Why you should focus on Customer Experience
As every business knows the market is competitive and having a superior product or service is no longer enough to attract and retain customers. It all boils down to how focused you are on your customer’s experience.
Any touchpoint where your company interacts with an existing or potential customer contributes to their overall customer experience. And that experience is what creates their perception of your brand.
Benefits of focusing on customer experience
There are 3 main benefits that arise when your customer has a positive experience with your business – increased customer loyalty, improved customer retention, and finally, new customers through referrals.
What makes a loyal customer? Loyal customers are those who have formed an emotional connection with your brand, and they become attached when they remember how they felt when they used your product or service.
Research also shows that customers will spend far more money with businesses that provide an exceptional customer experience – it all comes down to beating expectations and once you do that, you not only have a loyal customer but one that will keep coming back.
Customers are also less likely to buy from your competition if they enjoyed the experience of interacting with your business – but if they had a negative experience, almost 90% of customers will head off to your competition.
A positive customer experience will also translate into recommendations and referrals – and let’s be honest, that is free advertising. People are more likely to buy from businesses that receive positive reviews or recommendations, especially considering around 50% of customers research their products and services before they finally decide whether or not to buy or use a specific product or service!
Customer journey
Many businesses don’t take the time to map out their customer’s journey which is crucial to gain an in-depth understanding of their experience. Mapping out your customer’s journey or experience is all about identifying every single touchpoint where a customer interaction occurs.
Your goal should always be to ensure that it is never difficult to deal with your business. It is crucial to remember that every touchpoint is important. It can be as simple as a call to your business and coming across an unhelpful employee to a frustrating online interaction, that can see your potential or existing customer heading off into the distance.
Mapping out the journey alone won’t suffice; it is also important to engage your employees as they are at the forefront of your customer’s engagement and are more likely to understand where bottlenecks or frustrations occur. Customer feedback is another area that will help you improve your business. Remember a negative customer experience can be turned into a positive one if immediately dealt with and rectified.
Make it easy to deal with you!!
One positive thing that the pandemic has introduced, has been the rapid increase in digital transformation. Interacting with businesses online has become par for the course and your digital presence has never been more important than now.
Customers want their experience to be easy and seamless – for example, if your customers are getting bogged down with manual processes like downloading forms or web pages that take too long to download, they will look elsewhere, and you won’t even know it.
Investing for the future
Improving your customer’s experience may have an initial associated cost but investing in ensuring your customer has a positive experience will inevitably save you more in the long term – after all, it is far more expensive to attract a new customer than it is to retain one. The best way to look at it is that you are investing in your customer’s experience to create a more profitable future for your business!