Why is customer experience important?

Many companies have started working on improving their customer experience (CX). But why is customer experience important? And why should you include customer experience in your business strategy? We'll take you through why CX is relevant and what you can do to improve it. 

This article covers:

• What is the impact of CX, and why is customer experience important?
• 5 ways to improve your customer experience
• Use synchronized insight to improve customer experience
• Customers evaluate your entire brand 
• Maximize your customer experience with a great customer survey 

Many companies have started working on improving their customer experience (CX). But why is customer experience important? And why should you include customer experience in your business strategy? We'll take you through why CX is relevant and what you can do to improve it.

What is the impact of CX, and why is customer experience important?

Customer experience can have a huge impact on your business. If you succeed, your customers will show loyalty, make repeat purchases, and encourage others to use your services. If you don't succeed, you might have guessed what will happen. That is why you need to focus on making a great customer experience.

We've tried to elaborate a little bit on some of the most important benefits of an improved customer experience:

1. Increases loyalty and customer retention

   Somehow, this one is obvious. If a customer has a great experience with your product, marketing, salespersons, etc., they will stay loyal to your business and buy your services or products the next time they need them.
   
   

2. Customers want experiences

   Consumers buy experiences, not products. The days when a good product was enough are long gone. Expectations from customers have risen in many industries: when shopping online you expect delivery within a few days, and when you contact support, you expect a reply within minutes. Customers want to have a great experience with your brand – from the first time they see your marketing ads, to a great sales experience and great customer service – and they want the same experience on their next purchase.
   
   

3. Encourages customer acquisition and increases revenue

   Have you ever talked with friends and family about a company or brand? You probably have. Having a great experience with your brand is something people want to share (and if they have a bad experience, you can be certain they will share it). Word-of-mouth might be one of the oldest tricks in the book. We trust people we know. And if they say you have a good product, we might as well try it. 
   
   

5 ways to improve your customer experience

OK, so Customer Experience is important and increases revenue. But what can you do to improve the customer experience?

Let's have a look at five ways to improve CX.

1. Measure your customer experience

   Before you start executing your CX strategy, you should measure how your customers rate the customer experience at the moment. This makes it easier to measure whether you improve you Customer Experience or not.
   
   

2. Deliver a human user experience

   Your customers want a personal and human experience when buying and using your service. If their contact in customer service is named Anna, don't reply to emails with "Regards *company name*". Use the knowledge you have about the customers and their relationship with your business to strengthen your customer experience.
   
   

3. Make relevant communication for the buyer's whole journey

   What questions does your target audience have when they start researching services like yours? These are some of the first questions you should target relevant communication at. And this continues to the sales process, onboarding process, and ongoing customer service. Consider the buyer's journey your customer has. Do you have relevant communication for all steps?
   
   

4. Build a customer-centric culture

   "The customer is always right" is a classic motto for many businesses. You must build your company culture around the customers and CX. If you want to develop a customer-centric culture, you need to start from the top with customer-centric leadership.
   
   Integrating customer-centric leadership in your customer program increases the chances of building a customer-centric culture and improving CX.
   
   

5. A great employee experience leads to excellent customer experience

   A customer-centric culture doesn't do it alone. It starts from inside the company, and a great employee experience can be the key to success in improving the customer experience. Take care of your employees, and ensure that they are motivated and know what your expectations of them are. This will help you tremendously in improving customer experience.

Use Synchronized insight to improve customer experience

Now you know that it is important to improve the customer experience in your company. And we have given you some ways to improve it. But how do you know whether you have a satisfactory customer experience and whether your activities succeed in improving it or not?

You need to collect and synchronize your customer insight if you want to improve your customer experiences.

Customers evaluate your entire brand 

Asking your customers to evaluate just one touchpoint of your customer journey might be misleading. On the other hand, people don't want to be bombarded with questions and calls from representatives asking about their experience with your company.

It is important that you know how to synchronize your customer insight.

As an example, a customer might react positively if a salesperson promises five-day delivery. But if the delivery is delayed and arrives 12 days after the order was placed, the customer will be disappointed. Asking the customer in the different stages might give you different answers to questions about their experience with your brand.

Remember to include all aspects of your business when evaluating your business's customer experience.

maximize your customer experience with a great customer survey

Conducting your Customer Survey is about much more than just the survey - it is about maximizing the processes before, during and after the survey.

If these processes are well executed and with great thoroughness, your efforts with the customer survey will inevitably lead to valuable insights that - if you act on them - will make you (even more) customer-centric in your interactions with customers. Download the guide now.