Every organization is currently trying to get more customer-centric as the competition for excellence in customer experience increases. Today, competitive prices and luring consumers with offers and advertisements is inadequate. The consumer is smarter than before and often knows the products and services intimately due to online referrals and research. Therefore, the enlightened consumer requires a particular quality interaction and service from the organization. Such interactions include conducting surveys over particular products to ascertain the experience of the customer with the products, including what features they like or don’t like regarding a service or a product.
Primary Research on iPhone
As such, the objective of this research is to investigate customer experience with the iPhone, a product t of the Apple Inc., to find out if there are ways the product can be advanced to improve the customer experience. An online survey (primary research) will be conducted among iPhone owners where fifteen crucial questions will be asked. The online survey will be posted on a website, where the participants (iPhone owners) will be required to copy and paste the 15 questions into the comment bar where they will be required to fill in their answers. For the recruitment of the respondents, the survey will be advertised on various social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, among others, where a link will be provided for iPhone owners to enter the survey. Preferably, the participants must have used the gadget for at least six months. For the online survey to be effective, I will observe some aspects, which include:
i. Ensuring that all questions are necessary
ii. Keeping the questions simple and short
iii. Asking direct questions
iv. Speaking in the respondent's language
v. Using response scales anywhere possible
This primary online survey unveiled that the users mainly appreciate the iPhones. As well, the survey reveals that while the product comes in a variety of colors, black was the most preferred color. However, some respondents felt that the monthly charges for the iPhone are quite excessive while others felt that the gadgets need a bigger screen. Others believed that the phone was worth the cost due to the unique services it offers as well its dependability. In general, aside from the various areas that the respondents felt must be improved, the iPhone’s customer experience is quite commendable.
Secondary Research on iPhone
In his comparison between iPhone and Android, Spoonauer (2018) offers a variety of reasons why he finds iPhone better than Android. While he does not entirely dismiss Android phones and even commending their various hardware and many software customization options, Spoonauer still recommends the iPhone over Android. Among the reasons, he provides for why iPhone beats Android include its being faster than Android, its better hardware and software integration, its ease of use, its readily available updates, its lack of bloatware, and its best support and help.
As well, Cornell (2018) feels that although the iPhone has recently faced competition from other brands like Samsung, various features make the iPhone a must-have gadget. Cornell mentions such as the FaceTime feature, advanced camera, and the iCloud feature. Additionally, Hixon (2014) provides four reasons why one should switch from Android to iPhone, basing on their difference. The reasons include the more polished iPhone user interface, the better app ecosystem for iPhone, the stronger iOS at the technical detail level, and the iPhone’s more advanced camera. However, this research also discovered that some critics feel that Apple needs to polish several t areas where iPhones have seemed to fail and was surpassed by Android. For instance, one observer feels that Android surpasses iPhone in various aspects like having a variety of phone selections, easier customization, expandable memory, and user serviceable batteries. Other users such as Haselton (2017) suggest that the iPhone product could be improved by improving the battery life by adding larger battery packs and focusing on various areas that are known to drain battery life.
From the secondary research, it can be concluded that the iPhone has been widely appreciated into the consumer market and its customer experience is relatively great. However, the study revealed various setbacks experienced by the consumer and which need to be looked into. Among them, as most reviews indicated, include the phone’s low battery life, indicating that it has high power consumption. Power retention is of utmost significance for mobile gadgets since consumers have become overly dependent on their mobile phones. As well, considering the competition that has been staged lately by other brands like Android, Apple needs to improve their gadget’s power retention. Otherwise, the consumer will be forced to result to other competitors if they offer longer battery life.
In this CEM research, I utilized several CEM strategies that an organization like Apple should apply to create powerful experiences that improve customer relationships. Among the CEM concepts, I applied included knowing the customer, identifying what to anticipate, understanding the buyer’s journey, and getting reviews. Such are the concepts that helped me identify the issues with the iPhone product that the customers experience presented. Getting reviews was the best part of this research since the reviews can be applied to organizational advantage. This concept included taking note of pieces of feedback that resonated with the customer’s experience. One side of the reviews includes the customer’s complaints, which are perhaps the most significant. Rather than ignoring the customer’s criticisms, the organization should take advantage of the criticism. Similar to positive feedback, many businesses undoubtedly have similar criticism given, they are simply not ready to share with the world. As such, learning from such negative feedback can help in adapting the organizational approach to CEM.
Conclusion
When customers interact with their products or service providers, they have experience. Customer experience management is a solution via which most businesses interact with their customers to identify their experiences concerning particular services or products. CEM is the revolutionary measure to link the customer with the service or product provider, which blends customer loyalty, satisfaction, centricity, retention, user experience, relationship management, and experiential marketing. Through the research I conducted, I investigated various aspects of customer experience using primary research (which involved an online survey concerning iPhones) and secondary research (which involved searching for reviews and literature concerning the iPhone gadgets. The research enabled me to find out the various perceptions of iPhone users regarding the products. The study assumed that the respondents, as well as the literature, offered their genuine views regarding the product without any biases. The results of this study could be applied by Apple Inc. to improve their CEM strategies and beat their competitors at the production of smartphones.
References
Cornell, S. (2018). What Are the Advantages of Using an iPhone? Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-using-iphone-69061.html
Haselton, T. (2017). Here's how Apple can improve iPhone battery life. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/08/heres-how-apple-can-improve-iphone-battery-life.html
Hixon, T. (2014). Four Reasons To Switch From Android To iPhone. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/toddhixon/2014/03/26/why-i-dumped-my-android-phone/#3bde7be17d72
Spoonauer, M. (2018). 10 Reasons the iPhone Beats Android. Retrieved from https://www.tomsguide.com/us/iphone-is-better-than-android,news-21307.html
Appendix
Review Screenshots
Survey Link
http://www.iphoneforums.net/threads/a-quick-15-question-survey-for-iphone-owners-i-need-25-participants-by-tuesday-night.23855/
