How to Build Consistent Customer Experience Across a Global Brand
At first glance, global expansion seems more accessible than ever—and in some ways, it is. You can reach as many countries as you wish with mobile apps, websites, digital ads, and blog posts. However, your international expansion efforts can quickly fall flat if you fail to provide all customers with an equally enjoyable experience. Customer experience (CX) is more than interest in a new product or even the act of making a purchase. It includes every interaction a customer has with your brand, and pleasing customers throughout the entire journey is more important than ever before.
Every interaction you have with your customers alters their perception of your brand. Seventy-three percent of customers say experience is an essential factor in their purchase decisions. Therefore, mastering CX across a global audience is critical to success. You may be tempted to create a mirror of your established home market experience. However, this approach is unlikely to meet international customers' diverse expectations and perceptions. You can't transition success established over years or decades of hard work into overnight success in a new location.
To provide an equitable customer experience, you must avoid
Sacrificing the customer experience due to language barriers
Poor navigation
Bottlenecks that disrupt the purchase process
The Impact of Poor Language Quality on Customer Experience
When creating content for an international audience, it's essential to remember that translation isn't always the key to understanding. A slogan adapted to another language might have a subtly different meaning that fails to convey a consistent brand message. Poor language quality or partial localization can create friction at various points during the customer journey.
When companies translate entire websites and all digital customer information using machine translation, many languages can be left out, or errors could be included. As a result, potential customers may become excited upon becoming aware of your products or services, only to quickly turn away because they can't find the information they need.
According to CSA research, there are five phases in the customer journey for consumer websites. They are:
Discovery
Browsing
Evaluation
Purchase
Loyalty
Each phase presents an opportunity for consumers to drop out of the journey. For example, when consumers become interested in your product as a solution to their problem, they're likely to browse your website. However, if their request to gain more information leads them to a page only available in English, they may turn to your competition to find the answers they need to make a purchase.
In another scenario, customers may reach checkout only to find their preferred payment methods or currencies aren't available.
Such disappointments turn customers away from your product and create a poor opinion of your brand. From the consumers who never make it past the discovery stage to those who discover your products can't be purchased with their currency, you're losing potential customers due to a poor experience.
5 Essential Elements for a Mature Global Customer Experience
Creating an equitable global experience requires establishing customer relationships in a new location. These relationships may differ from those you've formed with customers elsewhere. Meeting your customers' expectations will require you to customize CX in the following areas.
1. Brand Voice
Creating a unified message is one of the critical components of branding. However, recreating the exact same experience across all audiences fails to achieve an equitable and enjoyable customer experience. Directly translating your company's slogan can sometimes deliver similar words with an entirely different message. If you focus on the message and the needs of your new audience, you're more likely to develop a successful connection. For instance, you may begin with a microsite focusing on your core product and company's mission.
Startups attempting to begin organically as a global brand may have the opportunity to take a different approach. Companies without an established brand can consider how different slogans, images, and marketing techniques will translate across diverse audiences before selecting the ideas that will make up their branding efforts.
2. User Experience
When the digital experience begins with excellent language quality management only to fall apart halfway through, you're turning away potential customers who have already shown interest in your brand. Users who bounce after browsing and abandon shopping carts are evidence of the dangers of an underdeveloped user experience. When you begin by developing a superior user experience that delights your new customers, you can slowly scale your efforts without sacrificing customer satisfaction.
3. Personalized Messages
Seventy-one percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn't happen. Shoppers want to receive messages about products relating to their interests. But if you have minimal data to support your personalization attempts, your marketing attempts may feel like mass marketing or, worse, be offensive. When you use a carefully crafted localization plan to develop your marketing, you're more likely to have the data to send the right message to the right customer at the right time.
4. Customer Service
Customer loyalty isn't derived from a single purchase. Customers often need information after a product purchase or to troubleshoot various issues. While you have established digital self-help options and in-app support, these options might not transfer seamlessly in a new location. Creating seamless interactions with tools like chatbots requires in-depth research and, just as often, trial and error. Developing successful customer service in a new location might necessitate hiring local human representatives, allowing you to accurately address problems that arise for new customers and build brand trust.
5. Self-Service Content
In the same way, digital tools fuel your global expansion, consumers value utilizing digital channels for shopping, customer support, or troubleshooting issues. Customers appreciate fast response times, knowledgeable staff, and easy-to-use tools. Self-service options allow them to access information and tools when they want and at their needed pace.
Online support with high-quality translations and localization allows you to support your customers without interacting with a company representative. This support often includes frequently asked questions, a knowledge base, and forums. By providing these tools in every location you serve, you empower customers to work with your company on their terms. When self-service options offer relevant information that solves problems, they improve your customer service and present your company favorably.
Businesses often need to pay more attention to equitable service for equal service. Offering quantity without quality can reduce access for diverse audiences, resulting in losing business you don't have the tools to recognize. By incorporating localization into your global expansion efforts, you can avoid the pitfalls that could otherwise derail customer interest across new markets. Like other aspects of business, international expansion requires ongoing effort for the highest levels of success.
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