Face it, everyone is doing more with fewer resources. Teams are scrambling for ways to maintain the Customer Experience while taking on additional responsibilities.
When things get hectic, teams tend to lose sight of their customers.
It is easy to ignore customer-centricity when you have a tight deadline for a campaign or content. Customer Service often has to take the torch for customer-centricity.
To this, I say, “Wrong!”
Customer service is often at the end. When they’ve exhausted all other options to resolve their issues or get answers to questions, people pick up the telephone to speak to an agent.
When they reach out to customer service, they’re usually at their peak of frustration or anger after trying unsuccessfully to answer a question on their own, perhaps after dealing with an automated voice that reads them a list of options, none of which is exactly what they want.
What passes as customer service may actually be a detriment to a brand’s commitment to its customers.
Still, even great customer service is just one component of being customer-centric–and it’s not enough.
This is where the content comes into play.
Content is key in demonstrating that your brand cares about your customers’ wants and needs and provides products and services they will benefit from.
Content can help you prove to your customers that you care about them and take their mission of providing what they need and want seriously.
Content allows customers to self-serve and find answers or solve problems on their own.
Content can help brands build emotional connections with their customers. This helps to create a loyal fan base.
The brands that win are those who prioritize their customers, treat them with respect, provide thoughtful and relevant content and utility, and build relationships beyond the transaction.
How do you achieve a customer-centric brand that is successful by placing content at the core of your mindset?
We’ll look at three ways to help you become an efficient, lean machine that is customer-focused and content-driven.
Take your 360°
When you put customers at the core of what you do, you are committing to knowing who they are, what they care about, and what information/products/services they need to solve a challenge they are facing so you can have relevant content created and at the ready.
It is important to collect their data with good intentions and demonstrate that there is a value exchange. By getting to understand your customers, collecting their data, and creating a full 360-degree view of your audience, you commit to using this data to provide relevance and help people find what they are looking for as quickly as possible.
Use the data you have to create experiences and content that your customers will enjoy, not what others dictate.
Keep your content human.
ChatGPT has become a rage in recent years because it can produce content within seconds. As with everything in life, there are pros as well as cons to AI content. ChatGPT is a fast way to create content, but it lacks the empathy and contextual awareness needed to build an emotional bond between brand and customer.
According to a Motista report, customers who develop an emotional connection with a brand are 306% more valuable throughout their lifetime than those who do not. While ChatGPT may be beneficial for content efficiency, building emotional connections and keeping content human is better for business.
Focus on the customer over competitors.
Stats and quotes have been circulating that claim brands compete primarily based on the customer experience. Brands are focusing on their customer experience, not in the eyes of the customers, but by comparing it to the brand’s competition.
If you want to know how your competitors are doing, you should always ask yourself: Would customers be happy with that? Does that match what you want to hear from us? Use the answers you get to help inform your content strategy.
Do some research on your competitors and see what they’re saying and how they deliver content, but do not let this approach drive your strategy. It should be just one of the many factors that help you create a great experience for your target audiences.
You want to be different from your competitors. You can achieve this by prioritizing your customer and reflecting their needs through the content that you provide.