Defined by the interactions and experiences that a customer or patron has with a business, customer experience, also known as CX, encompasses the entire process of the customer journey. It begins from a client’s first connection to their transformation as a satisfied and loyal customer.
Therefore, customer experience strategy describes the actionable plans implemented by a business to deliver a positive and meaningful familiarity with the said customer across all interactions, pre, and post-sale.
Why is Customer Experience Strategy Necessary?
A constructive, progressive and positive customer experience ensures the possibility of a customer relying on the services provided by a business. It guarantees this continues over and over again for a long time. It creates the basis for any client to become a loyal advocate. Overall, it impacts the revenue and reputation of the organization or institution.
Hence, to cultivate the growth and outreach and guarantee the flourishment of a business, customer experience strategy becomes exceedingly essential.
A successful customer experience takes into account several significant factors. Though not limited to the following, a few of them include:
- Marketplace data
- Competitive insight into other similar businesses
- Mission and vision of the company
- Consumer reach
Where Should Businesses Incorporate Customer Experience Strategy?
All businesses should apply customer experience strategy to all departments of the company, not just those related to customer relations. Its amalgamation in the company’s operation and integration in the feedback and insight across the organization will aid in aligning the business with the intended and designated goal.
What are the Best Practices for Customer Experience Strategy?
Businesses implement customer experience strategies to acquire the desired results and feedback of a client. There are various ways and methods to do so. Nevertheless, some approaches are better than the rest. They include:
- Knowledge and understanding of a specific target audience
- Deliverance of convenient and helpful customer service
- Refinement and adjustment in products and services, based on client and employee feedback
- Consistency and enhancement in customer service procedure and activities
- Use of automation and AI
- Creation of in-person and digital personalization
- Pro-activeness in outreach and services
- Administration of flexibility in contact channels and service helplines
- Incorporation of simplicity and ease in all procedures
Ways to Improve Customer Experience Strategy
Customer experience strategy is all about delivering the best feel to the customer throughout their encounters and interactions with a particular business. Improvements in these existing tactics and stratagems are primarily to ensure a better customer experience. However, one can label it as an improvement only when they get more than the previous experience.
There are several ways to do so. A few of them by which companies can do it comprise:
- They can implement customer experience strategies even in the departments that have nothing to do with it. It would create a platform for reviewing and checking the details of the existing methods from different and distinct points of view.
- They can recognize and use the ideas of any employee, irrespective of whether they are involved in the formulation of new plans or policies for customer service and experience.
- They can create a customer experience vision and having a clear understanding of the needs and requirements of the clients and target audience. It is possible through the examination and scrutiny of their profiles and product purchase and transaction histories.
- They can establish an emotional connection with the customers and not a professional one. Those who feel more comfortable and closer to service are more likely to come back to it.
- They can apply the set of tools and applications of retail intelligence to ensure focus on knowledge management. It is possible through interaction, recollection, processing, and analysis of the information generated by retailers.
- They can make changes to existing policies by acting upon regular customer and employee feedback instead of weekly or monthly. It would help device strategies promptly and implement them before any compliant or negative remark regarding it comes.
- They can build an exceedingly simple and user-friendly platform and interface that even novices can use. It should contain easy instructions and detailed reports of the products or services offered by the business.
- They can implement the 5 A’s Customer Journey Framework to create an engaging network between the customers and a company. The 5 A’s with their associated questions comprise the following:
- Attract: What attributes or features of a product or service would catch a purchaser’s attention and interest?
- Accept: How would a customer enter into a company’s dealings and understand its working?
- Adopt: What elements can a business utilize and implement to converse and interact with their clients throughout the entire experience?
- Amplify: How does the customer feel at the end of the dealings, and what ways can ensure that it is positive at all times?
- Advance: What steps can a company follow to maintain contact with its clients after each transaction and extend their relationship?
- They can deliberate and contemplate solutions and alternate methods of successfully executing worthy and beneficial ideas that seemed unfeasible due to some reasons.
- They can eliminate poor designs early in any project that could be detrimental to customer experience development.
How Does Enhancing Customer Experience Strategy Help?
Improving customer experience strategy ensures that a customer has had a good time during their entire journey of purchasing a product or availing a service. It increases the possibility of a satisfied client to:
- Recommend the company or organization to others by at least three times
- Re-purchase from the same business by over two times
- Becomes loyal to a particular brand and shop around less
- Get less sensitive about the price at which the companies offer the products
What are the Consequences of Poor Customer Experience Strategies?
Overall, the most significant impacts of inferior customer experience strategies include the following:
- An arduous time in marketing and selling a company’s products
- Negative reviews on customer service and support forums and platforms
- Poor handling and security of a customer’s personal information
- Overlooking client and employee feedback and stalling a business’ growth
- No recommendation by word of mouth
