Leverage emerging technology to improve customer experience

Introduction

Customer experience is always an important aspect of business. How great or poor it is could make a great difference in the success of a of a business venture. Everyone appreciates where they are treated like a loyalty. And nobody likes it when they are left out as if they do not exist. So for every entrepreneur, how the customers rates your business is very important.

In this my first write-up for this community, I want to look at how latest technology could be utilized by entrepreneurs to elevate the customer experience for their business. There are many emerging technologies around us, but I will like to focus on blockchain technology. Before we begin, lets look at the general challenges that some businesses face that does not make for a great customer experience.

Customer satisfaction - hitting a difficult goal

Many entrepreneurs and businesses will always say that customer satisfaction is their priority. Some have adopted it as their tagline. But that is easier said than done. There are a thousand and one customers today that are anything but happy. They have a lot to complain about and sometimes, their voices are not heard. So even if an entrepreneur claims to make their customer happy, you cannot conclude until you hear the customer's side of the story. Consider just one major issue that customers always complain about:

• Waiting time: When was the last time you spent minutes or hours queuing up with other people just to buy something or obtain a service? Perhaps it happened the last time you visited a bank, petrol station, shopping mall or other businesses. Majority of customers today complain about wasting so much time on something that shouldn't cause a delay.

Its a fast-paced world and there is so much to do in so little time. It is all too common to see customers loose their cool because they feel they are spending much time than they should. Maybe you have seen people jump the queue or fight over who should be attended to first. Time is precious and nobody likes to be kept waiting. Unfortunately, many customers have had to deal with slow service times and this is a big cause of dissatisfaction.

A customer will always prefer a business that provides quick service any day. In fact, many customers are ready to pay more if they could obtain some services faster. But if an entrepreneur is known to delay in their services, customer experience would not be great. Additionally, that goal of putting smiles on the faces of your customers might be defeated.

The above is just once typical example of what could cause an entrepreneur to have sad customers. There are many other reasons that could make customer satisfaction elusive, but that is not the main focus of this article. So lets see how blockchain technology could be used to improve customer experience.

Blockchain could make happy faces

So as a business owner or entrepreneur, there are many different ways to elevate the customer experience. Lots of emerging technologies could help you improve your services and vastly enhance customer experience. One such technology which is still relatively new in many places is blockchain technology. So there are a number of ways that blockchain has been used and can be used to make customers happy. Consider the following two ways:

• Rewarding customer loyalty: A lot is left to be desired in today's customer reward programs. At the very best, customers continue to accumulate points that are supposed to be converted into something valuable. It takes forever to happen though. But digital tokens powered by blockchain technology could be earned by customers each time they patronize your business.

Each digital token or cryptocurrency earned by a customer is sent to them directly. Each customer has a digital wallet where these tokens are stored. Each token has value that could instantly be exchanged for money or other services. Blockchain tokens could be sold, swapped for other tokens or value or simply used to pay for more services.

One great thing about about using blockchain digital tokens for customer reward is that there is real value for every interaction. Besides, the customer is rewarded instantly. As such, there is no need to wait for a very long time or go through many time-wasting processes before their rewards are converted to value. Rewards are sent immediately they are earned and are instantly available for value exchange.

• Instant payment: Sometimes, what causes long wait times and queues is the checkout point. Think about shopping malls where customers have to wait to be attended to by few cashiers. Banks also have this challenge too. Crypto payments are already causing a revolution in the finance sector. In addition to existing payment options, an entrepreneur might implement crypto checkouts. This will add another dimension to their payment channels and create another easier way for customers to check out.

Crypto payments are fast for one thing. They are also great for small amounts. And they are free too. With crypto payments being accepted, customers can easily settle their bills from their wallets direct to the business without having to wait in long lines. With more and more people getting into crypto, it would be a great technology innovation for an entrepreneur to accept crypto payments.

Change is challenging

Emerging technologies like blockchain still have many challenges. But many entrepreneurs are already exploring how they could use this technology to enhance customer experience. The above are just sample ideas of how to make it work. There are definitely many other ways to use it.

Using new technology to improve customer experience is a great recommendation. When an entrepreneur tries it, there are definitely positive results that could come from it.

note: thumbnail is from pixabay