Customer experience is the perception your customers have towards your business and how you treat them. Positive customer experiences lead to loyal customers; who have been found to be five times more likely to repurchase, five times as likely to forgive you, four times as likely to refer you and seven times as likely to try out your new offering.
In recent years, customer experience has been outperforming product prices in increasing brand loyalty and marketing ROI.
The level of customer experience you deliver hinges on your ability to provide useful products and services in a way that’s easy and very convenient for your customers. Today, very many businesses rely on technology to help them deliver positive experiences to their users.
Here are four ways you can use the available business technologies to improve your customer experience and increase your marketing ROI.
1. Businesses are more available to their customers than before
A positive customer experience starts with listening to your customers and responding or taking action within the shortest time possible.
That was very difficult a few years ago. There were few communication channels available to customers such as email and phone. Email responses were made after a few days, and calls were only accepted during business hours.
Tides have now changed. For you to sell, you have to engage your customers. According to X-cart, selling on social media only works if you have an engaged audience; and that is true for other marketing platforms as well.
Customers now expect to be able to contact you whenever they wish, through the method they prefer and they want responses within a few hours. With 82% of consumers saying that getting their issues resolved quickly is the number one factor in a great customer experience, being available to your customers as much as possible is now a necessity.
The good news is that communication tools like live chat and social media are allowing customers to communicate with businesses more swiftly. The increase in the number of communication platforms is making it convenient for customers to choose the channels that suit them, and also reducing response times.
2. CRMs are helping businesses offer personalized experiences
When customers interact with a business, they expect an interaction that is tailored to their preferences.
Studies have shown that 64% of buyers want personalized offers from retail brands. Meeting these expectations can be a difficult task when you know very little about your customers. This is why marketers try to interact with customers over multiple channels so that they can gather enough data about their customers.
As data sources increase, so does the need for a way to integrate all that data, and use it to determine customer preferences, then segment customers based on their preferences or previous actions.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software is the technology most businesses now use to integrate customer data collected from multiple sources and to help marketers deliver a tailored experience to each customer.
CRM systems are revolutionizing customer experiences by incorporating personalization. Before implementing CRM, businesses need to consider the different levels of CRM requirements. By building a CRM system based on detailed requirements, business will improve their customers’ experience. This, in turn, will benefit the organization.
3. Technology makes customers self-reliant
Most businesses use content marketing as a way to educate and engage users.
Content marketing is a way for your customers to interact with your business without having to contact you every time they want to know something. Creating content ensures that your customers can access it at their convenience, consume the content and walk away without speaking to you.
Before content platforms such as YouTube and content management systems (CMS) were developed, it was challenging to publish content and make it accessible to customers. Today, however, there are very many content platforms available, and they not only offer customers access to information, but also the freedom to interact with the type of content they like.
For example, customers who prefer videos can watch your videos on YouTube, social media enthusiasts can follow you on social media, while customers who need more in-depth content can learn from your website or blog.
4. Marketing automation is enhancing customer engagement
A few years ago, all marketing tasks were done by marketers.
However, with shifting customer needs, and the increased need for user engagement, marketers are now turning to marketing automation tools to deliver seamless experiences to their customers.
According to VBinsight, over 75% of companies that use marketing automation enjoy more leads and improved conversion rates. Automating certain aspects of marketing improves customer experiences by enhancing timely communication and reducing the chances of human error.
For instance, every time a customer signs up for your offer, your email automation tool sends them a welcome email within minutes. After that, the same tool sends follow up emails on a pre-programmed timetable. To top it all, the automation tool repeats the task for every new subscriber without supervision.
Marketing automation saves businesses time while creating a consistent and seamless engagement with your customers. By giving you the ability to schedule tasks, you can determine what’s best for your customers, and set the tool to do it for you when the time is right, instead of jeopardizing customer experience by trying to do everything yourself.
Conclusion
By leveraging the right business technologies, you can serve your customers better and as a result increase their loyalty, trust and willingness to buy from you.
The key to maximizing the results you get with these technologies is through continuous improvement and optimization. Customer needs change very rapidly and the best practices that give results today may not work very well tomorrow.
As such, always be on the lookout for new ways to serve your customers better. Ways that are more convenient and that reduce the effort needed to interact with your business or your products. In return, you’ll find it easier to offer your customers a more positive experience.
