Customer Service

How to curate a comprehensive end-to-end customer experience

Constantly learning from customers can help guide retail decisions on how to expand or refine operations to fit evolving needs.

Photo: Adobe Stock

January 30, 2024 by Rob Mobsby — Digital Director, Everything Branded

In a client services world, it can be daunting to try and keep up with the evolving preferences and increasingly high expectations of your customers. Plus, nowadays, one superior service or product isn't enough — that high-quality product must also be paired with great customer service, a seamless sales portal, consultancy services, and anything else to make sure the customer has a full circle experience with your brand.

In order to stay on top of their game, retailers must take a proactive approach to managing customer relationships, and there are some great strategies out there to help with identifying these changing needs.

Brands can use these strategies to easily understand which parts of their customer journey to update, and more importantly, where they may be able to offer something new.

Start by mapping out the customer journey

Understanding the customer experience can range dramatically from industry to industry, but one universal strategy is customer journey mapping – which is especially important within the retail space where understanding customer needs at each phase of the journey is critical.

Customer journey mapping is the in-depth process of examining how customer's interact with your brand at each phase, from awareness and consideration to decision and evaluation. Having a birds-eye understanding of the customer journey can provide a tangible framework to tackle what's missing. If, for example after the awareness stage, there's a high volume of searches for a single product that's not available on your site, you should consider sourcing a product to then add to your lineup, or working with a company that has a global reach in order to do so.

Tips on adjusting to customer's evolving needs

Mapping is great place to start as it's an incredibly effective way to continuously audit the performance of your operations and strategy. The next step is figuring out exactly what to add or refine within your organization.

Diversifying services: With today's crowded marketplace, it's easy for customers to find any product or service they need anywhere. What's tougher is finding everything they need in one place. For example, it's easy to find a fulfillment company willing to produce a custom clothing article, but it's harder to find one that will assist with graphic design as well. Broadening your offerings based on customer needs can curate an all-encompassing experience, boosting customer acquisition and retention.
Balancing automation with personability: In 2024, we'll continue to see widespread automation adoption across industries, which has certainly been successful in optimizing operations. And while it's important to stay up to date with the latest tech, businesses must be careful not to let the customer journey become completed automated which can feel transactional. For instance, implementing a GenAI chatbot is a great idea to provide instant customer service assistance, but at the same time, it's critical customers can reach a dedicated representative throughout their journey.
Forecasting trends: In the retail space, it's pivotal to be able to identify upcoming trends to stay ahead of the game. Having this knowledge allows you to be the first to offer customers new products or services before they become widely available. Taking advantage of your internal data paired with a healthy amount of market research, are both great tools to identify patterns to plan for future trends and shifting preferences.

Wrapping up

The customer journey shouldn't only be as easy as possible, but as comprehensive as well. Having a thorough suite of products/services allows you to curate a super customizable experience for each customer and help them find everything they need in one place. Constantly learning from your customers to stay on top of their needs can help guide your decisions on how to expand or refine your operations to fit evolving needs. It's essential to view customer experience optimization as an ongoing commitment, with continuous learning and adaptability at the forefront of any strategy.

About Rob Mobsby

As director and head of digital, Rob Mobsby is responsible for all aspects of marketing operations for EverythingBranded with a focus on digital transformation and expansion of the company’s online presence. Rob joined EverythingBranded after in 2018 having worked within the digital landscape for the past 18 years including roles at large companies like Amazon. Rob brings a digital mindset to a traditional industry. A data first approach, efficiency focus, and automation at the core, Rob loves spinning plates, which is great as he has plenty!

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