A customer’s overall interaction with a company or brand during their journey is what the customer experience (CX) is.
During his journey customer will experience various touchpoints from his pre-arrival (website may be) to his post-experience and after and all this will create in his mind a perception allowing him to judge his experience from being Criminal to Awesome.
Why is today CX so important? Because CX can:
- Provide a positive experience to keep customers loyal and create advocates who will promote the company. For me Ritz Carlton is the typical company who understood what means Excellence. Their moto “We are ladies and gentleman serving ladies and gentleman” is the most powerful moto one can find. The employee empowerment and trust is so strong that employees can instantly answer to a customer problem.
- Impact Revenue Growth. A satisfied customer may spend more money, can affect customer lifetime value, with a positive word of mouth can bring the company new customers. McKinsey & Company study shows that positive CX can increase revenue by two to seven percent and increase profitability by one to two percent. According to a Temkin group study 86% of buyers will pay more for a great customer experience.
- Increase Competitive Advantage and increase Brand image and Trust. Have a customer centric approach. Move from loving your product or service to loving your customers. A positive customer experience, a strong company culture and positive employee can lead to increased trust.
- Reduced Churn and Negative Publicity. We all know today that with the Internet a customer can spread a poor impression and spread the rumor all around the world in few seconds. In fact, a recent industry research by that a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits by at least 25% and more. According to Esteban Kolsky, 72% of customers will share a positive experience with 6 or more people. Contrary. if a customer is not happy, 13% of them will share their experience with 15 or even more people.
- Improve a company Customer Insights and Improvement by engaging with them and collecting feedback throughout their journey that can help the company understand their customer needs and preferences better.
- Improve Employee Satisfaction. The famous Service Profit Chain model proposed in an article in the Harvard Business Review in 1994 by James L. Heskett, shows the links between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and profitability. This is easy to understand. Empowering and engaging employees will increase their loyalty towards the company, thereby reducing the cost of employee turnover. Happy, motivated and engaged employees will deliver a better Value Service to customers who will increase their satisfaction, reduce the churn rate and impact word of mouth publicity which will allow you as a company to reduce the advertising budget, have more new customers and increase your revenue. No organization can survive without good people. The human resource is the only one that competitors cannot copy, and the only one that can synergize a company. So let’s not waste time.
- Impact your Long-Term Business Sustainability by happy employees, satisfied customers, increased brand image and satisfied shareholders. Continuously innovate to stay ahead of competitors. Introduce new features, technologies, or processes that solve problems for your customers better. Be a learning organization.
In a digital age where customers have more choices and possibility to voice their opinions, providing exceptional customer experiences is not just a competitive advantage but a necessity for business survival and growth.
