Good news for customers
In the Czech Republic, the two crucial elements of customer experience (CX) are the quality of personal contact between the brand and the customer, and the brand’s ability to adapt to the customer, as this year’s study has shown. Integrity remains crucial to customers, with Personalization and Empathy becoming more and more important.
The winners have often bested others in the Personalization pillar, which was the case of the top three financial institutions (Equa bank, Fio banka, Air Bank), the star of the food industry (Rohlik.cz), and the brands who stood out in the travel and hotels industry (EXIM tours, Čedok, Airbnb).
Empathy was the second most important aspect, helping the restaurants and fast food industry get extra points over the other industries (4.23% above the study average). Empathy also brought extra emphasis to the best brand winner – Manufaktura conquered this pillar with an impressive lead of 21% compared to all the others.
The comments provided by respondents confirm the importance of a personal touch as well, making it obvious that customers do not like being treated like just another face in the crowd nor dealing with employees who refuse to get out of their comfort zones and, instead, push products that the customer obviously has no interest in.
What the customer does appreciate, though, is a warm, human approach and “something extra”: a courier who will drop off their package at the supermarket instead of their home. A well-trained home-improvement store employee who will not only guide them to the correct aisle, but will also provide them with some sound, professional advice. A travel agent who will use her own personal experience to recommend a nice family hotel in Greece, or a bank clerk who sticks to the agreement and patiently waits for the customer to reach out first instead of hounding them with reminders, even if it takes weeks.
The survey results show that the number of brands who see the importance of customer experience in the Czech Republic is growing. More and more companies realize that they need to put themselves into their customers’ shoes and see the business through their eyes. They treat customer experience as a complex matter and manage it by designing specific customer interaction scenarios, because the customers wield a powerful weapon these days – instant feedback.
But strategic customer experience management must also keep in mind the employee experience that is based upon six pillars, too: Personalization, Integrity, Expectations, Resolution, Time and Effort and Empathy. Where the employee experience is bad, there can be no good customer experience either, since it all starts with the people. To achieve great CX you need more than talent and instinct – you need to know all the steps and practice regularly too, just like with dancing.
