Did you know that 17% of customers can leave your business after one bad experience? This is a significant number, especially if you want to grow your business or increase your return on your investment (ROI).
The good news is that you don't have to lose these customers if your customer experience is top-of-mind. Below I will explain what customer experiences mean, why they are important, and how to optimize your customer experience online.
What are Customer Experiences?
Customer experience (CX), is the way customers view any interaction they have with you company. This is the impression that your customers form about your company as they go through each step of the buyer's journey.
This is how you should think about it. Even if it is only a short interaction, customers are building an impression about your brand. This impression can determine, for instance, whether they will shop again with you or recommend you to their friends.
Positive (or negative!) customer experiences can have a direct impact on your bottom line. Are you a customer who is unhappy? You might lose them or they may never shop with you again. Have a satisfied customer? You might get a referral from a friend or family member.
These actions can influence the customer experience:
- Call your help center
- Paying a bill
- Tweeting you with a question
CX is still very important in real terms. Very. Let me tell you why.
Why is customer experience important?
Customers are the most important thing in your business. They are central to everything that you do. If you are still skeptical about CX, here are some reasons why it is important.
- Brands that provide great customer service are more likely to retain customers. A great customer experience is key to ensuring loyalty.
- A customer who has had a positive experience can leave a review on your website. This encourages other customers to visit your business. ReviewTrackers found that more than a third only review businesses with at least four stars. This means great CX can help boost your visibility.
- Customers are less likely to switch to competitors if they have a positive experience. CX can have a direct impact on your churn rate.
Bottom line: Customers who are happy will spend more, be loyal and refer your brand to others. It pays to improve customer experience optimization if you want to increase your ROI.
What is the biggest mistake most businesses make when it comes to customer experience?
It can be difficult to optimize customer experience, especially if you look at it from the wrong angle. Here are some common mistakes businesses make about customer experience optimization.
Ignoring CX
Although it may seem obvious, the largest mistake companies make when dealing with CX is to ignore it completely. Why? Customers care about the experience. Four out of five customers would abandon a brand if they had less than three bad experiences.
CX can be detrimental to your customer retention and could even hinder your ability attract new customers.
Failing To Track Metrics
You won't know what your performance is without measuring customer experience optimization. While I will touch on the most important metrics later, here are some key questions performance data can answer.
- How many customers have stopped doing business with your company?
- Are you a company that customers would recommend to their friends and family?
- Customers, how easy is it to solve problems or answer questions?
You can improve customer experience at all stages of the buyer's journey by tracking customer experience metrics.
Impersonal Communication
Businesses are more likely to treat customers as a unit than as an online audience. What's the problem? Personal communication is important: Growth won't be achieved through impersonal communication.
- McKinsey research shows that 71% of customers want personalized interactions from businesses.
- Personalized messaging is a key source of revenue for fast-growing businesses.
Customers will not be satisfied with the personal CX you provide if they are treated as numbers.
Not Enough to Train Employees
While it is important to create a website that is user-friendly and makes it easy for customers to shop with you online, the customer experience begins with your staff. Here are some common mistakes companies make.
Failure to properly train employees in customer service delivery.
Customers come to you seeking a pleasant shopping experience. Your customers will be frustrated if your staff lacks the experience and authority to solve customer problems.
You now know what to do. But there is still one question: How can you improve CX to increase your revenue? Let's take an in-depth look.
5 Tips to Enhance Customer Experiences and Increase Revenue
There are many ways to increase revenue through optimizing customer experiences. Here are my top five favorites.
1. Find out where you stand
You must track key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine what is working and how you can optimize customer service.
KPIs are a key part of any marketing strategy. Here are some metrics you can track to measure customer experience.
- Churn Rate: Your “churn rate” is the number of customers who stop using your services (e.g. they cancel their subscription). Higher churn means you are losing more customers.
- Customer effort This indicates how simple people believe it to complete an action, such as completing a checkout. Low customer effort scores indicate that customers are unhappy.
- This is the likelihood that someone will recommend your business. NPS is a measure of how likely someone is to recommend you.
- Retention Rate: Your retention rate is how many customers you keep over time. Higher retention scores indicate greater customer loyalty.
Here are some ways to measure metrics.
- You can measure churn by selecting a period and then dividing the number lost customers by the number you started with. Your churn percentage.
- Use surveys to poll customers and get their opinions.
- Ask your customers to rate you from 1-10.
- You can measure customer retention by selecting a time period and calculating how many customers are with you at the beginning.
Are you unsure where to begin with customer surveys? Send them to customers, or do as Tim Hortons and invite people online to take satisfaction surveys.
