Customer Experience (CX) has become the top business priority in 2021.
According to a study by SuperOffice, the majority of executives surveyed (46%) say that, over the next five years, customer experience (CX) will be more important than product (34%) and price (20%).
This view is also supported by a report from the consulting firm Gartner. It indicates that 87% of companies expect to compete on customer experience this year.
In other words, customer experience is all the rage right now. And do you know why?
Because customers are more connected to brands. Half of them (50%) consider the customer experience more important now than they did a year ago, according to Zendesk. In other words, consumers are also more demanding.
In addition, 80% of respondents say they will switch to a competitor if they have more than one negative experience with the company.
Given this, there’s only one solution: invest in customer experience so you don’t fall behind! That’s why we’ve prepared this content for you.
In this article, you’ll learn about the concept of customer experience, review key data, and discover how to apply best practices for customer experience in your business.
Here's what you can expect:
What is Customer Experience?
How do interactions shape the Customer Experience?
What are the benefits of investing in CX?
How can you apply Customer Experience to your business?
Data on Customer Experience in Brazil
What is the best Customer Experience strategy ?
Conclusion
What is Customer Experience?
Customer experience refers to the overall experience a customer has with a brand or company.
In other words, it’s everything they perceive, feel, think, and remember about your company.
From the very first interaction—when the customer first became aware of your brand—to the last time they thought about it, including everything they’ve ever felt about it. All of this is part of the customer experience.
And for your company, the most important thing is to understand how to use the information above to your advantage. In other words, the key is to create positive and memorable experiences for your customers.
Here’s a tip for you. Always keep in mind that the customer experience is a living, breathing thing. After all, it evolves—for better or worse—with every new interaction with the company.
How Do Interactions Shape the Customer Experience?
Every single point of contact or interaction a customer has with a brand affects their experience. And this contact can occur directly or indirectly.
In face-to-face interactions, customers typically initiate contact by seeking assistance or information through the company’s sales and communication channels.
So, in direct contact, the factors that affect the customer experience include, for example:
- the shopping environment (aesthetics, organization, and cleanliness)
- the friendliness and demeanor of the attendant or salesperson
- the speed and efficiency of customer service
- the information provided about the product or service
- the quality of the product or service
In indirect contact, on the other hand, customers typically interact with things they didn’t actively seek out, such as news, advertisements, online comments, and word-of-mouth, for example.
Thus, the customer experience is the sum of these interactions—both direct and indirect. However, indirect contact is more difficult for a company to control.
Therefore, for those who are just beginning to implement a customer experience strategy in their company, it is best to focus on direct touchpoints.
Did you know that more than $62 billion is lost each year due to poor customer service? That’s according to an article by SuperOffice.
What are the benefits of investing in customer experience?
For any company, providing an excellent customer experience is important.
And the logic behind this is simple: the better the shopping experience, the higher the customer satisfaction. When customers are more satisfied, they buy more and give your company good reviews.
The more positive experiences are repeated, the more firmly the customer’s perception that your company is not only good but also very reliable becomes ingrained in their memory!
As a result, they form an emotional connection with your company, begin to advocate for it, and spread the word to friends, family, and acquaintances, buying from it and recommending it to others.
In summary, the benefits of providing an excellent customer experience include:
- have more satisfied customers
- get more positive reviews
- increase customer loyalty
- boost word-of-mouth marketing
- have a higher average ticket
- be more profitable in the long run
All business models can achieve results through customer experience.
Service providers, such as telephone and internet companies, suffer from high customer turnover, which is common in this industry due to complaints about service and customer support.
Therefore, reducing customer wait times and resolving their issues quickly is a strategy for increasing customer retention and, consequently, business profitability.
In e-commerce, the most common issues involve product exchanges or delayed deliveries. Easy communication and efficient problem-solving are key to getting more positive reviews and increasing sales.
Another example of how to improve the customer experience is concept stores, or flagship stores. Their goal is to provide sensory and interactive experiences with their products and services.
In fact, every type of business stands to benefit from investing in customer experience. After all, customers return to places where they’ve had a positive shopping experience.
How can you apply customer experience to your business?
Start listening to your customers, and when you identify a common thread in their feedback, make decisions that truly improve their lives. That’s the simplest way to explain how to apply customer experience to your business.
However, this will only work once the customer experience becomes a priority for everyone in your company.
From then on, the company’s work processes, systems, and structure will reflect the centrality of the customer in decision-making.
When employees see managers consistently asking for feedback on the customer experience and using it to make difficult decisions, their own decisions begin to be influenced by that awareness.
That said, there are three basic steps you can take to implement customer experience in your business.
1. Collect and analyze data on your customers' experience
The first step is to gain a deep understanding of your customers. To do this, you need to gather relevant data and information.
Remember that the customer experience is ever-changing, so monitoring it is a dynamic and ongoing process.
