Every successful business emphasizes providing an exceptional customer experience. Customers who feel valued and enjoy the overall experience of doing business with your brand are more likely to return for more. If you get it wrong, they will not only flock to your competitors but they will also most likely not give you a second chance.
Your brand’s reputation is just as important—if not even more important—than the products or services you offer. So, creating a great customer experience doesn’t just make generally good business sense, it is the key to driving long-term business growth.
However, the concept of customer experience has evolved significantly in recent years. Today, it is all about making every aspect of the customer journey as simple, straightforward, and frictionless as possible. It’s equally about using intelligent technology, like customer self-service solutions, to provide customers with a positive experience like the support as their expectation at every single touchpoint they have with your brand.
In this article, we’ll explain what customer experience is, how it permeates the entire customer journey, and what new digital customer experience solutions can help you take it to the next level.
Customer Experience
The customer experience (CX) refers to the sum of a customer’s interactions with a company.
This can range from when a customer first hears about a brand to years after they purchase a product or service. To create a holistic positive experience, businesses must consider the customer’s perspective at every stage.
What makes a good customer experience?
Great customer service entails not only adhering to best practices such as respecting customers’ time, maintaining a pleasant demeanor, and providing knowledgeable and resourceful resources but also going above and beyond to exceed — rather than simply meet — expectations.
Importance Of Customer Experience
Below are the reasons why customer experience is so important:
- Increases customer retention
The best way to build customer loyalty and retain customers is by offering them a satisfactory, unique, and if possible, unforgettable experience. A customer who is pleased with the purchase process and the relationship they have developed with our brand is a customer who will return to us if they require the service or product again.
Furthermore, customer experience strategies help to increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), and creating an optimal customer experience is one of the most fruitful and profitable ways to build customer loyalty. Research from marketing and eCommerce consultancy Econsultancy shows that 64% of organizations believe that customer experience is the best strategy for improving CLV.
- Encourages active listening
When carrying out strategies to improve customer experience, active listening to their comments, opinions, and experiences about our brand is essential. Working on the customer experience, in this sense, encourages organizations to listen more to customers, get to know them better, and, in short, pay more attention to what they have to say.
Active listening to the voice of the customer can be carried out in multiple ways. On the one hand, the collection and analysis of customer data at each point of contact are essential, but in addition, Other methodologies, such as the implementation of surveys, focus groups, interviews with key customers, and so on, can supplement the information and insights gained from data analysis.
- Encourages customer acquisition, business generation, and increased revenue.
Multiple market studies show that acquiring new customers is much more expensive than retaining existing ones, and Hubspot adds that over the last six years, the cost of acquiring a new customer has increased by 60%.
In addition to boosting customer retention, improving the customer experience encourages existing customers to recommend the company to their acquaintances and, therefore, also leads to the acquisition of new customers. In this respect, the US data and information company Nielsen conducted a study in 56 countries which confirmed that more than 91% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family more than they trust advertising.
- Optimization of the purchased ticket
Taking care of the customer experience also tends to boost the value of the average purchase ticket, as customers who are satisfied with the shopping experience and the touch points are more likely to buy more items. Furthermore, the customer experience can be used by businesses to encourage the purchase of additional products or higher-value products.
Forbes reports that brand-loyal customers are five times more likely to make a repeat purchase, buy more products or recommend the brand to an acquaintance.
- Improvement of marketing and commercial actions
Active listening to customers, gaining insights and knowledge about who they are, how they behave, and what they want and need, promoting the optimization of marketing and commercial strategies, actions, and campaigns.
- Promotes differentiation from the competition.
Brand differentiation is linked to customer experience differentiation. More and more businesses are using customer experience to differentiate themselves. Creating unique, original, and impactful customer experiences is an agile and extremely effective mechanism to differentiate from the competition and retain customers.
FAQs
How does customer experience create value?
Customer experience value (CXV) assists businesses in recognizing a customer’s value at the point of contact and determining how to maximize that value through dynamic, personalized treatment to ensure maximum CX ROI.
What are the 3 keys to winning the customer experience?
Respect each other’s time; respond to and resolve internal inquiries as soon as possible.
What are the 5 core principles of customer service?
- Speed.
- Accuracy.
- Accountability.
- Quality.
- Transparency.
Customer Experience Trends for 2023
The changes of the last ten years may persist for a while, but expect customer experience to evolve with the times as well.
Brick-and-mortar stores are wonderful and still necessary, but eCommerce is on the rise. And there are far more options for selling products than just a website. Customers are increasingly using WhatsApp, as well as Instagram and Facebook, to make purchases.
The emphasis on sustainability is another trend that is here to stay. Customers want to support companies that actively work to reduce their carbon footprints and give back to the environment. To gain consumer trust, this also necessitates complete transparency.
Customer experience has changed over the last decade and will continue to change in the coming years. Brands must continue to evolve and change to attract and retain customers.
The pandemic has demonstrated that the most resilient businesses are those that can quickly adapt to changes, both internal and external to their control. You’re setting yourself up for future success if you stay tuned in to what your customers want (and need). To create smarter customer experiences, you can also outsource Customer experience services to NCRI Inc. In conclusion, developing a defined, clear, and data-driven customer experience strategy is critical for increasing customer loyalty, shortening the conversion funnel, getting them to recommend our brand to others, and enhancing our brand values. Make your customers’ experience one to remember!
