Let’s take eBay, for example. Currently being dwarfed by competition from Amazon, the online retailing giant recently introduced an image search feature. This uses deep learning to analyze photos and find similar products for the best prices. It therefore allows users to spend less time and effort trying to find what they’re looking for with the use of a more intuitive system.
How does customer effort influence a brand’s success?
A report by Gartner found that a low effort user experience results in a 74% increased likelihood of a customer recommending the brand to others. Furthermore, a low effort experience also increases the chances of a customer spending more on the brand over a lifetime by 88%.
On the other hand, a high effort user experience results in 81% increased likelihood of negative word of mouth. It will also increase customers’ overall disloyalty towards the brand by 96%.
How can businesses reduce customer effort?
What customers value above all is a simple, effortless experience. The more difficult your business is to work with, the less likely you are going to keep long-time customers.
Businesses can begin to measure this effort often, and identify the touch-points in the customer journey that contribute to a high effort experience. This way, first steps can be made towards delivering experiences that are more seamless and relevant to customers.
How can a touch-point be made effortless?
By turning it into something else. Touch-points along the customer journey could be made more fun and enjoyable through gamification. They could be connected to social platforms or simply to channels the customer is already using.
An example of this in action can be seen by Louis Vuitton, the world’s most valuable luxury brand. They utilize WeChat’s message automation and intelligent response API to offer instant customer service.
Firstly, this enables shoppers in China to get immediate answers to common queries. Secondly, it reduces effort by integrating the support into an already popular messaging app.
Furthermore, intelligent process automation ensures communication is streamlined between the business and the customer. We can see this happening a great deal among Fintechs today. They have digitized their services by implementing online and mobile banking, and are always looking for better ways to connect and speak to customers.
Fintechs reduce the steps and in turn, the effort that would normally be required to access banking services. As a result, they have made it easier for themselves to gain customer loyalty and recommendations.
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This article is based on insights from our deep dive report on Touch-Point Technology: Transforming The Customer Journey.
This report explores how brands are responding to rising expectations in speed, precision, personalization and security. We explore how they do so through the implementation of technologies at crucial touch-points (the moments of interaction between the brand and the customer).