What customer experience actually is
Customer experience is the on-going feeling — conscious and sub-conscious — that a customer has when interacting with a provider of goods and service. That feeling drives loyalty, referral and churn.
In shipping it starts at the initial contact between a shipper or consignee and the line or its agent, and exists throughout the duration of the relationship. At any point, a bad customer experience has the ability to alienate a customer to the extent that they break off the relationship and take their business elsewhere. Conversely, a positive customer experience can keep a customer loyal even when the goods aren't best-in-class or least expensive.
“Customers will not be won on the price page or by product features, but rather on the entirety of your customer's experience.”
Why the bar got higher
The biggest change in what customer experience is, today versus a decade ago, is driven by social media. Before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, many providers expected customers to just accept what they were offered. The attitude was almost a "don't care" — there was little a customer could do beyond complain to a salesperson.
That world is gone. Customers are now well-informed, conscious of alternatives, empowered and have higher expectations than ever. Not only do they expect inquiries and needs to be handled with speed and accuracy — if they receive unsatisfactory service, they can (and will) share their bad experience and recommend alternatives in pictorial detail on social channels.
Shippers and consignees making use of shipping services now evaluate the service on a total end-to-end basis. They expect and demand a consistent experience every time. If they sense that's lacking, they revert to social media or find alternative providers.
The two things that matter most in liner shipping CX
Most of the customer experience discussion is generic. In liner shipping specifically, two capabilities do most of the work. The carriers that consistently outperform on CX have built both into their operating platform.
- Visibility — shippers, consignees and their agents want real-time, accurate information about where their cargo is and what's happening. Accuracy and timing of the data are essential so customers can plan their costs and forward schedules.
- Communication — knowing where each container is, and pushing that information to customers via web and mobile, reduces unnecessary box moves, lowers calls from unsatisfied customers, makes turnarounds faster — lowering cost for the shipper and improving the experience.
Why customer engagement matters financially
Customer experience is fast becoming the biggest differentiator in a world where service providers have very little else to differentiate themselves on. The basics of providing goods and service at fair value are the same across competing carriers; what separates them, when all else is equal, is the experience delivered alongside the service.
- Improves customer satisfaction
- Drives repeat business — as long as the experience stays positive, customers stay loyal
- Drives referrals — customers refer others in their sphere of influence
- Reduces customer churn
- Increases competitiveness and competitive advantage
- Positively influences profitability, sales volume and revenue
- Establishes a sustainable provider–customer relationship
What to look for in a customer-facing system
A good customer experience system in liner shipping needs to cover the spectrum of how shippers actually want to interact today. The carriers that score consistently well on CX surveys have built all four of the following into their customer-facing technology.
- Support for mobile devices — proper tailored mobile applications, not just screen-scraped websites on a small screen
- Live chat — direct online access to a service agent, enhancing problem-solving and information requests
- Self-service management — knowledge-base repository with answers to recurring questions, accessible without a call
- Multi-channel support — freedom of choice in how a customer interacts, with the customer experience consistent across every channel
Best practice — a four-part programme
Implementing a successful customer experience programme is not a one-time project. It's a four-part operational discipline that needs to be designed in from the start.
- Sound base of knowledge — a solid knowledge base of institutional and domain knowledge, organised around customer needs not internal priorities
- Omni-channel facilitation — Web, mobile, interactive voice; customers may start in one channel and escalate to another, and that handoff must be seamless
- Right information to frontline employees — real-time customer context so the agent's response is contextually relevant, not generic
- Customer feedback + social media monitoring — gather insights during interaction, address problems immediately, monitor social channels to proactively address negative content