What is customer experience?
I, as a buyer, got a new positive experience from using the new mobile application of my favourite bank. More recently, the bank updated its application, added new features, improved usability, made a more convenient menu, increased speed and added cash back. I have a great experience, I have been using all this for several months now and I am getting used to it. This is a financial instrument that my bank gives me, in which I receive financial services, but which go through my active interaction with the mobile application.
That is, in this case, I, as a buyer, receiving financial services, interact through a communication channel (or interaction tool) - through a mobile application.
Now I will continue my journey as a customer and go to buy my other goods and services. Now I'm moving to a regular supermarket. Yes, the same one that I have also been visiting for many years - it is very close - on the way from the office to the side of the house. I know many cashiers in it, I learned the shelf in the store a long time ago and I know when fresh mango is delivered). So, I'm in the store, filled my shopping cart and go to the checkout - and then something new - yes, yes - this is a new banner right at the checkout with a QR code and beautiful text - now we have our own mobile application where you you can not only see our current prices, but also get cashback, save your purchase history, accumulate points and find all our stores in your city on the map. Wow Wow!
It's probably cool! It sounds very nice and inspiring. I haven't seen anything like this in other stores around here. Well, let's join!
Mobile app interactions
By scanning the QR code, I install the application, I wait for an SMS on my mobile phone to enter the application (something is taking a long time ..), there is a queue, a cash register, but there is still no SMS. Okay, I'll fix it later. I pay as always, a little disappointed that I could not install the application, I go home.
In the evening, at dinner, SMS still comes (well, such an experience - 40 minutes late)
Well, ok, I forgot about it - I'm installing - because ahead of me is an exciting journey through the application and the pleasure of the experience. Yes, I did it - now I have a new, already 65th application on my smartphone.
I quickly ran through the menu - some kind of weak and small, everything seems to be fine, but something is not right.
Operating with cash-back
Yes, cashback works, there is a purchase history, you can see the current prices.
But still, something is missing, something is wrong in this loyalty app. And here comes the idea that I, as a buyer of bread in a store, compare my experience of interacting with the bank's mobile application. It would seem that there is nothing in common between financial services and retail store services.
There is milk and bread, and there is the payment of utilities and rent. And yet there is a connection - it is just in the buyer's mobile phone. For him, a mobile phone and a mobile application is a tool for interaction and feedback with businesses - of all kinds and types. He gets used to interacting with offers and services through a mobile application, he gets used to convenience, speed and support. And he buys milk, bread or conducts financial services - this is not so important.
Because in every purchase of something there is a certain percentage of the service and emotions - as part of the customer experience, his perception of the brand, product or service.
He understands that the quality of bread can be the same in many stores, its composition and taste. But he knows for sure that communication at the checkout, hello from the security guard or the speed of downloading the application and the relevance of prices in it - these are all his experiences, which he transfers to other areas of his life.
Conclusions
Therefore, when we talk about customer experience in loyalty programs, for example, for retail or restaurants, it is important to take into account the customer experience of the buyer in other areas of his life, given that a mobile application is one of the important tools and channels for interaction and communication with the brand and its services.
After all, the percentage of emotions and impressions is very different depending on the product that we buy. Buying a regular pencil or a pack of paper is unlikely to bring any emotion, but searching on a smartphone, talking to support, app download speed is very important even with this purchase, because it is part of the purchase. One of the important tasks of a marketer who implements a loyalty program in a business is to understand what percentage of the impression is on the client's path from the need and desire to buy to enjoying the purchase itself and using it.
