Raising the bar on customer experience

We love to talk about experience. Customer experience? Yep! Employee experience? Absolutely. Just scroll down our "Trending Topics" page and you will see more than a few experience-based posts. This one has to do with how Gen Z is actually raising the bar on customer experience. Their expectations across the board raise the standards on rating customer experiences.

A recent PWC study entitled, "Experience is Everything," explains why it's so imperative that companies get this right. A portion of the study looked at what Gen Z had to say about experience, and companies that want to be successful in the future need to take note. The reality is that Gen Z is not that different after all. Consider what Gen Z participants said with regard to what matters to them: (percentages of consumers who would pay more for elements of customer experience)

1. Mobile experience: Gen Z = 63% - rest of generations = 54%
2. Fun: Gen Z = 60% - rest of generations = 52%
3. Design: Gen Z = 59% - rest of generations = 50%
4. Company loyalty (5 yrs ago): Gen Z = 47% - rest of generations = 32%
5. Company loyalty (1 yr ago): Gen Z = 40% - rest of generations = 24%
6. Trust: Gen Z = 39% - rest of generations = 28%
7. Brand personality: Gen Z = 32% - rest of generations = 19%

PWC asks and answers this question about customer experience: "What truly makes for a good experience? Speed. Convenience. Consistency. Friendliness. And one big connector: human touch—that is, creating real connections by making technology feel more human and giving employees what they need to create better customer experiences."

The demand is for a seamless integration of technology and human customer interaction...instantaneously. There is not a lot of room for error either! Even when people love a company or product, more than half will walk away after several bad experiences and nearly one in three say they would walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience. 

Lastly, the article leaves us with three points to grapple with:

1. Really know what your customers want! Your customers have demands and they may not be what you think.
2. Customers generate revenue. Employees drive the experience.
3. Technology can't solve experience problems so focus on the employee experience to improve and drive up customer experience.

For more insights on improving the customer experience, try: What's the best way to achieve a positive customer experience?