Why You Need to Take Customer Experience Personally

Customer experience is highly personal.

A company can make headlines for an embarrassing social media slip-up that goes viral, but we can usually forgive them and move on as long as they owned up to their mistake and took measures to correct it.

However, there’s a certain sting that comes with personally experiencing bad customer service. A rude representative. A company that ignores your requests for help. A broken promise.

It changes the way we look at a brand.

And it’s the kind of experience we DON’T forget.

According to a McKinsey survey, 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they’re being treated. And last year, 62% of global consumers switched service providers due to poor customer service experiences (Accenture study).

It’s the little offenses that directly impact us that make us want to leave a brand.

Just like it’s the small, positive experiences that make us love a brand.

Here’s a case in point:

The @PublixHelps social customer service Twitter feed is a busy place. Customers use it to ask questions, vent frustrations, seek help and give shout outs to the company. Customers have come to trust it as a place where they’ll have their concerns heard, their issues resolved and where they’ll get friendly, personalized service – fast.

From a customer missing her Publix cookies to a question about opening hours on Christmas Eve, @PublixHelps agents answer every question, no matter how big or small.

A box of cookies doesn’t add up to a lot of money, but Publix knows that every satisfied customer is potentially a customer for life.

They have listened to where their customers are talking to them and they have put a strong social customer support team in place to make sure every customer receives the best possible care on every channel.

Customer service is about relationships. Like with all relationships, there needs to be respect, trust and communication to make it work.

Social customer service platforms, like that used by Publix, have made it possible for companies to engage in 1:1, real-time conversations with customers, while effortlessly resolving their problems in a highly-personalized way.

Customers will always remember the way they were treated by your agents – which is why it’s vital to make EVERY conversation count. Your customers take every interaction with your brand personally – and so should you.

Why You Need to Take Customer Experience Personally