Customer Experience must be a high priority.
We know from recent research that customer experience is tied directly to customer loyalty and that some research has indicated that up to 86% of customers would actually pay more for a better customer experience. Based on recent surveys we also understand that when customer experience is great, your customers will become your advocates, and that will increase the amount of money they invest with you, support promotion of your business, and even bring in a new customer base.
Of course, this means that when you ask companies to indicate how high a priority customer experience is to them, they are likely to indicate that it ranks extremely high on their list. In fact 83% of companies indicate that customer experience was directly related to their financial performance. This doesn’t mean however, that these businesses are actually investing adequately in improving or even maintaining excellent customer experience.
How can you be sure you are offering the best experience possible to your customers?
We’ve identified the following three key ways that customer experience impacts a company financially, and how you can be sure that your business is creating the best possible CX.
1.Provide Self-Service Options –
Gartner analyst Michael Maoz writes, “Customer support is reactive (i.e., it responds to customer requests or problems), as well as proactive (it anticipates the information customers need to make informed decisions and keep products and services performing to their expectations).”
Customers want the power to find information and solve problems from their mobile devices or laptops. This means customer focused guidance and easy fixes are key to the best possible customer experience. Your investment in high quality, easy to find guides and resources that your customers can find on their own will pay off easily. 30% of users wanted easier access to information. If users can confidently navigate your site and access what they’re looking for, they’re going to stay.
2.Identify Critical CX Investments –
Investing effectively in customer experience is key, but finding what the key investments will be is perhaps more important. Finding the customer driven investments means that you need to engage with your customers and let them tell you what they really want. In order to show a return on your investment the customer must play a role in defining what it will take to create a value-driven investment. You’re going to look for what some call the “emotional signature” of your customer. By putting money directly into the type of experience that a user has requested, you’re going to build trust and rapport, and that will pay off.
In early 2012, Gartner advised clients that the emerging need to support customers on the Internet and social media, as well as on mobile devices, was having a profound impact on future planning.
Procter & Gambel recently invested in an interested CX campaign. P&G brought in LinkedIn experts to educate college students on professional branding. This was a valuable investment as it nurtured loyal customers at the height of their purchase decision making time.
3.Get it Right the First Time –
Finally, businesses with high scores from their customers on customer experience satisfaction surveys have more customers who come back to them, purchase more frequently, and don’t switch over to their competitors. Loyalty based revenue is significant, so be sure that you’re focusing on the right experience for your customers from their very first interaction. We know that it is far cheaper to keep and retain a customer than to attempt to acquire new ones. However, in order to maintain a solid customer experience, the very first interactions with your brand need to be clear, and easy to understand. Spend your money wisely and get investment throughout your organization. Even at the top.
You may be committed to a strong customer experience, but if your directors or company executives are not, your customers will feel the impact on that in poor quality experience. You can’t afford to make those mistakes, so make your UX right the first time.