Many companies have tried to measure customer satisfaction and, as a result, have a lot of data. But few have focused on truly understanding the customer experience.
The problem is that measuring customer satisfaction doesn't tell anyone how to achieve it.
Customer satisfaction is the end result of a series of customer experiences. It can also be seen as the balance between the good experiences minus the bad ones.
Therefore, to ensure customer satisfaction, a company must identify and analyze the experiences that influence customer satisfaction.
And this is only possible through customer monitoring and surveys.
2. Ensure that all teams have the same understanding of the client
The second step is to align everyone’s understanding of what matters in the customer experience to ensure that everyone involved is working toward the same goal.
In companies that do not have a formal Customer Experience department, it is common for decisions to vary.
For example, imagine that an e-commerce company claims to be the most sustainable in the country.
To provide an excellent shopping experience, the focus on sustainability must be emphasized at every stage of the shopping journey.
And that includes various aspects of a product’s offering, such as:
- information about the supply chain
- product features
- shipping terms
- packaging
- employee working conditions
However, the professionals responsible for each of these aspects do not necessarily share the same perspective on the customer experience.
Therefore, senior management must ensure that teams work together based on a shared understanding, encouraging them to always strive toward a greater goal.
3. Implement simple, integrated improvements to customer service processes
And the third is to implement simple, integrated solutions to the main problems.
Improving the customer experience is a closed-loop process. This means that an understanding of customer needs and expectations must be translated into solutions.
And this doesn't necessarily mean it requires major investments. On the contrary, common problems are sometimes easy to solve.
In this regard, small changes can be greatly appreciated by customers, as they demonstrate the company’s thoughtfulness and care.
To provide a positive shopping experience, a company must ensure that interactions are easy, enjoyable, and seamless. This involves having:
- Faster purchasing processes
- Empathy and responsiveness in customer service
- A focus on aligning customer expectations
- Constant attention to customer feedback to improve service
As for the importance of responsiveness, for example, the Harvard Business Review found that customers whose complaints are resolved within 5 minutes spend more on future purchases.
Data on the Customer Experience in Brazil
One of the most recent studies on customer experience in Brazil was published by Opinion Box in early 2021. It provides some important insights on the topic.
One striking finding is the gap in perception between companies and consumers. The survey reveals that 76% of companies believe they provide a good experience for their customers.
However, only 49% of consumers share this positive view.
Although this figure is not encouraging, it does offer a lesson. It highlights the need for companies to be more in tune with their customers, which requires dedication and information.
In other words, investing in the customer experience seems to be a path of no return.
And there’s just one reason: the risk of losing customers. To give you an idea, in 2020, 62% of consumers stopped buying from a company because of a bad experience.
On the other hand, it reveals an unexpected and positive finding. Contrary to what many people think, customers are more likely to praise brands than to criticize them.
While 59% are quick to share negative shopping experiences, 77% prefer to talk about companies that surprise them with a positive experience.
Therefore, this is a great opportunity for companies looking to build customer loyalty.
Given this, you may be wondering what the best way is to develop a customer experience strategy. And that is exactly what we aim to address below.
What is the best customer experience strategy?
Without a doubt, the best customer experience strategy is one that delights the customer. But how do you do that?
There are two key steps to creating a CX strategy. And one reinforces the other. The first is to gain a deep understanding of your customers. The second is to understand your business.
So, if I had to give just one tip on how to build the best customer experience strategy, that tip would be:
Shape the customer experience based on your business’s value proposition.
To do this, you need to plan and build the customer experience by incorporating your business’s core value proposition into every touchpoint with the customer throughout the purchasing journey.
In this sense, the more closely the experience aligns with the company’s purpose, the greater its ability to engage the customer.
In other words, whatever your company’s promise may be, make sure customers realize and feel, in every interaction, that every step of the buying journey has been designed to let them experience your product or service in a way that only your company can offer.
Finally, whenever you have any doubts about whether or not to take a certain action, ask yourself whether that action reinforces your business’s value proposition in the customer’s eyes.
Conclusion
If you’ve made it to the end of this article, you surely understand what customer experience is and how fierce the competition is to win customer loyalty, right?
In the face of increasingly demanding consumers, companies are adopting a strategy of offering a consumer experience that highlights the unique and fundamental value of their business.
We have seen that, to achieve this, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the customer and to unite the company’s teams around a shared vision of the customer.
Only then will it be possible to provide a delightful and unforgettable experience.
Based on this understanding, as well as the data presented, we hope we have sparked your creativity. Creativity is key to developing initiatives that reinforce your company’s value proposition in every interaction with customers.
But if you have any questions, or would like us to write about a specific topic related to customer experience, please leave a comment.
And to see 10 eye-opening facts about customer satisfaction in business, read our article on customer satisfaction surveys now.
