Customer experience can include a lot of elements, but it really boils down to the perception the customer has of you. Even if you think your brand and customer experience are fabulous, if the customer perceives it as something different, that is what the actual customer experience is.
Customer experience is a term used to describe the overall impression a customer has with a company. It is the sum of all interactions, from discovering a product or service, to making a purchase, to post-purchase support.
Creating a great customer experience comes from each interaction customers have with your brand at every touchpoint. It’s everything they see, feel, hear and experience with your business.
In this blog post, we’ll look at what customer experience is, how to measure it, and how to create a great customer experience.
How Do You Define A Good Customer Experience?
Customer experience is all about the perception of a customer when they interact with your business. It encompasses the entirety of their journey, from the moment they first hear about you to the moment they make a purchase, and beyond. Customer experience is not only important for creating customer loyalty and brand loyalty, but it’s also essential for customer retention and building customer satisfaction.
Positive customer experiences focus on creating positive customer interactions, providing helpful customer support, and gathering customer feedback. Some examples of good customer experiences include providing a memorable unboxing experience (think Apple).
Following up with customers after purchases, offering personalised discounts, and creating a simple checkout process. A great customer experience should not only be enjoyable and easy to use, but it should also be meaningful and create a connection between the customer and your business.
The Elements Of A Great Customer Experience
Creating a positive customer experience is essential to the success of any business. It’s not just about providing a good product or service, but also ensuring that customers have an enjoyable, memorable, and frictionless experience with your brand.
There are many elements that contribute to this customer experience, and for brands to remain competitive they must provide an experience that meets or exceeds customer expectations. If you want yours to be the best, make sure you’re considering these:
Customer Interaction – Responding quickly to customers is a MUST. Don’t leave them waiting in your DM’s, just to be told they need to email customer services; this will immediately lead to a very poor customer experience.
Make sure your staff are friendly, knowledgeable, and available to answer questions. When customers feel like they’re being heard, they’re more likely to be satisfied with the interaction and keep coming back.
Customer Retention – Customer loyalty and retention are key factors that work well in creating a successful customer experience. This means making sure that customers are satisfied with their purchases, offering discounts and promotions to reward loyal customers (not just first-time customers), and providing timely feedback and support when needed.
Customer Feedback – Asking customers for feedback is an important part of creating a great customer experience. Ask for feedback after every purchase, or encourage customers to leave reviews online.
This will help you better understand their needs and improve the customer experience in the future. Don’t be afraid to close the loop with customers and tell them collectively the issues they’ve helped you identify and work on.
Brand Loyalty – Creating a loyal customer base is essential for success. To increase brand loyalty, offer rewards for repeat purchases, provide exclusive offers to loyal customers, and send special offers and messages to thank them for their business. Showing your customers that you value their loyalty will make them more likely to stick around.
Customer Experience & The Customer Journey
The customer journey map is a great tool for understanding the overall customer experience. This map highlights the different stages of a customer’s journey, from awareness of the product/service to purchase and post-purchase experience.
It also identifies customer touchpoints along the way, such as interactions with the customer support team or the website.
The customer journey is made up of 5 key stages:
Awareness stage – The first stage is the awareness stage, which is where prospective buyers learn about your product/service and (hopefully) gain an interest.
Consideration Stage – The second stage is the consideration phase. This is where customers are evaluating their options and ultimately determines whether or not they will commit to a purchase. This means it’s time to step up and be there to answer their questions and queries, steering them away from competitors.
Purchase stage – The purchase stage is the third stage, which is where you have successfully persuaded customers to checkout!
Retention Stage – This is where your customers keep coming back for more. You’ve achieved customer loyalty with your amazing customer experience. (Well done!)
Delight Stage – The advocacy or ‘delight’ stage is the final stage in the journey. Turning your customers into brand advocates means you’re successful!
If you would like to learn more in depth about the customer journey and how you can improve customer experience at each stage, head over to this blog!
Customer Experience Management
Customer experience management is the process of managing customer relationships and expectations, in order to build loyalty and ensure a positive overall customer experience.
Customer experience management focuses on anticipating customer needs and creating tailored customer journeys that meet those needs.
To measure customer experience, companies typically use:
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) &
- Customer Effort Score (CES)
CSAT helps measure customer satisfaction through their interactions with the business and CES measures the amount of effort customers need to put in to to accomplish their goals, which measures a product or service’s ease of use to customers.
Successful companies use these metrics to improve their services, for example making them more user friendly and making information easier to access for customers. Companies also track customer churn or retention, which have the added benefit of being directly linked to revenue performance.
To gain an understanding of customer perceptions, it’s vital to collect customer feedback and analyse customer data. This includes feedback from surveys, conversations with the customer service team, and online reviews.
This is your customer’s voice and from this data, businesses can understand how they are meeting customer expectations, what areas could be improved, and how to create greater customer satisfaction.
Having a strong customer experience strategy is key to building brand loyalty and reducing customer churn. Positive customer experiences have been proven to increase sales and boost a company’s loyalty score.
Additionally, customers are more likely to leave positive reviews if they have had an enjoyable experience with a brand. By focusing on providing a great customer experience, businesses can ensure long-term success.
Want to learn more about customer experience metrics? Check out this blog, where we take a dive into the customer experience metrics you need to know.
Customer Relationship Management
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a powerful tool for creating amazing customer experiences. It involves understanding customer journeys, measuring customer experience, and collecting customer feedback to gain insights into customer perceptions and expectations.
A CRM-driven customer experience strategy takes into account how customers feel about their interactions with your brand and how that affects their likelihood of returning for future purchases.
Measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty can help you determine the success of your customer service team in creating positive customer experiences. You can measure this through a customer loyalty score, customer effort score, or other metrics. By tracking these scores, you can identify areas of improvement and make changes.
Collecting feedback also provides valuable insights into customer needs, allowing you to better meet their expectations and create great customer experiences. Customer data can also be used to track customer churn, the rate at which customers stop using your products and services. By understanding what drives customers away, you can take steps to improve their experience and retain them.
When done correctly, a CRM system helps you create better customer experiences and build long-term loyalty. With the right customer experience strategy in place, you can increase sales and grow your business.
How can Think Wow customer experience consultants help?
At Think Wow, we’ve won awards for the customer experience strategies we deliver for our clients! Customer experience is a growing competitive industry and companies are starting to realise how important being customer centric really is.
Contact us today for a 1-1 chat about your goals and we can help you create a detailed customer experience strategy that gives you that competitive advantage! We hope you enjoyed reading and have gained a greater understanding of customer experience and the aspects of a successful customer experience strategy!
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