Customers and employees have a key common factor – they are normal human beings. Human beings go through a variety of experiences on a daily basis, both inside and outside of work. According to Forbes, “the basic premise is that every human experience matters.” Such experiences can range from replying to office emails to creating a beautiful painting. Whenever customers and employees interact with a business, they will have an experience, be it good, bad, or ugly. Maybe they’ll have all three types of experiences! These experiences will generate an emotional response within the customers and employees, which to businesses is crucial information, given that it will form impressions for future interactions with the business. This blog will talk about understanding customer and employee experiences through customer and employee behavior and how businesses can continue to improve every day.
Breaking Down Human Behavior in Experience Management
At the end of the day, we’re all human beings and human beings have needs and expectations from businesses they come across. According to Forbes, “your brand, customers, employees, and products are interconnected.” A poor quality product results in an unhappy customer. This is when understanding buying behavior comes into play. Buying behavior refers to how customers feel when they come across a product. Before customers purchase a particular product, such as a phone, for example, they make it a point to do some research and read other customer reviews about the product before deciding to purchase it. A faulty product means negative feedback, low employee morale, and a tainted brand reputation. Employees want to feel like their hard work pays off when the products are sold to the customer. Their decisions are the ones that ensure either the success or failure of your business’s products.
Important Behaviors in Customer Management
Practicing Active Listening
Customers want their feedback to be acknowledged and validated. In the context of customer management, active listening refers to taking customer feedback seriously and taking immediate action on it. Feedback can be positive, negative, or neutral. The key for organizations is to handle it with respect and dignity. No doubt, emotions are unpredictable. Businesses want to be talked about positively, but it’s inevitable that that does not always happen. At the end of the day, customers are human beings that are allowed to vent out their emotions, whether on social media or off. Sometimes, customers allow their emotions to get the best of them and cause them to vent out their frustrations on social media platforms. These can actually be considered golden opportunities for businesses to heed customer feedback and take the appropriate action to resolve the issues at hand.
Don’t Add Fuel to the Fire
Just because customers need to raise their voices does not mean you necessarily have to do the same. No business is immune to situations of conflict. These tough situations need to be handled with patience, dignity, and grace. Adding fuel to the fire will only make the situation worse. Businesses will face irked and agitated customers. Businesses can’t please every customer they come across, despite that being the goal. Keeping your voice down will allow you to keep your emotions in control and deal with the conflict in zen mode rather than let your emotions get the best of you. Anger is nothing but a misguided sense of fear. Customers typically tend to remember the negative moments more than the positive ones. Patiently handling the situation will allow your business to maintain a stable reputation and positive image.
Providing Great Customer Service
Customer service refers to the act of assisting and helping customers in their time of need. It is the basic element of a stable customer experience. This act of service implies how well you take care of your customers when they approach your business. There is no doubt that your business revolves around the customer and their needs and expectations. However, providing great customer service will result in retaining your customers in the long term.
Important Behaviors in Employee Management
Creating a Positive Work Environment
Building a positive work environment takes a village, but it’s not impossible. Work is not always a happy environment. Employees want to feel excited about coming to work every day. They want to feel reassured that the time given to the organization for the day was worth it. Positive vibes are worth everything. Creating a positive environment includes encouragement, gratitude and recognition, respect, and support. Incorporating such behaviors into your organization will allow your employees to truly feel like it’s an awesome place to work in.
Open and Honest Communication
Communication is the key to a stable relationship with your employees. Your employees need to know what you, as their leader, expect from them on a day-to-day basis in the workplace. As parents do with their children, you should set ground rules. It’s clear that employees need structure so that they can focus on their workload. No matter what the circumstance, employees desire open and honest communication from their leader. Consistent communication results in employees putting their best foot forward and delivering the best outcomes from their workload.
Collecting Behavioral Data and What to Do with It
Behavioral data describes how your stakeholders behave and interact with your products and services. According to Investopedia, “behavioral data is collected and analyzed, and then used as the basis of making certain decisions, including how to determine future trends or business activity, including ad placement.” In terms of customer and employee experience, this data will help track the stakeholders’ preferences, which will make it easier for you to fulfill their needs and expectations.
Assessing Human Behavior Through PxidaX
Our proprietary What Matters Most (WMM) survey template and question can help get to the heart of how your respondents consider and make decisions about your organization. From customers to employees, we’ve identified the aspects of their experiences that are key to their behavior and broken them down into the key attributes that drive decision-making. By going through our WMM question, respondents are able to demonstrate how the attributes stack up for them, and you’re able to get clear data on how to change their decisions and behavior. By focusing on attributes that matter to them, you can change how they view your business. Get started with a free trial today to learn how our technology can help your business grow!