Businesses are always looking to improve their customer experience (CX) to get more leads and keep customers coming back for more. But what does that mean, exactly? At its core, CX boils down to making sure the customer has a great experience when doing business with you – from the moment they first interact with your company until long after they’ve bought your product or service. The best way to guarantee an exceptional CX is by putting in place these top five principles of CX that every business should follow.
1) Designing your customer journey
There are many ways you can design your customer journey. One popular method is to start with persona research, move onto a customer journey map, and create an experience map that details exactly how your customers will interact with your product or service.
If you want to take it further, you can also use CX design tools like customer journey mapping software or experience mapping apps. These tools will help you communicate your ideas visually and even manage them more effectively throughout various stages of development. The most popular of these is Omnigraffle by Omni Group, but there are several other options out there if you don’t want to invest in a paid tool right away.
Once you’ve decided on your tool, it’s time to map out your customer journey. Start by creating a persona based on real people that can help you understand what they need and how they respond in different situations. Create a customer journey map and move on to an experience map—the process is easy and straightforward.
2) Addressing pain points
As a consumer, you might experience a variety of pain points related to your experience with different brands. For example, your shampoo may leave your hair dry and brittle, or your cell phone provider may offer spotty coverage in your area. The secret to delivering a good customer experience is knowing what people don’t like about their interactions with you and addressing those concerns—putting yourself in their shoes.
In addition, to create a genuinely standout customer experience, you’ll need more than just one-time fixes. Delivering an exceptional customer experience requires consistent and continual improvement of your product or service.
To make all of these improvements, you’ll need a team that can keep an eye on your customer experience as a whole. That way, they can stay focused on what matters and be more nimble when it comes to making changes. But how do you go about building such a team?
3) Data collection and analysis
The better you understand your customers, the better you can engage with them. Personalization is becoming a hallmark of great customer experiences—think Amazon and Netflix. There’s little excuse for not collecting valuable data about our users’ preferences and behavior with everything we do online these days. So make it a priority to find out as much as you can about how people interact with your brand across all channels. And that includes monitoring social media.
A/B Testing is one of the best ways to determine what works for your customers. It’s a technique used in marketing, and it refers to a randomized experiment with two variants, A and B, that are tested against each other. The results from these tests will show which variant works better based on customer preferences. If you aren’t using it for your website yet, I highly recommend you start doing so.
Last but not least, you’ll want to consider investing in a customer feedback tool. Whether it’s user surveys or email messaging, these tools can help you get direct insight into what customers like and dislike about your product and brand. Here are some tools I recommend
4) Putting user feedback into action
It’s not enough just to listen to your customers. Great companies act on customer feedback, too. After all, how can you expect a company like Zappos or Google (who consistently rank among Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work) to thrive if they don’t listen and put their employees first? With that in mind, here are some practical ways you can hear more effectively and then help your customers know how much you appreciate their honest feedback.
Having a healthy company culture doesn’t just make your employees happy. It also makes your customers more satisfied and willing to work with you because they know you value their opinions. In addition, it allows you to build up positive word-of-mouth reviews that boost repeat business. Ultimately, it’s not only good for business; it’s suitable for everyone involved!
In addition to finding suitable solutions for your customers’ problems, the key is showing them that you care about their experience and are willing to go above and beyond for them. There’s no better way to win repeat business than providing a fantastic customer experience!
5) Improving employee engagement
Engaged employees deliver consistently higher-quality customer experiences. Customers who receive outstanding service from a highly engaged employee are 50% more likely to say they’ll be loyal and refer others. The first step in improving your employees’ engagement is increasing their level of knowledge around CX. To do so, make sure your staff is aware of these top five tips for improving customer experience.
1. Ditch silos. Your employees are your frontline, and how well they interact with customers is directly related to how engaged they are with their jobs. They can’t deliver an outstanding experience if they don’t know what great looks like. Provide training for all your employees so that everyone knows what excellent service looks like and how it can be achieved in your business model.
2. Lead by example. Your employees are influenced by their managers, so you need a staff who understands and embraces your company’s vision of providing outstanding customer experiences. By leading by example, you not only inspire engagement with your goals but also create buy-in for your vision throughout your entire organization.
3. Gather feedback. Customers will always offer feedback in some way—whether it’s through a review on Google, a tweet, or an informal chat with your team at the checkout. Incorporate surveys into your employee engagement programs so that you can ask employees how they’re doing and gather more insights on what you can do better. By seeking out customer feedback, you encourage employees to provide honest answers about their experience at your business.
Conclusion
The customer experience (CX) is evolving from a buzzword into a fundamental principle of business growth. The Internet, mobile devices, and other advancements in technology mean that customers have more access to information than ever before. For companies looking to win over new customers and keep old ones, customer experience has become a priority—and for a good reason. Long story short: If you want your company’s efforts to be successful, you need a strong customer experience as a foundation for everything else you do.
Just in case you’re still wondering, here are a few quick ways that customer experience can directly impact your company’s bottom line: higher conversion rates, lower acquisition costs, reduced cost of customer support, and increased revenue. And that’s just scratching the surface of what a robust CX strategy can do for your business.
Ultimately, you’ll need to tailor your CX strategy to suit your particular business and customers. However, if you want an extra boost of motivation for creating a great customer experience, consider these three factors: 1) An excellent experience can help you build a loyal community around your company, 2) It helps establish trust with potential customers, and 3) It sets you apart from competitors who may be struggling with their online interactions.ss
