Delivering a positive customer experience is one of the key aspects of building a successful business, regardless of the industry your company is in. Hence, creating a customer-focused strategy is an important step for all businesses.
What is the customer experience?
The customer experience is also referred to as CX. It is the perception customers have of your brand as a whole. Therefore, it is the result of every interaction a customer has had with your business. This could be contacting customer service, placing an order online, or looking up the return policy of an item. Every positive interaction a customer has had with your business, will result in an improved customer experience.
The benefits of a happy customer
There are several reasons why a happy customer is important for your business. Happy customers tend to be consistent customers, and their loyalty will make them lifelong customers. In addition to their regular business, loyal customers will promote your products or services to others. Such customers are also called the advocates for your business. It is therefore no surprise that the most valuable customers are those whose word of mouth brings in profitable new customers. A positive customer experience will allow your business to grow, helps you retain customers, and encourages brand advocacy. Customers who enjoy positive experiences are likely to remain customers for five years longer than customers who had negative experiences. And delivering positive customer experiences can reduce your cost to serve customers by up to 33 percent.
Return on CX
Optimising your customer experience will require some investments. Simply put, the return on CX are the benefits you have gained from improving your CV, minus the money you have invested in optimising the customer experience. Measuring those benefits can prove to be difficult, as an improved customer experience doesn’t necessarily lead to increased profits right away. However, several studies have shown that investments in CX will generally pay off. A study has shown that gaining a new customer costs about five times as much as retaining a current one. In addition, a bad customer experience will result in 89% of consumers switching to a competitor.
Customer experience in 2021
These days, customers are increasingly demanding more transparency, and want to be a part of a brand, rather than just a consumer of a product. This has changed communication for business. Instead of talking to an audience of consumers, they are now in conversation with consumers. This means that online conversations on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter have become part of the customer experience. With a high supply of most consumer products and services, the emotional offerings of brands are becoming increasingly important. Focusing solely on traditional aspects of the customer experience does therefore no longer suffice.
Ask yourself these questions: what drives your brand? How predictable is your CX? What is the relation between Know Your Customer and your CX? Which factors influence your online CX? How to create insights relevant to your CX? What influences your customer response? CX needs continual updates faster and faster and requires different perspectives, both outside-in and inside-out.
Are you searching for ways to improve your business’s customer experience? NECXT can help you redesign and optimise your customer journey. NECXT provides new perspectives on CX based on practices from leading global organisations and helps clients to incorporate them. With 160 years and 120 companies of combined experience and a global reach, NECXT inspires and activates. Contact us to learn more about our workshops and consulting services.