Top Tips for Building a Tech-Based CX Strategy

Lydia Hawkridge, Head of Strategy and Implementation at Red Ant, provides concise advice on the best customer experience for businesses.

It shouldn’t be news to anyone that focusing on your customer experience strategy is critical to truly compete in today’s retail environment. And with all good customer experience strategies, there undoubtedly will be a need for robust technical touchpoints which enable your team to execute this strategy daily. But what does building a tech-based strategy really mean, and what are the key areas to focus on to make it work? 

Firstly, what does it mean. Well for me, building a tech-based CX strategy is really about the about understanding the value that tech and digital tools can offer your team to really bring to life your CX strategy. But, it is not the strategy. The strategy must always focus on the experience you are trying to deliver, not what the digital tools do. Which brings me to my first tip.

Tip #1 – Define the Customer Journey 

This may seem obvious, but in my experience it’s often a stage which is rushed, or at worst – missed entirely. When developing a customer experience strategy, it is critical that you, and your entire team understand two things: what the journey is now, and where you want to get to. This will ensure the digital touchpoints you layer into this journey reflect the needs of your team and customers, rather than forcing functionality which sounds great on the surface but isn’t right for your business into your tool.

When defining the customer journey, start with the actions that are taken, then consider the end-user’s thoughts and feelings while completing that action, before asking yourself, what touchpoints (including technical) does the user need to perform these actions.

Another tip which I was recently introduced to by a retailer is the concept of parity vs world class. While we can all strive to achieve a world class customer experience from start to finish, it may be more realistic to consider which elements you want to achieve industry parity on, and what key elements across the journey you will strive for industry-leading world class levels. By breaking this down, you allow yourself and the team the ability to direct attention where the biggest pay-offs will be.

Tip #2 – Check Your Hardware! 

Any tech-based CX strategy is going to need hardware. I’m talking devices, charging stations, WiFi. These must be in place and operating effectively before you can bring in digital tools which rely on these functions. I’ve seen many digital CX strategies fall over at the final hurdle due to poor WiFi, old devices or simply the tools to display and maintain device charge and security have not been set up which can delay roll-out significantly.

Make sure you know what is and isn’t possible within your business before you begin designing and implementing digital tools will save yourself a world of pain and stress, and mean you are ready to hit the ground running when your digital tools are ready!

Tip #3 – Take Your Time 

A tech-based CX strategy will require your frontline team and customers to use digital tools which they may be extremely comfortable with, but there’s also probably a number of your team and/or customers who are not comfortable with anything “tech”. Implementing a tech-based CX strategy requires a real investment of time and effort to ensure you introduce, train and embed the tools into the day-to-day of your team and customers. Remember, you may have been crafting the vision for this strategy for a year or more, but for the team on the floor, it’s new so apply change management techniques. Take your time to do roll-out changes, and execute in clear, reasonable chunks so the team come on the journey with you and don’t feel overwhelmed from the outset.

There’s nothing worse than walking into a retail store and seeing a dead iPad sitting on display, or being told by a salesperson “this system never works”. Taking the time to roll-out your strategy over a period of months, even years, will ensure its embedded fully and becomes business as usual, rather than an obvious ‘failed strategy’.

By Lydia Hawkridge, Head of Strategy and Implementation at Red Ant.

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