A brand is crucial for consumer choice because it serves as a tool to assess the uniqueness of a product, builds trust, and addresses credibility issues (Sasmita & Suki, 2014). Given this, when customers think of a particular brand or business, what do you think is the first thing that comes to their minds?
Besides products or services, many often recollect their recent associations, interactions and experiences with the brand. Consequently, businesses ensure a consistent delivery of quality customer experience (CX) which can be achieved with the assistance of a CX service provider. To dig deep into the details, what is CX and why is it essential for businesses to improve their customer experience strategy? Let’s discover more about this below.
What Is Customer Experience?
Customer experience, which is abbreviated as CX, refers to the overall perception of a customer regarding the quality of interactions with a business throughout their journey. This comprises browsing a brand’s website or social media platforms, navigating the purchasing process, and receiving post-sale support.
Why Is It Important to Improve CX?
Being able to deliver an exceptional CX is imperative for any business. Besides, the kind service you provide to your customers can cultivate brand advocates given the experience that you have delivered. Their satisfaction and interactions with your brand can enable you to expand your business’ reach and improve brand trust.
Benefits of improving your CX strategy:
1. Increases sales
CX could significantly influence sales. According to Peter Kriss (2014) in the Harvard Business Review, clients who have had superior previous encounters tend to spend 140% more than those who have had the least satisfactory past experiences. This emphasizes the direct link between positive customer experiences and higher spending as it shows the importance of consistently delivering excellent service to drive sales growth.
Improving your sales through customer experience or CX strategy is indeed essential because it leads to an increase in trust and loyalty of customers. With a positive customer experience, more opportunities for your brand to stand out!
2. Strengthens customer relationships and trust
In order for your brand to have a strong impact on customers, an effective CX strategy is essential to strengthen relationships and trust. Delivering personalized experiences is crucial for growth because customers who feel valued are more likely to choose your brand. Besides, having this strategic approach can improve service coherence and foster trust across interactions, which ultimately enhances long-term customer relationships.
3. Boosts customer loyalty
Improving your CX strategy boosts customer loyalty because it leads to happy and satisfied customers, fostering brand loyalty. It drives growth through personalized experiences that ultimately makes your customers more likely to choose your brand.
4. Encourages brand advocacy
Happy and satisfied customers naturally become brand advocates as they recommend your brand to other people such as their friends and family. Your CX strategy becomes cost-effective as loyal customers spread positive information about your brand through word-of-mouth, social media, and more, increasing brand awareness.
Basically, an effective and well-executed CX strategy encourages loyal customers to advocate your brand, strengthening your recognition and reputation.
5. Improves up-selling and cross-selling
Strong customer relationships make cross-selling and upselling easier because your customers already expect consistent experiences and trust in future interactions with your brand. Considering that CX strategy prioritizes personalized experiences which fosters trust and loyalty, this leads to increased sales opportunities.
6. Increases competitive advantage
Competition demands that your brand stands out among rivals. Prioritizing your CX strategy is important since customers leave reviews and provide recommendations that can greatly influence your brand’s reputation. An effective CX strategy ensures providing the best customer experiences, boosting competitive advantage and fostering sustained growth by satisfying customers and distinguishing your brand in the competitive landscape.
7. Sustains business growth
Your customer experience strategy is significant because it can influence your brand’s growth and success. As you prioritize satisfying your customers, this fosters loyalty and advocacy which improves your brand reputations and differentiation. Given this, it leads to an increase in sales, revenue, competitive advantage, and most importantly, sustained business growth.
How to Measure and Improve Customer Experience
There is no single metric in accurately measuring and improving customer experience. Though a combination of both quantitative and qualitative measures can be taken to truly assess the overall customer experience.
1. Look into CX survey results
Gathering feedback through CX surveys offers valuable insights from your customers’ perspective. Their perceptions are crucial for identifying both strengths and weaknesses in your brand which enables you to be more knowledgeable on areas needing improvement.
An example of this would be the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Score. This is a straightforward metric that gauges how satisfied customers are with specific internations – perhaps, post-purchase surveys. A high CSAT score indicates a happy customer.
Another example of this would be the Net Promoter Score (NPS). This measures customer loyalty through rating the likelihood of an existing customer to recommend the brand to others. NPS can categorize customers into promoters or detractors. Promoters are those who are loyal to the brand and are enthusiastic about it, while detractors are those who can potentially cause damage to the brand because of poor experiences. Similar to the CSAT, a high NPS score shows a strong customer base.
While there are other metrics that can be used to measure and improve Customer Experience, it is important to keep in mind that there are other factors that can come into play when assessing the overall experience.
2. Analyze trends on customer support issues and queries
Customer support issues and queries offer valuable feedback on your customers’ concerns and experiences. Analyzing their insights can deepen your understanding of their needs and use those as a way to improve your service.
3. Ask your customers how you can further improve your products or services
An effective way of understanding your customers is by asking them how you can improve your products and services. Their feedback is significant for continuous improvement of what you offer and provide. However, it is also important to acknowledge the imperfection and actively seek customer feedback to enhance your brand.
Encourage them to share suggestions and attentively listen to their comments and suggestions. After getting insights, refine your CX strategy to ensure you provide the best experiences for your customers.
9 Ways to Improve Customer Experience
1. Get to know your customers
What are their needs, wants, and preferences? All these would allow you to create a customer experience that truly connects and resonates with them.
2. Nurture your relationships with your customers
Emotions play a huge role in a customer’s decision-buying process. Develop an emotional connection with your customers, who will likely choose your brand over others.
3. Be consistent
Have a clear picture of the kind of experience you want your customers to have from you. Create guidelines for all your customer channels and touchpoints. Ensure all CS agents and company staff that interact with your customers adhere to these guidelines.
4. Perform customer satisfaction surveys regularly
You won’t get any feedback if you don’t ask. You could do this real-time while you’re on the phone with them, or they’re still in your store. You could also reach out to them through email or a quick phone call after they’ve interacted with your brand.
5. Be present where your customers are
Make it easy for customers to reach out to you. Be present on social media. Offer live chat support on your website, and be active on various messaging platforms. When customers know they’d be able to contact you when they need you, they’d more likely stick with your company.
6. Use the appropriate technologies and innovations
Not all technologies and innovations may be right for you. Before integrating new technology to improve your customer experience, consider how it will affect your process and how long before your staff and customers can adapt to these changes. Otherwise, you may hurt your customer experience than improve it.
7. Evaluate your customer support team
Just as you’d want to get feedback from your customers, you also should offer feedback to your team; by doing this, you’re able to maintain the quality of services they provide to your customers.
8. Be quick to adapt
With all the feedback you receive from both the customers and employees, use it to improve whatever needs to be improved. This also shows that you value their input, when you respond to their feedback promptly.
9. Make CX a Core Value
Integrate CX strategies into your company’s core values and ensure that everyone prioritizes customer satisfaction. By implementing such strategies and fostering a customer-centric approach, you can create a customer experience that sets you apart from the competition. Keep in mind that happy customers are loyal customers, and these loyal customers are what leads to sustainable growth of the business.
Customer experience and customer service go hand in hand. To stand out in an ever-increasing competitive business environment, consider improving your customer experience strategy. Inspiro can help. We are an expert CX service provider with a range of CX services, from contact center solutions and omnichannel services to CX analytics and insights. Fill out our contact form for more information on our services.
