Businesses are progressively realizing the significance of customer experience in terms of cultivating loyalty, reducing operational expenses, and securing sustainable growth. But how can you genuinely elevate your CX?
Why should you enhance customer experience? Why does CX matter?
Boosting your customer experience (CX) can yield a substantial impact on your bottom line. According to the Temkin Group, even a moderate increase in customer experience results in an average revenue surge of $823 million over three years for a company with $1 billion in annual revenues.
Moreover, investing in CX can minimize operational costs, including the cost of serving customers, as stated by Harvard Business Review. After all, dissatisfied customers can be quite expensive.
Below, you’ll find ten valuable suggestions for improving the customer experience:
Empower your workforce
Paradoxically, companies that excel in CX start by empowering their employees.
There exists a vital connection between empowered employees and satisfied customers. Imagine this: you’ve been conversing with a customer service agent for ten minutes, and you request a discount. The agent genuinely wants to resolve your issue, but they must seek approval from their manager. Fatigued, you simply wish to conclude the conversation. It would be far easier if the agent could exercise their judgment, approve the discount (or take appropriate action), and promptly resolve your problem.
Consider your company culture as well. Do leaders, managers, and employees share a common vision with clearly defined values that support positive customer experiences? Can you do more to foster a customer-centric culture within your organization?
Value employee input
Employees who interact directly with customers are in a unique position. They serve as the bridge between your brand promises and customer perceptions, expectations, and moods.
One effective way to make employees feel valued is to reward them for their efforts. For example, you can give points to your workers as login rewards for their attendance.
When this crucial connection falters, your understanding of customers and their perception of your brand suffer as well. Employees who feel valued are more engaged at work and more inclined to assist customers.
According to our latest research on employee engagement trends, employees are twice as likely to be actively disengaged if they believe their managers disregard them. Hence, it is essential to demonstrate that you value their opinions and ideas by actively listening to them.
Most importantly, act upon the feedback provided by your employees. Establishing a clear connection between their input and the subsequent actions taken will emphasize their significance to your organization.
Leverage technology to create transformative customer experiences
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are tailor-made for CX. The latest digital technologies enable 24/7 chatbots for customers, natural language processing for understanding free-form text messages, and swift insights, personalization, and scalable and affordable service levels.
The growing number of prominent businesses utilizing these technologies reflects their value. For example, Domino’s allows customers to order pizza through the Domino’s Facebook Messenger chatbot, while eBay helps customers search the entire marketplace for the best deals as if they had a personal shopper. Undoubtedly, AI and related technologies can simplify customers’ lives and unleash creativity in product offerings.
Embrace an omnichannel mindset
Gone are the days of solely interacting with a brand on desktop computers. With over 50% of web traffic originating from mobile devices, multi-device digital journeys have become the norm.
However, the focus is no longer solely on maintaining consistent journeys across various devices. Today’s CX leaders understand that customers engage with brands through a combination of online and offline channels, often switching between them multiple times. Every aspect of this meandering and unpredictable journey needs to be seamlessly interconnected and consistent.
Embracing an omnichannel approach is a critical shift in your business mindset that goes hand in hand with prioritizing CX.
Discover how to develop an omnichannel approach.
Modern customers crave personalized interactions. In fact, research by Epsilon reveals that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer a personalized CX. Additionally, 81% of consumers expect brands to understand them better and know when to approach them, according to Accenture.
Personalization, where the experience adapts based on customer knowledge, facilitates smoother customer journeys and strengthens the bond between brand and customer. If you have ever received a marketing email containing tailored recommendations and vouchers based on your purchase history or customized website content based on your user profile, you have experienced the power of personalization.
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Consider the following ways to implement personalization:
Utilize data to personalize survey questions.
Leverage geolocation technology for location-based personalization.
Offer recommendations based on past purchases.
Personally follow up with survey responses.
Adapt your website to provide dynamic content based on user preferences.
Foster a top-down approach
The most customer-centric organizations start at the top. CX and company leaders should exemplify the importance of customer-centricity and serve as role models for employees to follow.
For instance, Walt Disney used to stroll around Disneyland Park, actively observing and refining the experience by putting himself in the customers’ shoes. Today, the Disney brand remains customer-focused due to the exemplary behavior demonstrated by its leaders.
Leadership exemplars play a vital role in developing a customer-first culture. Starting from the top, values and behaviors need to be consistently embraced and acted upon at every level of the organization, from the C-suite to the shop floor.
Utilize our tips to comprehend the value and impact of a customer-centric culture and allocate resources to prioritize the customer. Here are seven methods to make your organization more customer-centric.
Utilize customer journey mapping
Visualizing customers’ processes, needs, and perceptions throughout their interaction and relationship with your brand through customer journey maps provides valuable insights. By cross-referencing journey maps with key metrics, you can gain a deeper understanding of your CX, identify areas of improvement, and uncover opportunities.
Customer journey maps can be employed to enhance the current customer experience, envision the future customer experience, or drive organizational change.
Learn how to plan, execute, and refine your customer journey maps by referring to our comprehensive guide.
Incorporate open-text feedback in surveys
Customer experiences become exceptionally powerful when expressed in customers’ own words. By directly capturing customers’ thoughts and sentiments through open-text responses in surveys, you can gain a deeper understanding of their actions and make more informed CX decisions.
However, engaging in one-on-one conversations with every customer to gather their opinions would be impractical. Fortunately, recent technological advancements have made it possible to process and utilize vast amounts of natural language feedback.
Discover the capabilities of Text iQ.
Enhance your customer service
Customer service is the backbone of a remarkable customer experience and can serve as a potent differentiator in the eyes of your customers. Customers choose to do business with you not only because your product meets their needs but also because they trust that they will receive support when required. Data consistently demonstrate that customers who experience exceptional service tend to make more purchases and exhibit longer brand loyalty. American Express, for instance, found that customers were willing to pay 17% more when a business delivered exceptional customer service.
Delivering outstanding customer service relies on several factors. Firstly, your employees must be carefully selected, trained, coached, and supported to develop exceptional customer service skills and behaviors. Secondly, your business culture should prioritize quality delivery, not solely speed and efficiency. Lastly, your business infrastructure, including CRM tools and experience management platforms, should be flexible, scalable, and user-friendly.
Implement the following strategies to improve your customer service:
Offer support through multiple channels, aligning with your omnichannel approach.
Optimize wait and response times by adopting a hybrid support strategy encompassing digital and in-person assistance.
Close the loop with customers, ensuring every interaction leads to a positive outcome.
Utilize benchmark metrics such as CSAT, CES, and NPS to continually enhance your service.
Establish Voice of the Customer programs
Voice of the Customer (VoC) encompasses feedback on customers’ experiences with your brand and their expectations of your products or services. It centers on understanding customer needs, expectations, comprehension, and product enhancement.
Developing a program to capture and act upon customer feedback enables you to comprehend their needs better, create superior products, and attract and retain customers. This is essential for the success of any CX initiative.
