For any company, it is important to nail the customer experience strategy. With increased competition, every company wants to think about customer service as a separate unit.
It is important to call it customer experience.
When you look to enhance customer experience, it is important to have some strategies in mind.
Customer experience is set to be the top priority for the next 10 years.
It is set to be the differentiator for companies to make a mark. Companies focusing on customer experience notice increased revenues, reduced churn, and long relationships.
Customer experience is not customer service alone. It encompasses more elements in the customer journey.
After surveying nearly 2000 business professionals, their top priority was customer experience for the next five years.
Nearly 90% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.
As per a study by the Temkin Group, companies can earn an average of an additional $700 million if they invest in customer experience.
What is customer experience?
Customer experience refers to the interactions and experiences a customer has with a business in the entire customer journey – from the pre-sale to loyalty. It is integral to making a customer a loyal and happy one.
Customer experience impacts the loyalty of a company. The longer a customer stays with a company, the more likely they are to continue business with you.
Customer experience is set to be the number one differentiator of brands beyond 2020.
It is also to be noted that 1 in 3 customers will leave a brand after a single bad experience. Personalized experiences have made 49% of buyers move to impulse purchases.
Importance of Customer Experience
A business needs its customers, and they need to have the best experience possible to stay involved.
Delivering a great customer experience has become compulsory to stand out and improve the chances of retention. A good customer experience makes customers keep coming back.
Employees need to know the best way to offer a customer experience. The thing is, customer expectations are rising, and they require improved customer experiences and interactions.
8 Important Strategies in Customer Experience
Here are the best ways to create a great customer experience strategy that will look to improve customer retention.
1. Have a customer experience vision
To have a customer experience strategy, you must have a customer UX vision. There is a need to have a guiding statement to work with a plan. These principles will spearhead the behavior of your employees in the organization.
Having a good vision is essential to know what is important and what is not. If the picture is unclear to the company and its employees, the chances of derailing from the ethos are more.
2. Know your customers
It is essential to know who your customers are. Your customers need to be fair and able to empathize with the company. The best way to know your customers is to segment them and create personas.
Your customer success team can understand your customers better, only they have been segmented based on personas. This will make the company completely customer-centric.
Also read: Email Segmentation Guide: Definition, Benefits & Examples
3. Have an emotional connection
The best customer experience is when the customer feels emotionally connected to the company. Emotions shape attitudes that will drive decisions, as per research.
The journal of Consumer research has found that more than 50% of customer experience is based on emotions.
Customers become loyal if they like the experience with the brand. A business that creates an emotional connection performs better than its competitors by over 85%.
Also read: What is Customer Engagement? Definition, Importance
4. Capture customer feedback
Having an idea of what customers think of the brand is important. Using live chat tools will boost conversions and improve customer experience. It is necessary to make sure customers are happy.
Customer feedback is whatever the customer thinks about the company. If there are any aspects that can be made better, customers will let the company know.
Also read: 11 Customer Survey Email Template Examples
5. Build systems for effective resolutions
Having ways to resolve customer queries in a simple, hassle-free manner is important. If your resolution process is complex, it is tough for customers to understand.
At every stage in the customer journey, you need to make sure that the solving process is easy. Quick and effective resolutions are the key to a better customer experience.
6. Use AI (Artificial Intelligence) or ML (Machine Learning) for a better experience
Technology and tools like AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) will improve customer experience.
A digital self-service tool will help customers solve their issues in an easy manner. Automated responses guide customers in the right manner to reach their goals.
AI reduces the need for customer support agents to attend to every simple conversation. This will free up agents when they have more complex issues at hand.
Get in touch with your subscribers at the perfect moment.
7. Know customer experience metrics
Metrics like NPS or net promoter score should be counted to boost customer experience. There needs to be a focus on quantitative insights like customer effort scores and more. Failing to check customer experience will lead to reduced performance rates.
The customer satisfaction score is another important metric that shows how satisfied customers are with each interaction.
8. Use a quality framework for team development
Customers need to have a quality framework from the customer support team.
It is necessary to identify the training needs of everyone in the customer success team. If the quality of email or phone communication is good, customers will likely feel happier.
Bottom Line: Optimize the customer journey
Customer experience is important for a successful customer journey. It is necessary to identify the problems, check opportunities, and improve customer experience. It is important to reduce friction, increase growth, and improve business relationships.
Customer experience needs constant nurturing, greater focus, and increased revenue growth. Word of mouth is the best marketing tool for customer experience. Companies with better customer experiences show that higher customer satisfaction is reported.
Positive experiences will help customers feel emotionally connected to the business. Having a good customer experience strategy is an investment that will pay off in the long run. It builds great advantage over the competition.
Here are more blog posts on how you can improve your customer experience:
- What is a Trigger Email? Definition, Types & Examples
- 12 Welcome Email Examples to Engage Customers
- Create High-Impact User Onboarding Email + Examples
- What is Brand Loyalty? (Definition, Types, Examples)
About author
Niyathi Rao is a content-creating specialist at Smartkarrot Inc., a customer success software platform. 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.