The consumer durables industry is going through an exciting time. People spending more time at home has increased demand for home appliances. Most of the consumer durable brands have recognized this opportunity and are providing more choices to consumers. But in this new consumer-centric environment, having the right product is not enough. Brands need to provide better experiences and services across all product touchpoints.
Due to the longevity of products in this segment, focusing on the consumer’s long-term experience can influence brand loyalty. By taking steps to increase the lifetime value of products, brands can acquire a customer for life, including products in other categories.
The fact that a consumer has bought the product from a range of available options means that he or she liked the product, and that the brand has differentiated itself in a crowded market. However, pre-sales marketing and the sales transaction are only the tip of the iceberg. The time of purchase marks the beginning of the customer relationship. To make this relationship delightful, consumer durable companies should establish a Connected Experience Ecosystem that unifies the customer experience across all digital channels and touch-points.
Social Marketing and Engagement
Brands should make intelligent use of user-generated content about their product experience, showing how customers have elevated everyday activities into amazing experiences. Build compelling narratives around these user generated stories. And understand many of today’s consumers are impacted by influencers. Brands that create compelling content featuring high-value influencers creates aspirational feelings that make consumers gravitate toward the brand.
Concept Stores
Investing in concept stores is key to building brand experiences and differentiation. This gives consumers a vision of their potential homes, even if the experience combines physical and digital stores. Provide an immersive 3D experience where the consumer can navigate through different houses, interacting with products to learn more about the design and features.
Digital Commerce Resources
Service excellence through reliable e-commerce channels builds customer trust. Consumer durables companies should focus on direct-to-consumer channels and create a smooth journey from the decision to the buying stage. They should also leverage digital assistants for everything from purchasing new products to reordering replacements parts.
Owners’ Hub
A well-designed owners’ hub is the center of the post-sales experience. This is where consumers can access information including product manuals, “how to” videos, product warranties, service, and product recycling options. Consumer durable companies should invest in providing AR- and VR-driven product usage assistants, connected devices to increase asset productivity, and improved quality through proactive interventions.
Value-Added Services
Value-added services capitalize on the subscription-based economy by offering content and goods of true value to customers. Companies should identify and focus on the right value added services around the usage of their products. These services could include online recipes, baking courses, training, community competitions, etc. By establishing such new channels of communication, brands can also learn more about the customer and deepen their insights into upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
Three Principles to Build a Connected Experience Ecosystem
It is critical to understand and build direct relationships with customers in both the B2B and B2C markets. Leveraging product usage data and customer behavior patterns enables companies to deliver personalized services and improve the consumer experience. Since consumer durable companies address products that are used daily, it is very important to make every engagement convenient and contextual. For instance, product manuals should be digitized and use AR/ VR apps to guide users through product features, and more interactions should become voice driven and use data insights to provide more meaningful assistance.
The entire experience ecosystem should be connected, automated, and have a complete view of the customer engagement and needs. This requires a real-time customer data platform that can draw insights and activate the most relevant engagements across the ecosystem. To make these engagements real, the supporting processes should be completely digitized. And the experience ecosystem should be governed by one parameter: providing a delightful consumer experience.
To that end, setup a continuous value measurement and optimization process. Include metrics to measure the KPIs that impact the customer experience. Capture and measure through ideation and experimentation. Analyze the data and adjust for improved performance.
These principles should help consumer durable brands create a digital foundation for a connected experience ecosystem. Creating this ecosystem, and continuously monitoring consumer experience data, will help brands build loyal customers and advocates. The ultimate objective is to make consumers so satisfied with the brand experience that they will remain a customer for life.