2. Enhance Customer Service
Customer service is different from customer experience. Customer experience refers to every interaction that a customer has, and customer service refers only to interactions between customers and employees when there is a problem.
It is not surprising that improving customer service can improve your overall CX. But how can you improve customer service? These are just a few ideas.
- Research by Khoros shows that 77% of customers expect customer service teams to share information to avoid repeating themselves. Integrate customer support processes with software such as customer relationship management (CRM).
- Chatbots: According to the Khoros research, 79% of customers love chatting with customer service representatives through chatbots.
- Recognize your most loyal customers. To encourage new transactions, reward them with special discounts and offers.
Here's an example from Dropbox of a chatbot. The chatbot will guide users through the steps. If the chatbot is unable to answer their questions they can talk to a representative or look at other resources.
You can improve customer service by providing quick, easy, and efficient ways to reach your staff.
3. Conversions made easier
Zendesk research has shown that 65 percent customers want quick and easy transactions. What does this all mean?
This is because customers expect a simple checkout experience if your e-commerce shop sells products. Here are some tips to speed up the process.
- Allow guests to checkout so that they don't have to create an account in order to purchase something.
- Multiple payment options are available, including PayPal and mobile wallets such as Apple Pay.
- Transparency in shipping and delivery
- Where possible, reduce the number of checkout screens
Are you a service provider? You want to make sure your sales process runs smoothly.
- To nurture customers through the sales funnel, offer a free trial
- Ensure that you clearly explain your sales process so customers understand what to expect.
- Set up a sales call to get all the information you need about customers to solve their problems or resolve any doubts.
- Clear pricing structures and packages that are transparent to customers' needs.
Monday.com has, for instance, a very clear pricing structure.
It takes only a few steps to create a free account, so prospects can try the software before they commit to a paid package.
Create a seamless sales experience that is user-friendly and impresses your customers to increase CX.
4. Personalize customer interactions
Personalization is a powerful tool to increase customer retention and acquisition. But how can you personalize customer interactions? Here are some ways you can personalize customer interactions.
- To identify your ideal customer, create customer profiles. Once you have identified your target audience, you can segment your customers to send relevant marketing materials to them.
- Use an omnichannel approach. Zendesk research shows that companies with higher CX scores provide consistent and reliable experiences across all media, including in-store shopping and purchasing products via a mobile app.
- You can personalize surveys with the customer data and follow-up on survey responses.
Email is a powerful tool that can be used to reach customers. You can retarget customers who have fallen behind with personalized incentives and offer loyal customers recommendations based upon their shopping history.
5. Encourage your employees to take action
Which customers do you interact with? Your employees. Customers will abandon your brand if they aren't satisfied with your employees.
How can you empower your employees? Empower your employees. You can empower your employees by giving them the tools to solve queries.
- Ask employees for feedback. Are they satisfied with their service or frustrated?
- Identifying and addressing the problem. Perhaps you can streamline manual processes through updating your CRM software or improve contact center protocols.
- Let's not forget to empower your employees. For example, they might offer a discount to encourage new customers.
Customer Experience: Gymshark
Gymshark is an international brand that specializes in employee engagement.
How? Because employees have a lot of authority to resolve disputes and because they are very involved with customers online.
One thing they have is a Gymshark Help account on social media to answer customer queries, engage customers and improve customer experience.
They trust their employees to provide real solutions that make customers feel valued throughout the buyer's journey, even after the sale.
Is it worth giving employees control over CX delivery? Gymshark is a global company that operates in more than 180 countries. It knows the value of providing great customer experiences to increase ROI.
Commonly Asked Questions about Customer Experiences
While we've already covered the importance of customer experiences and how to improve them, let me share some key points.
How can you improve customer experience?
Find out who your customers really are and how they interact to your business. Understanding the buyer's journey will enable you to equip your employees with the tools they need to satisfy their needs and exceed their expectations.
What are the key components of customer experiences
Customers will have a positive experience with your company if they are able to trust you and your company.
What is the best way to track customer experience?
Use tools to measure your churn, customer effort score and retention rates as well as CX metrics.
What is the key to a great customer experience?
Your staff is the key to a great customer experience. Your staff should have the skills to manage your buyers and impress your customers.
Conclusion: Customer Experience is Key to Business Growth
Customers are the key to your success. Without them, your company will not grow and prosper.
Help your staff to nurture buyers along their journey. This will ensure that customer experience optimization is done successfully. You should monitor key customer experience metrics and ask customers to tell you what they think.
You need additional help in improving the customer experience online? My consulting services are available.
What makes a great CX?
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By: Neil Patel
Title: 5 Ways to Reinvent Customer Experiences That Will Increase Your ROI
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/reinvent-customer-experience/
Published Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2022 19:00:00 +0000