As per research by American Express, more than 85 percent of customers are ready to pay more money for a better customer experience. If a company wants to make a mark, it is necessary to nail down the customer experience strategy. A good strategy will help improve customer lifetime value, improve satisfaction, and increase growth. Research by Gartner says that more than 80 percent of companies will compete mostly on the basis of CX. Customer experience is one of the major pillars for customer success. All the interactions and experiences make it easier for customer to decide whether they want to continue doing business with the company or not. According to a study by Oracle, more than 70 percent of senior executives in the company felt that customer experience deeply influences whether or not one will be a loyal advocate.
What is customer experience?
Customer experience is the sum of all interactions between an organization and customer- from the pre-purchase stage till beyond. Major stages include discovery, initiation, service, and loyalty. At every stage of customer interaction, customer opinion is important. They talk about it both online and offline and this makes an impact on any brand. Customer experience is based on technology to a great extent. If a company does not offer an interesting product or service, chances of retention are less.
In a research by Bain & company, 80 percent of companies felt their customer experience was great. However, they were busted by customers. Only 8 percent of customers agreed about the great customer experience. The main aspects of customer experience are touchpoints, interactions, and engagement.
5 Tips to Enhance Customer Experience Strategies 2020
Most businesses need to have a customer experience strategy to enhance their growth. After many trials and fails, there are some effective, tested tips that will enhance customer experience. Tying customer experience to customer loyalty is important. Here are 5 such effective tips to enhance customer experience strategies.
Know your audience
It is important for companies to know whom they are selling to. Who are your customers- access their data intelligence to get a deep knowledge of customer. Once you understand them, categorise them. Create buyer personas to bring more effectiveness in your strategy. When you create buyer personas you can estimate behaviour based on information you know. It is important to understand the pain points specifically to understand what matters more.
Work backward to give the best
Steve Jobs mentions how he works by keeping customer experience at the beginning to then arrive at technology. Do that for your customers. Showcase your USP and make sure customer experience stages are well distinguished. Instead of asking a lot of information. Ask essential information only to get the best idea. When you work that way, you work with the idea in mind. This saves energy and time.
Take customer feedback seriously
Create feedback loops. Have feedback surveys and take them seriously. Call your customers to know what they think about a product or feature. Make sure you check social media. This will keep you aware of what customers think of your product. Once you know their pain points, it is easier to settle them. Customer feedback is necessary to improve customer satisfaction.
Be quick with resolution
Once you get any customer feedback, you need to respond. Give the customer control over issues and show them how to access certain bits. Live chat platforms, AI enabled customer support desks provide easy access. It is crucial for customer support executives to be active to resolve customer queries. If you delay with resolution, customers feel less satisfied. They lose interest in the product and company. This negatively impacts net promoter score.
Understand customer experience metrics
Failing to measure customer experience can lead to missing important information that will boost and revamp your strategy. So, having certain metrics so that customer experience can be measured is important. Quantitative insights will help provide data that can prove insightful for the overall customer experience. Metrics like net promoter score, customer satisfaction score, and customer effort score are helpful in guiding companies about their customer efforts.
Bottom Line: Customer Experience is Necessary for Company Growth
Creating personalised purchasing experiences make it easier for buyers to stay connected. Nearly 50 percent of buyers have made impulse purchases due to a great customer experience. Word of mouth travels super-fast. Even before you know it, a prospective customer may have said something about your product. Having an omnichannel approach is important to engage with customers easily. Customer experience thus needs proper care and nurturing. Customer loyalty improves, higher retention rates, and increased revenue growth are all positive impacts of customer experience. It makes the customer feel empowered and increases goodwill. Making sure the impact of customer experience programs is fruitful is also important.
Author Bio: Niyathi Rao
Niyathi Rao is a content creating specialist at Smartkarrot Inc., a customer success software. She worked for Univariety and OpenText previously. She majorly writes for SaaS tech products. She is a bibliophile and listens to podcasts and music when she isn’t doing any of these.
