The customer experience does not depend on customer service

Every day, contact centers around the world receive thousands of calls from customers, mostly when they have a problem with a product or service and hope to have it resolved.

Contact centers are certainly the main points of contact with the customer, playing an important role in defining the customer experience. However, they certainly do not represent the only way in which a user/consumer interacts with a brand. As Blake Morgan, Keynote speaker and author of 'More is more', states on the pages of Forbes, the entire company is, in fact, an important contact center.

You know the phrase “less is more”? That may be true in many ways, but it’s not so true when it comes to customer experience. Companies that want to stay relevant must apply more energy, focus, and resources to creating engaging, result-driven experiences.

Already in one of its most recent articles ('iPhone 8 Augmented Reality Feature To Revolutionize Customer Experience') Apple has long acted on this new vision by announcing its new iPhone to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the original model. In the last decade, in fact, Apple has changed the way we think and interact with mobile devices and has had a huge impact on everything from basic communication to shopping, marketing and customer experience. One of the new features for the iPhone 8 is its ability to augment reality, which has the potential to revolutionize marketing. An entire company, therefore, positions itself as a 'contact center' to solidly structure the customer experience.

Customers interact with the brand in multiple ways in a journey that is certainly varied: from product research to experimentation with marketing campaigns, from packaging to the perceived quality of the product itself. Everything contributes to generating and consolidating brand reputation.

Customers can shape their experience of contact with the brand in various ways: by entering a store and receiving useful support from the staff or by visiting an easy-to-navigate and responsive website. All elements that contribute to supporting and consolidating the user experience and improving the appreciation of a brand. Therefore, each contact channel and each context within which the customer experience takes place must be consistent and build a good brand identity.

Take time to think about your business: What are the ways your brand reaches customers? The list is probably longer than you think: from social media to commercials to delivery times, everything contributes to the customer's opinion of your company. You have a number of opportunities to have a strong impact on your customers in more ways than the traditional contact center. Consider every element and every contact channel to improve interactions with your stakeholders and respond to this

Question: What can you do to improve your global contact center and, therefore, your brand reputation?