Customer Interaction & Innovation
What is Customer Interaction?
A customer interaction refers to customers’ communication with a business or brand. This interaction is considered a chance or opportunity to connect with the customers. But customer interaction is not limited to one-time sales. Instead, it is a long-term relationship between a business and customers. In this way, a company gets a competitive advantage and retains its customer.
Types of Customer Interactions
Customer interactions might happen in different ways, and a business should focus on improving its customer experiences. However, these customer interactions are categorized into three main categories or types.
1: Stabilizing
This type of customer interaction is performed at the early stages of customer relations with a business. This interaction helps a company stabilize its relationship with customers and sustain it long-term while satisfying the customers and resolving their queries. This type of customer interaction is considered critical because a terrible customer experience might be risky (Singh, 2021). If it happens, the new customer may quit buying the products or services, and the business could lose its profit.
2: Critical
This customer interaction matters the most because, at this stage, a customer may leave a positive or negative experience or impact regarding their queries, complaints, and issues. Customers’ experience at the critical step depends on the business’s behavior towards its customers. So, critical incidents may lead to a good or bad experience, and customers can become unhappy.
3: Planned
This type of customer interaction aims to increase business profitability through cross-selling and up-selling. It also provides sales and marketing teams leverage to change the customers’ buying patterns according to planned interaction with them. Big Data and CRM analytics collaboratively help identify the business opportunities and assist the sales and service teams in decision-making. For this instance, the customer-relationship managers form different strategies and tactics to provide the best interaction to get optimizes.
Examples of Customer Experience Innovation
Here is the following example through which customer experience leads towards innovation in different dimensions.
1: Innovation to Services
The customer interaction, queries and, interactions have helped the businesses to improve their patterns to enhance the customer experience through innovation. For example, introducing chatbots with the help of Artificial Intelligence is the best example to resolve the queries and complaints of visitors on the websites. Before this, customers complained through a long process using the complaint number or email (Morgan, 2021).
2: Innovation to Product
The introduction of AR technology and its product adoption results from customer interaction and experience. Because customers wanted to enhance their real-world experience in terms of virtual reality and innovative businesses, they have made it possible. For instance, BMW has launched the BMW Insight App, through which a customer can easily experience the interior of a vehicle with the help of AR technology (Gould, 2021).
3: Innovation to Business Model
There are high chances of innovation in a customer-oriented business in its business model. Because with the help of customers’ experience, a company adopts those innovations that could enhance customer interaction and services. For example, Amazon is the perfect example for this explanation as Amazon has been implementing effective technology in its business model to improve the customers’ experience and interaction.
Application of Learning
This research has learned all the aspects and dimensions of customer interaction, its importance for a business, and its role in innovation. After learning and understanding all these essential aspects, I would practically apply and implement my learning in my job. Such as I would get education regarding customer interaction, their behavior and would try to bring change and innovation based on their exchange. In this way, my learning would help me get positive results for my job, customers, and the company.
References
Singh, P., 2021. 8 Most Common Customer Interactions (and How to Handle Them). [online] REVE Chat. https://www.revechat.com/blog/customer-interactions/
» V., 2021. 3 Types of Customer Interactions Every Customer Experience Manager Must Understand. [online] Kinesis CEM. https://blog.kinesis-cem.com/2015/04/29/3-types-of-customer-interactions-every-customer-experience-manager-must-understand/
Gould, R., 2021. Five innovative examples of how to improve customer experience. [online] Idea Drop | Idea Management Software. https://ideadrop.co/customer-success/five-innovative-examples-of-how-to-improve-customer-experience/
Morgan, B., 2021. 20 Fresh Examples Of Customer Experience Innovation. [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2019/10/21/20-fresh-examples-of-customer-experience-innovation/?sh=3631e3507c41