactions would be customer service,

“…In a nutshell, customer service is the standard exchange between a customer and a service agent. This can include questions about products, advice on a particular item, or details about a sale price. Customer experience is the whole end-to-end journey that a customer has with the brand.”

Customer experience is vital for our businesses. As Hodak says,

“…when well executed, there is a direct correlation to higher customer retention, more referrals, lower customer acquisition costs, and even higher profit margins overall.”

So, it makes sense to take your customer experience seriously!

Four tips for improving CX

Here we are going to talk about 4 tips I think Web Care Consultants can do to improve customer experience.

If you are looking for my ideas, check out Brittany’s article How To Improve Customer Experience In Your Business.

1. Smooth the path for communication.

Do everything you can to Smooth the path for communication. However, I also understand the need to have certain “official channels.” It’s a balance because you can’t monitor everyone’s preferred channel.

What you can do is offer a few options. Naturally, you will have social media options, email options, and support options. While you are manning those communication channels, be mindful of feedback (the good and bad), Frequently Asked Questions, and how you can support users. Communication should always be ongoing.

I have seen some WordPress product companies who have no means of communication unless you have already paid for their product. You need communication channels open for both customers and potential customers.

One of the biggest praises I have heard for MainWP is their support. We have the official ticket system, team members monitor the third party Facebook group, and we have other community options you can use.

Build a communication system you can monitor and keep those lines open.

2. Create an experience.

Several years ago, I wrote an article about a company in Chicago called Schlep. They deliver smaller furniture in the city where fewer people have trucks and SUVs. It’s sort of like an Uber for boutique furniture delivery.

The founder referred to one unique thing as a differentiator. When a Schlepper arrives (the person who delivers), he or she has coffee for the customer. So when a customer sets up a delivery request on the app, they are asked “How do you like your coffee?”

The thoughtfulness of the coffee creates an experience for the customer. It isn’t necessary, it’s going above and beyond.

WordPress Site Care Consultant Stephanie Hudson sends 3D glasses to customers. They work on her website, which is in 3D. She creates an experience.

What can you do to create an experience for a customer like Schlep and Stephanie?

3. Create community.

Can a Site Care Consultant have a community? You bet you can! And you should.

In his excellent newsletter, Kevan Lee explains that there are two types of community: community of practice and Community of product.

He doesn’t mention a Community of a service, but that would be similar to a Community of product. As a Site Care Consultant, your product is your service.

Kevan’s definition is pretty simple: “A community connects people to people.”

That makes it a tightrope to walk when you are in business. But when you leave room for community to develop, as MainWP co-founder Dennis Dornon told me, it lets them “stay close to our users and give them a place to gather and talk.”

It helps you know how to better serve them.

Community isn’t just about having a Facebook Group or Slack Group, but they can certainly help as they give users a place to gather.

As I learned from Mighty Networks, they discovered that the magic of community happens when people connect. Sometimes community happens organically too like the one below.

4. Automate what you can, but always be human.

I want to wrap up the tips for customer experience with one last suggestion: Automate when you can, but always be human.

After all, customers, even businesses, are human. Automation can make getting simple and common answers quicker, sometimes smoother, and convenient. However, when there is a need for a human to reach out, it can be extremely frustrating to not have that option.

Leave room to be human. Leave room to reach out to someone personally. Sometimes we have to go outside the automation to make the customer experience better.

Wrapping it up

Customer Experience is a crucial part of your brand as a business. It is the sum of all experiences and impressions a customer has with your brand. Don’t neglect that part of your business.

What are some of the ways you create a great Customer Experience? Let us know in the MainWP Users Facebook Group.