Customer Experience Management is the practice of designing customer experiences in a way to ensure satisfaction at every point of a customer’s lifecycle. It is the management of reactions to customer interactions right from the start of the customer’s journey with your business to improve or exceed their experience with your brand.
Customer Experience Management empowers the business organizations to gain an insight into these customer interactions (awareness, purchases, and service, etc) and optimize multiple touchpoints or point of contact to improve on customer experience. The customers spend more on the services and products and promote the business.
A Nielsen Study of 56 countries says, about 92 percent of consumers rely on recommendations from their friends and families.
The rise of digital and social media has made this form of marketing exceptionally powerful. Companies today rely on the goodwill of their customers to spread the word about their businesses.
Innovative companies are leveraging their media presence to cultivate customer trust. They are ensuring consumers have a great experience from the first point of contact. And they are trying to build a long-term relationship with their customers to get solid word of mouth recommendations.
Consumers trust businesses they already know, with customer engagement encouraging more interactions and building mutually beneficial relationships.
Companies are reaching out to their existing customers with value-added propositions. They are using emails and social media to engage with consumers and get more feedback. These real-time interactions create an atmosphere where consumers are willing to share their needs with companies. In turn, companies can provide improved products and services.
An existing, satisfied customer is more likely to buy than a new prospect. So it’s a good idea to design a customer experience that can create a life-cycle of feedback and product offerings. It will increase conversion rates. However, the main objective should not be to increase revenue. Rather, companies should prioritize relationships.
The same concept can be extended to new prospects. Rather than treating prospects as binary sales points, companies should keep providing value through campaigns and interactions. It will build a relationship that will help convert prospects into long-term customers.
A customer-centric approach helps companies understand their customers better. It leads to less guesswork about what customers want, which can add up to potential savings in marketing costs.
In traditional marketing, companies often keep calling consumers to add new products or services without having any clue about their particular requirements. Companies collect data, create business analytics, and understand market dynamics. It lowers costs while increasing sales and customer satisfaction.
Trust is a pillar of great customer experience. When customers trust a business, they are more likely to communicate any complaints directly. This enables a company to manage its’ brand reputation without public outrage or humiliation.
A bad reputation can have implications beyond lost business. It can cause companies to lose potential investments and experience difficulties with attracting top talent. Honoring the trust of customers through an efficient and honest process during a crisis is essential. It can help companies prosper in the long-term, even if there are short-term temporary setbacks.
Exceptional customer experience builds a foundation of loyalty and improves customer retention. People are looking for high-quality products and services at an optimal price.
Customers are willing to pay more for the same products and services if they feel the companies are providing extra value through interactions. And companies that provide the extra value are rewarded with long-term loyalty.
A good base of loyal customers is the open secret for business revenue. Delightful experience builds the foundation of loyalty and improves customer retention. The loss of reputation can have serious implications, lose potential investments. Value the trust of customers through an efficient and honest process during a crisis is essential as it helps to prosper the organization in the long term.
In order to grow tomorrow, you need to know how your customers feel about you today. Delighted customers drive growth.