Connecting with the customer means investing in a strategic partner
We are in one of the most challenging decades for customer service. Hypertransparent processes, quick solutions and real-time support makes it more difficult to connect with customers and transform these relationships into partnerships. How do we achieve this? How do we meet their expectations? How do we innovate in the meantime?
In the modern economy, the focus on the continuous improvement of customer service standards has played an important role. Creating strong service solutions, while putting the customer at the center, is part of building a long-term relationship based on solid beliefs and a shared vision.
You do not need the perfect recipe; but do ensure its main ingredient “transformation”—a transformation that improves customers’ experiences and takes customer-provider relationships to the next level.
Becoming your customer’s strategic partner
How can you be relevant to your customer in a highly competitive environment? Well, innovation in your service makes all the difference; for instance communicate and have real-time data about what is most efficient for your partner, offer immediate solutions and have end-to-end traceability. This requires new systems that connect the customer and the provider.
Having a roadmap tailored to each potential partner, while fully understanding your services and/or products and how your prospective partner’s business works, lets your customer reach the highest performance level.
The modern customer experience has evolved beyond “reactive attention” and putting customers on hold. To earn their loyalty, companies nowadays must provide options through various channels, allowing the customer to save time while making them feel heard. Studies indicate 73 percent of consumers say customer service can make them fall in love with a brand, and 86 percent are willing to pay up to 25 percent more for better support.
Creating strong service solutions, while putting the customer at the center, is part of building a long-term relationship based on solid beliefs and a shared vision
Therefore, knowing how to communicate with customers is essential to gain their loyalty.
Taking on this challenge means understanding five fundamental principles:
- The customer is your main partner—it is why we listen to them, understand their needs and provide solutions.
- A close relationship is necessary to form a permanent connection.
- Ensure that doing business with your company is easy and pleasant for the customer.
- Honor your commitments and quickly solve problems.
- Focus on providing customers the best experience—always and everywhere.
A customer service leader, CEMEX Go is the first integrated digital platform in the cement industry.
After listening to more than 3,000 customers around the world, we discovered the most challenging aspects of businesses and designed a more efficient and simplified experience—a superior experience.
Now, our customers have a solution available via multiple devices that provides an optimal experience when making quotations, ordering, tracking orders in real-time and managing invoices and payments of our main products, from delivery to after-sales service. This is proof of our commitment to customers, as well as our constant focus on innovation and continuous improvement. Our customers can now increase their productivity, make better decisions and have more control over their business.
73 percent of consumers say customer service can make them fall in love with a brand, and 86 percent are willing to pay up to 25 percent more for better support
Furthermore, this initiative represents CEMEX’s commitment to lead the construction materials industry in the digital era of business, with support from IBM and NEORIS, who have shared their experiences, innovations and avant-garde digital services to offer disruptive solutions that promote the best customer experience.
Many companies across all industries are already client-centric and have designed strategies to connect with customers so they can become long-term partners. However, the difference lies in whether the innovation of their channels comes from their vision or from actively listening to what the customer would need to become a partner.
