Why successful companies are optimizing customer experience more than ever.

What is customer experience?

Take a moment and think of a business you return to time and time again. The reason you hand over your money donning a smile isn’t just because they have a stellar product, rather there’s a stellar feeling you have associated with this brand.

You’ve been provided a great customer experience. A service that makes your life easier and more enjoyable. You get the satisfaction of your needs being met.

Customer experience, (CX) is an accumulation and result of every interaction your customer encounters when doing business with you. It’s the emotional bond between your brand and your customer.

And like everything in your business, it requires strategy, survey, and optimization.

Why is CX crucial to your business?

It’s a customer-controlled market today. There’s never been more available options to the modern consumer. From dining-out to ordering online office supplies,simply having an amazing product isn’t enough.

You need to instill that personal bond. Be sure your customer feels understood, valued, and supported.

And in return you’ll receive benefits such as:

• Customer retention
• Increased customer satisfaction
• More generated word of mouth marketing
• Increased positive feedback
• More opportunity to improve

What CXs are today’s consumers looking for?

“The needs and expectations of your customer are constantly evolving. It’s your job to not only know who your customer is, but also who they want to become, and more importantly, how you can help them get there.”

You have to anticipate needs, be open-minded and make adaptations as needed.

Here are four leading desires and expectations of consumers for 2020 and onward.

1. Culture is everything

• And it starts from within. It’s becoming clear that no matter how much effort you extend into customer focus, if you’re not building culture starting with your employees, there’s going to be a huge disconnect.
• Your employees are an extension of your values. What you give to them will ultimately be received by your customers.
• Be sure you have a clear concept when it comes to the culture of your business. Thoughtfully educate your employees to understand and practice this culture, and do it often.
• Your customers are smart, perceptive and intuitive. They know if your employees genuinely care and believe in your product. And that’s what will make them believe in it too.

Need some creative ways to improve the culture of your business?

Check out “10 Tried-And-True Workplace Strategies That Improve Company Culture.”

2. Services over products

• Today’s consumer, in particular, the modern-minded generation, is observing consumerism in a bad light. They are moving away from collecting things and rather value collecting experiences.
• Your selling points need to focus less on your product and more about the value provided through obtaining it.
• Competitive pricing and single-benefit concepts aren’t enough to keep you afloat in the long run. But a competitive experience will give you the edge.
• Consult with a team. Brainstorm different ways your customers can get maximum enjoyment out of your product or service.
• How can you make the experience be a lasting or a repeat concept?

This article discusses different ways to implement competitive experience.

“10 Customer Experience Alternatives To Competing On Price For The Holidays.”

3. Personalization

Photo courtesy of @Prose Instagram

• Time to ditch the one size fits all approach. Consumers are endlessly swarmed with marketing content. Unless your content strategy can reach them on a personal level, they will pass it by.
• Encourage people to create a personal profile for your business. This will give you the data you need to optimize personalization for each person. But remember to keep the process easy and simple.
• Utilize segmentation. Be sure you are grouping your email subscribers into separate lists so that they are only receiving emails that pertain to their needs. Nobody likes to be spammed.
• Tone down the formalities. Being formal has a place, but incorporating first-person perspective in your writing enables you to connect more personally. You want your customer to feel as though they are engaging with a friend.

For more on insight read, “Reinventing Personalization For Customer Experience.”

4. Ease and functionality

• Create cohesion between your website and various social channels. Let the tone all be connected, and more importantly make it easy for visitors to click between one place and the next. Consumers appreciate user-friendly navigation online.
• Be quick to respond to any questions or feed back. Customers want to be recognized and feel heard.
• Practice transparency. Be open and honest about your company policies. Set the expectations for your customers clear so as to avoid confusion or unmet expectations in the future.
• Have excellent service recovery. If done right, a poor experience is an opportunity to turn a dissatisfied customer into a lifetime customer.

Implement CX in your business.

Your customer’s CX begins the moment they first come across your website or social media page. The way they navigate, the images and words they see all becomes a part of the CX.

And it doesn’t end when they receive or purchase your product , or at least it shouldn’t. There are so many opportunities to optimize your customer’s journey.

Collect insight from all levels of your business team. Empower your employees to share their ideas and leverage their strengths rather than confine them to one task.

The modern way of doing business contains a much more holistic approach. More than ever we must reach people at their core values.