The importance of consistent customer experience across multiple locations

With multi-location businesses, one of the biggest hurdles you will face, time and time again, is getting the balance right between consistency and individuality for locations. However, one piece in which it is essential to ensure consistency across all locations is the customer experience. The customer experience can make or break your business, and as a brand with multiple locations, you want customers to be able to expect the same care and attention, the same service, no matter the location they enter. And, while building a consistent customer experience across all locations is going to take a lot of time, coordination, and effort, the end result is 100% worth all the work.

The importance of a stellar customer experience

Customer experience reigns supreme, in terms of returns and loyalty, when it comes to brands. According to PWC getting the customer experience right can lead to enormous payoffs, “up to a 16% price premium on products and services,” to be exact. More over, customers are more likely to buy from brands that provide an overall great experience, and ditch those that don’t, sometimes even after just one bad experience. Customers have a variety of options these days, making it easier than ever to switch brands or providers if they have a negative experience. In the end, the success of your business hinges on your company’s ability to deliver a great customer experience.

But, what are the most important things that customers value the most when it comes to their experience with brands? “Nearly 80% of American consumers say that speed, convenience, knowledgeable help and friendly service are the most important elements of a positive customer experience.” This is helpful to know because if you have lags in your customer-facing processes, those should be the first things you address.

Overall, if you can get the above values right across all locations, it will be much easier to build and maintain a strong customer base that remains loyal to your company. Luckily, we have included some guidelines below that can help make the process a bit easier.

The value in consistency for multi-location brands

There are probably multi-location companies out there that do not enforce the same standards and expectations across all of their locations, but it is to their detriment. We believe that consistency in the customer experience is important for a couple of reasons, including:

Brand recognition – The ultimate goal for a multi-location business if for customers to be able to recognize your brand, no matter which location they enter. Consistency allows for stronger brand recognition, and the ability to build a strong base of brand loyalists, through unified experiences, services, a consistent visual identity and more.
Marketing synergy – As a multi-location brand, marketing synergies across all locations will make it easier to achieve goals, scale, and engage with your audience across communities, and nationally. Your marketing team will also thank you when they do not have to manage hundreds of individual marketing campaigns.
Improved efficiencies – When working at scale, you can take advantage of certain efficiencies, including quality control, design elements, and costs when all locations maintain the same standards and processes.
Customer expectations – Without a doubt, your customers expect particular standards, services, and processes every time they visit any location. When you maintain consistency across all locations, you can meet or exceed customer expectations every time, making their overall experience with the brand something they appreciate and want to repeat.

Strategies for ensuring a unified customer experience

Now that you know how important a unified customer experience can be and the resounding impact it can have on your multi-location business, let’s talk about how to make it happen. First, before starting on anything else, make sure that you set goals and benchmarks and get the involvement of important stakeholders. This will help ensure your other efforts do not go to waste. Then, consider the following:

Measure and track customer satisfaction – Set up a system for soliciting feedback from customers and making continuous improvements. Your customers will provide the most accurate insights into the customer experience process, so consider asking them regularly for feedback through surveys, testimonials, interviews and more. Then, make sure to incorporate their feedback into the process as there is no point in collecting the feedback if you are not going to use it. Consider selecting a few metrics that represent a successful customer experience and measure them across all locations for easy comparison and tracking.
Train staff at all locations to deliver the same level of service – If you want to ensure a unified experience, all employees must be aware of the standards and processes. The only way to effectively do this is by using the same materials and trainings across all locations for all employees.
Utilize technology and automation – There are numerous benefits to adopting new technology and automating routine procedures; they save both your customers and employees time and energy. When you automate routine interactions, you streamline the process and ensure a consistent response, promoting the same experience for everyone. The same is true for technologies such as chatbots and mobile apps. Just make sure your technology is efficient and not glitchy as this can negatively impact the customer experience.

A consistent customer experience across all locations is the best approach for multi-location businesses interested in improving ROI, brand recognition, and leveraging efficiencies. Give MDG a call today for help unifying your customer experience.