By now, we’ve all been through enough poorly planned and executed virtual meetings to know that they can be draining, boring, and downright ineffective. While that’s never a good thing, it’s especially bad for customer meetings. When it comes to customer engagement, it’s important to make them feel important and to ensure their time is used in a meaningful way.
In today’s highly competitive marketplace, customer experience is often the differentiating factor between earning someone’s business or losing a deal. According to recent research, 80% of consumers report that their customer experience with a company is just as important as that company’s product or service. However, according to a McKinsey customer experience and frameworks study, B2B businesses struggle to provide memorable, impactful experiences for customers, especially when compared to brick-and-mortar retail.
So, with buyers who are both concerned about customer experiences and less likely to actually encounter a fulfilling one, it begs the question: how can you provide a great customer experience? One way is by designing a high-quality customer experience center (CEC). But what is an experience center?
In the following article we break down CEC basics, and how to improve customer experience by incorporating thoughtful design tips to give your experience center meaning, purpose, and power.
What Is a Customer Experience Center?
A customer experience center is a physical space set up to help your business connect with current as well as prospective customers. Within that physical space, CECs often include a mix of activities, technology, employees, and of course, customers. The best customer experience centers can cater to a hybrid audience, providing equitable and collaborative engagement for everyone involved.
What Are Examples of Customer Experience Centers?
There are plenty of experience center examples that many consumers and businesses alike interact with on a regular basis. Some examples include:
- Conventions and conferences
- Board rooms or meeting spaces
- Office headquarters
As an innovator in the digital space, at Alleo we believe customer experience centers can be just about anywhere with the right tools and a little creativity (both of which you can find with partners like us).
One CEC example is the Cisco Experience Center. By combining virtual and on-site technology and experiences, Cisco stakeholders can:
- Participate in active demonstrations
- Create custom agendas
- Delve into meaningful, high-level, and in-depth conversation with subject matter experts
- Engage in open discussions to create an ideal solution
As part of the shift to CECs, Cisco offers their experience centers in major cities worldwide, like New York, London, Tokyo and more!
Another great example of a CEC could be Salesforce’s nature retreat. While they work to navigate in-person, remote, and hybrid working requirements, Salesforce invested in a CEC in the form of a nature retreat in California. And they aren’t the only ones. Companies from all over are slowly de-emphasizing offices in every city and instead focusing on CECs in major cities like New York or Chicago. The goal is to provide incredible, unique, and immersive experiences when someone comes to these CECs, whether it’s employees, customers, investors, or other stakeholders.
What Is Customer Experience Design for CECs?
Customer experience center design encompasses both the literal design of the space, as well as the design of the presentation and experiences from a technological standpoint. It’s important to physically design spaces that will contribute to the overall experience you want participants to have.
To that end, having brand-centric furniture, decor, and design is important in furthering your brand’s image in the mind of your customers. Additionally, it’s important to consider factors such as:
- How many people will be in the same space at once?
- What activities will they be doing?
- How can the physical space contribute to, or limit, interaction with each other?
- What kind of equipment will be required?
- What kind of information do our customers want or expect?
While the physical design and setup of the CEC are important, ultimately the technology used to convey the experience is the number one determiner of success. For example, if you are in an incredible space, but have to sit through a boring slide show presentation, would the customer experience really be all that great? Probably not. For that reason, focusing on the design of the presentations and experiences is paramount to the success of a CEC.
How Do I Create an Experience Center That’s Great for All Participants?
Designing an experience center that is great for everyone begins and ends with using the right technology. Focusing on customer experience design, of course, might make you think of physical elements. However, these days, with so many companies subscribing to hybrid work models, it’s no longer enough to just present a bland and frankly outdated powerpoint. In order to engage with everyone equitably, you have to rely on modern technology (like Alleo) that was designed with hybrid workers in mind. To truly create a unique and immersive experience for customers, whether they are in person or remote, you should be using a presentation and activity platform that is:
- Dynamic
- Customizable
- Interactive
- Intuitive
- Easy to moderate
- Equitable
It’s worth noting that when we say equitable, we really mean it. Every participant should feel heard and encouraged in every activity. Our software allows for just that. This way, it’s not just the loudest voices in the room that are heard.
What Is the Purpose of an Experience Center?
The idea behind customer experience centers is to leverage highly engaging and interactive activities or presentations to build meaningful, immersive experiences for customers. When it comes to closing sales, one giant component is relationship building.
If your customers only know you as the name at the end of an email, or a picture by a LinkedIn message, they probably aren’t thrilled with their customer experience. On the other hand, if you consistently interact with your customer, meet with them regularly, and continue to foster that relationship, they are more likely to be on board when the time comes to sign on the dotted line. CECs take this idea to the next level by helping provide your customers with a unique, engaging, personal experience.
Beyond just providing an experience, thoughtfully designed CECs also help address the following customer experience objectives:
- Creating a step in your customer journey
- Developing memorable experiences for all parties involved
- Improving your company’s reputation
Customer Journey
Every customer is different, meaning that their customer journey will be too. They might have different entry points, needs and wants, budgets, etc. With a customer experience center, you can promote your business to every customer in a way that conveys value to them. After all, customer journeys are about increasing their familiarity with what you are offering. CECs provide the ability to add a meaningful step in your ideal customer journey that can help turn leads into deals. With technology like Alleo, you can make sure everyone’s perspective is heard, truly understanding the wants and needs of your customers.
Memorable Experiences
You’ve probably never heard anyone recount famous stories about “that one virtual meeting.” That’s because the sad reality is most virtual experiences just aren’t that great. With the right customer experience center design, you can provide memorable experiences for in-person as well as hybrid participants. By focusing on customer-centric, fun, and engaging activities, you can create a genuinely unique experience for everyone involved. With interactive tools and features in Alleo, you can make the CEC experience truly unforgettable.
Improved Reputation
Every interaction anyone has with your organization directly impacts your reputation. So, it follows that if CECs lead to better customer experiences, CECs also contribute to a better overall reputation. When a customer gets to experience everything your brand has to offer, they get a chance to basically test drive the professional relationship. In doing so, they can garner customer experience insights on what it might be like to work together. This can help them answer questions like:
- Did they put time and energy into their presentation?
- Do the products work?
- How did they treat us when we were there?
- Does this feel like a company we should go into business with?
Hopefully, their experience in the CEC leads them to answer these questions positively and ultimately helps you win or keep their business.
Alleo…Creating Custom Customer Experience Centers
At Alleo, we understand how important it is to create high-quality customer experiences. It can quite literally be the difference between making a sale or not. But beyond that, CECs provide valuable experiences for all stakeholders, from customers to investors to employees. When it comes to designing a customer experience center, it’s about more than color schemes and furniture choices. It comes down to how well your technology can power your goal. That’s why we set out to create a truly unique software platform—to help you create a truly exceptional customer experience.
Our technology allows you to:
- Pick from several ready to go templates
- Create customized boards, activities, and presentations
- Equitably cater to the needs of both in-person and remote participants
- Control all the screens in an entire room from one control center
- Drag and drop with the touch of a finger between screens
- Utilize customizable widgets
In fact, with our team of committed designers, together we can upgrade your existing experience centers or build yours in our innovative platform. To learn more about the impact we can make together, head to our website to see the platform in action, or get a free demo today!
