The power of customer experience can do wonders for your business’s overall growth strategy.
Not only will it help you stand out amongst competitors – it can drive word-of-mouth marketing, help retain customer loyalty, and ultimately drive profits in the end.
Especially considering a recent survey conducted by American Express found that 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a higher-quality experience.
So, what are some of the top customer experience strategy best practices you need to know to improve upon yours? Keep reading to learn more about why customer experience matters and how to improve customer experience in this ultimate guide.
Customer Experience Explained
Before we figure out how to improve customer experience, let’s learn its definition first, and understand customer experience vs. customer service, too. Customer experience or CX is technically defined by the interactions and experiences a customer has with a business, throughout the customer journey from start to finish.
We all know that a business is nothing without its customers, which is why so many are now working to improve customer experience strategy. In fact, as reported by Bloomberg Businessweek delivering a great customer experience is now at the top of business owners’ strategic objectives. Even more, the firm found two-thirds of consumers (70%) make purchase decisions based on the quality of customer service, which affects their overall experience.
The big difference between customer experience vs customer service is essentially time. Customer service is provided at one point in the customer’s journey, while customer experience encapsulates the duration of the entire journey. Outside of the findings you just learned, why else does customer experience matter to sustainable growth? We’ll cover that next.
Why Customer Experience Matters
In today’s tumultuous market, customer experience and relationships matter more than ever before. That’s because in uncertain or troubled times, customers are going to turn to those they trust the most. Customer experience works on building this trust to maintain long-term relationships, which not only help produce more revenue over time but are also more apt to recommend your business for new streams of revenue too. Here are some more statistics showing just that –
- A recent Infoquest survey reported a “totally satisfied customer” contributes 2.6 times as much revenue as a “somewhat satisfied customer” and 14 times as much revenue as a “somewhat dissatisfied” customer.
- According to industry experts, the work it takes to gain a new customer costs seven times more than maintaining a current customer.
- A survey conducted by PWC found that 59% of US customers will walk away after several bad experiences, even if they favor the brand or business. 32% of US customers would stop doing business with a business they favored after just one bad experience.
- The same survey showed consumers are willing to pay more (up to 18% more) for receiving an enhanced or luxury customer experience. In addition, customers who rate customer experience high in priority spend 140% more and remain loyal for up to 6 years on average.
As you can see by the numbers above – customer experience matters to your profit potential and overall success. So, to finish, let’s explore ways you can improve your customer experience strategy with actionable tips.
How to Improve Customer Experience
Need some ideas to improve customer experience? Here are the top five customer experience strategy best practices and tips to start with.
- Develop a strategy & vision – The key to any goal is to develop a vision and strategy to achieve it, and ensure there are checkpoints in place to track its success.
- Collect feedback and engage – You can’t tell how well your customer experience strategy is working unless you collect feedback from your customer base. Setting up points of engagement and contact with your customers throughout the customer journey is key to doing so.
- Address target customer personas – A customer persona is ever-changing especially as the market changes. So, don’t just set it and forget it. Schedule the time to re-evaluate your target customer base, and be sure you’re tailoring brand messaging to emotionally connect to their needs at the time.
- Go through the journey yourself – There’s nothing more definitive in knowing what you need to improve on, than going through the customer experience yourself. Through secret shopping or becoming a customer yourself, top executives can experience the customer journey firsthand to help determine areas of trouble or conflict without consumer feedback.
- Improve customer service – Because so many customers are quick to leave based on just one bad experience, it pays to invest in improving customer service from the top down. Be sure all of your employees are empowered and equipped to provide optimal customer service to ensure each point of contact is working towards the goal of retaining long-term customers.
How Customer Experience Drives Business Growth
Customer experience is one of the crucial parts of a business that helps it gain leverage over competitors, retain loyalty, and ultimately drive business growth. When you take the time to enhance customer experience, you give your business the sound foundation it needs to build upon for scalability and sustainability.
So, how can you improve the customer experience, you may ask? Partner with an expert who’s well-versed in customer experience strategy best practices. Get in touch with Double Iron Consulting and our CEO, Bill Smith, who has decades of experience in helping businesses improve customer experience strategies.
To get started yourself, schedule a one-on-one, complimentary consultation with Bill now.
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