
It’s 2023. In this digital age, business success is directly linked to the ability of a business to deliver elevated customer experience (CX). Brands realize that it’s not solely their products or services that set them apart from their competitors. The latest research supports this changing trend. 45.9% of businesses rank customer experience as their priority for the next 5 years – followed by product (33.6%) and price (20.5%).
86% of customers are also willing to pay more for a better brand experience. Effectively, brands that are more invested in CX initiatives are achieving higher customer satisfaction and reduced customer churn. An elevated CX is also critical for customer retention, which in turn, can reduce the cost of customer acquisition.
In the age of technology-driven disruption, customer experience is now a business goal – and is no longer restricted to the sales and marketing teams. Here’s why organizations must evolve their CX in 2023 and beyond.
Why Do Organizations Need to Evolve Their CX?
Interestingly, customer experience embodies how customers interact with your brand across the entire customer journey – from the first contact right up to becoming a loyal customer. According to an Oracle study on CX, 74% of business executives say CX impacts whether customers are prepared to become loyal brand advocates. This means that brand marketers and advertisers must invest in CX initiatives and, more importantly, stay invested for the entire customer journey.
Further, brands are also realizing that everyone (including employees) can influence CX. Digital technologies have transformed how brands communicate with their customers. They can no longer rely on influential marketing campaigns and customer representatives to promote brand loyalty.
According to Salesforce, 67% of marketing executives believe a connected customer journey (across all touchpoints) is crucial for their marketing strategy. However, only 23% are extremely satisfied with their ability to create unique customer experiences.
Hence, marketing organizations must integrate CX at every stage of the customer journey, including the following:
- Brand awareness – when the consumer first learns about the brand through an online ad or social media campaign.
- Customer acquisition – when consumers interact with the brand by downloading an app or subscribing to an account.
- Customer onboarding – when customers make their first purchase and expect the brand to reach out to them with personalized features and product recommendations.
- Customer engagement – when brands must keep their consumers invested in their products or services – and stay updated with the latest releases.
- Customer retention – when customers show the first signs of losing interest or leaving the brand.
- Brand advocacy – when customers start speaking or providing feedback about their brand experience.
How Organizations Can Integrate CX Across the Customer Journey
As outlined in the previous section, the customer journey begins with the product concept and ends with the brand-customer relationship.
Here are 5 customer-centric practices for organizations to integrate CX:
1. Make Customer Service Every Individual Employee’s Mission
Innovation in CX can originate from any employee or department. Through regular interdepartmental meetings and interactions, organizations can encourage employees to prioritize customer service. Employee engagement can boost accountability and improve employee satisfaction and productivity.
2. Create a Clear Business Vision for Customer Experience
Organizations must have a clear and well-defined vision for delivering exceptional CX. For instance, a clear vision statement serves as the guiding principle for the entire organization. An example of this is Zappos Insights which talks about core family values in their organizational culture.
Business vision can change organizational behavior as it is embedded as part of the company’s employee training and development programs.
3. Understand the Customers
Too often, marketing companies adopt a top-down approach to implement their customer experience. They develop the CX strategy, invest the money, and take the necessary actions. For effective CX, organizations must learn to understand the people (or consumers) that they are serving.
To understand their customer’s needs, they need to connect with the situations faced by customers. Customer segmentation or profiles enable organizations to empathize with and understand their customers. This is the recipe for business success that converts customers into brand loyalists and advocates.
4. Create an Emotional Connection with the Customer
Human emotions are integral to customer experience and drive purchasing decisions. Organizations create loyal customers who are emotionally attached to a brand or product. A positive emotional connection in sales can outperform business competitors by 85%.
Brands can elevate CX by making customers “feel” important at every stage of their customer journey. Over 70% of customers would recommend a product or service following a “great experience.” Similarly, 65% of consumers rank a positive brand experience higher than effective advertising.
4. Measure and Monitor CX Data
Companies can leverage many tools for collecting CX-related data. What’s important is for them to use these tools to measure CX-related performance using metrics like customer acquisition costs, net promoter scores, and customer pain points. Supplement the CX reports with feedback from customers and employees (across functions).
Organizations can capture and analyze real-time customer feedback using live chat tools and follow-up emails. Link every customer feedback to a team member to show how they are making a difference.
Conclusion
With a customer-focused approach, organizations can easily understand their customer journey and elevate their CX to the next level. According to McKinsey, customer journeys are highly correlated to business outcomes.
At Aroscop, we provide organizations with more control over their brand experience. We believe in the mantra, “Happy Customers equals repeat business.” Our solutions ensure that customers always have an optimum brand experience across their entire journey.
We can help you elevate your CX to the next level. Get in touch with us today!