Why Improve Customer Experience
Are you a lonely champion? That is, an individual within an organization trying to convince others that it is worthwhile to improve the customer experience. Most lonely champions we meet are faced with the challenge of overcoming the assumption that a focus on customer experience is a tradeoff to profits (rather than the way to profits) by senior executives, and typically have to address their question of, “What’s in it for me?”
This blog article will answer the question “Why should we improve our customer experience?” And aid you in creating a positive conspiracy (that is, others in the organization who share your view of the importance in customer experience.)
You’ll be twice as likely to beat profit goals
In 2008 we set out to verify the link between customer experience and financial performance (i.e. revenue & profit) we clearly saw. We surveyed 644 business leaders. 403 said that they did have a commonly known definition of customer experience. (We called this group the “Haves”). 241 did not (these were the “Have Nots”).
We also asked these same leaders about financial performance. Of the “Haves” who reported their financial performance, 27% were exceeding revenue performance targets, while only 19% of “Have Nots” reported the same. Of the “Haves” who reported their financial performance, 26% were exceeding organization profit targets, while only 14% of “Have Nots” reported the same. The “Haves” were nearly twice as likely to beat their profit goals.
The “Haves” all had a few things in common:
- A definition of customer experience that drove decision making across the organization
- A belief that customer experience was a pathway, not a tradeoff, to financial performance
- A clear and dogged focus on solving their customer’s core problem
Download the full research report.
You could halt slide in revenues and improve profitability (by 25%!)
Anecdotes are often as effective as data to convince others of the importance of customer experience.
Let’s take a look at Ezra Ernst. While CEO of the North American division of Swets, a global subscription management media company, Ezra and his team defined a target customer experience. Then they used it to build a roadmap of actions that halted a four-year slide in revenues and improved profitability by 25 percent.
These results were realized because the organizations management were aligned behind a singular customer mission, and used an ideal customer experience as the context of their daily decision making. This sort of alignment and focus is essential if you want to shift your organization to one that sees powerful benefits from a customer experience focus.
Read the full case study to learn more about how Swets revenue slide was reversed.
You can solve your own organization’s shortcomings.
It’s one thing to point to studies or outside examples to show your leaders that customer experience is worthwhile; it’s another to make the case using your own performance metrics.
We suggest gathering your own customer experience measurements and leverage the result to further develop your positive conspiracy.
We have found two kinds of metrics that will give you a clear and actionable snapshot of the payoff for using customer experience to drive your internal decision making:
- Metrics that measure the effectiveness of the customer experience itself
- Metrics that tie customer experience to performance
A full explanation of how to measure and use these metrics can be seen in the article written by our partner, Linda Ireland: 2 Ways To Measure Customer Experience Performance
For even more detail and specifics, check out our post on 32 Customer Experience Measurements.
Conclusion
The next time a leader at your organization questions whether a customer experience focus is worthwhile, you can confidently and emphatically say “Yes”. Customer experience research shows it’s profitable. Customer experience case studies show it’s profitable. And you can identify your own metrics to make your case.
If that’s not enough, download our free ebook: How to Convince Anyone that Customer Experience Matters.
What other effective methods you’ve used to make the case towards customer experience within your organization?