10-point framework for creating a world-class customer experience, which is used by big companies to increase customer loyalty and revenue. # #1 Customer experience Whether it is through call, email, social media, or hoardings, all these are touchpoints for customers. Every touchpoint creates an experience for the customer. This is called customer experience. Customer experience is the KRA or responsibility of every employee working with you. ## #2 10-point Framework to Build World Class Customer Experience 1. Listen to your customer 2. Be empathetic (empathy means genuinely understanding the pain of your customers) 3. Create a certain surprise or delight Let us take an example to understand the above points. For example: A person from Delhi has ordered a wine bottle, bouquet, and a cake from Ferns N Petals company for his in-laws, in Dehradun, on their anniversary. After a few days, the person came to know that the wine bottle he ordered was broken. He immediately called Ferns N Petals and complaint about it. On an immediate basis, Fern N Petals has repeated the same order and delivered it to the in-laws without any payment. Along with this, they have also given a coupon to them. This has created a world-class experience for the customers. 4. Keep the customers updated                             5. Hire the right people 6. Be honest Let us take an example to understand the above points. For example: When Zappos, a US company, started, it was an e-commerce company that sells shoes. During that time, e-commerce was not so popular. This company made interesting shoes and started selling them online. Within a few years, Zappos became a big company and finally, Amazon acquired it. When the Founder of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, was asked how the company became so big and why did Amazon acquire it. He answered that it was because of customer experience. Even now in Corona times, Zappos has announced in America that anyone can tweet them on Twitter and talk to them about anything whether it is an emergency, or they are feeling depressed. They can even call them and a human will talk to them instead of a robot. This is the world-class customer experience they are creating. Here, the points “hire the right people” and “be honest” are applicable to Zappos because Zappos is saying that anybody can call them and we will talk them. This can only be possible if their workforce is passionate enough to stand with the customers in any situation. “Be honest” to your customers. You must have seen that when the K Business App was crashed at the starting of the webinar, Mr. Entrepreneur came on Facebook Live and honestly accepted it and then made it free for the whole world. K Business gets positive feedback and support from people after that. 7. Speed of response 8. Pick up the phone every time 9. Escalations matrix 10. Preempt for the question Let us take an example to understand the above points. For example: Amazon is a B2B as well as a B2C company. All the above 4 points and even all the 10 points are applicable to Amazon. When you call Amazon, you get connected with the executive in a few seconds and there is no waiting time. This is because Amazon has created a business model, Amazon Prime, if you are a prime customer for them, you will get better services. Along with the good speed of response, Amazon also has clearly defined the escalations matrix. This means that if a junior employee is not able to handle the customer problem, then it will automatically be escalated or reaches to a senior employee. If the senior employee cannot solve it, then it will reach to his senior and finally, it will reach to the CEO immediately. The complaint should reach immediately to the level where it can be solved and it should not be stopped anywhere in-between. This is an escalation matrix. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, still reads the customers’ emails so that they can hear the customer's voice. With the top-down approach, as the information reaches from the CEO to the manager, the manager will take the action. “Preempt for the questions” Amazon completely runs on data. They know that which type of customer you are based on your buying behaviour, how many times you have complained, etc. Based on this data, they categorise their customers. If you are in a good category or bucket, then you will get good discounts. Another example of world-class customer experience is Taj hotels. During Corona times, Taj Hotels Mumbai has opened its property for doctors and corona warriors. They could have said that they don’t know from where these doctors are coming and they need to bear the sanitization cost as well. However, Ratan Tata has opened his property for these corona warriors wholeheartedly. When you create a world-class customer experience, then it will spread to faraway places. People who don’t even have any connection with you will spread your story to lakhs of people. Thus, you should invest in a world-class customer experience. # #3 Tools for automating world-class customer experience #### 1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tool Even if you have a small kirana shop, you can automate customer experience using a CRM tool. This tool will automatically wish your customers on their birthdays, give them offers, etc. Some of the CRM tools are - Zoho CRM – for small business - Hubspot CRM, Salesforce CRM, etc. – for big businesses (more than 500 employees) #### 2. Auto-dialer If you talk to your customer on Auto-dialer (which calls the customer automatically), then the customer will feel good as he thinks that the brand wants to know about him. On auto-dialer, you can wish your customer, give offers, or even take feedback.