5 steps that lead to the perfect customer experience

Customer experience is the universal soldier of the battle for the buyer: no matter how many competitors are existing, no matter how good the products are, the quality of this combat unit decides everything and directly affects your growth or fall in sales.

Today, customer experience is understood as the totality of impressions that the buyer receives during interaction with the brand, it includes all points of contact: before, after, and during the purchase.

This experience can be safely called one of the pillars of businesses.


It is a mistake to think that the process begins only when a potential customer has already decided to make a purchase and enters the brand's website or its store.
 

The concept of customer experience includes what people that are already familiar with it think and say about the company, how and where a person saw the advertisement, and even what happened after the product was sold and the service was provided.


Such multifactorial nature requires delicate work with impressions, an unconventional approach to communications, and the ability to anticipate the needs and desires of clients throughout an entire “path” of the company.


Customers are less likely to forgive mistakes, Accenture Next Generation Customer Services Research shows that 47% of consumers around the world have stopped interacting with companies due to the poor customer service of companies.

To prevent this from happening, you must be able to compete on all fronts.
 

It's not a coincidence that Adobe's Annual Digital Trends study shows that, smart executives see customer experience as the most promising opportunity for business growth.

Customer experience helps to attract and retain a customer by creating a pleasant attachment to a product or service, improving the speed and quality of customer contact with the company at all stages, as well as increasing the average check, and launching word of mouth from recommendations.

 

Here are five steps that will take your company's customer experience to the next level.

Step one: Do not harass your clients, but do more for them!

Most companies start playing catch-up with their customers. 

Doing this, of course, is not worth it.

 
It’s paramount to remember the main reason why your clients came to you.

This is more important than the expectations of vendors and personal sales performance.


The first step, is to listen carefully to your customers, do not skimp on consultations, and do not be afraid to argue with them about the reasons why they chose solutions that may not be more efficient for their tasks.
 

Another important task is to do more efforts to better satisfy your clients.


The buyer has already certain expectations and ideas about how things should be.
 

So, if the company responds to these expectations, it is already very good.

But this does not allow you to stand out from the competition.

 
Surprise the customer!

It’s important for your new customers to : Interact with you, because they need to understand that they can trust you.


“I didn’t expect that you also take care of this in advance”. This phrase can turn a buyer into a fan of the company.

 

At the same time, you should not leave old customers to their fate.

Every minute there are battles for customers: do not forget to impress those with whom you already have a long-term relationship.

Give a significant bonus, and see the future need of your company before it becomes a "pain", all this will become a solid base for your future relationships.
 

Step Two : Form a Separate Customer Experience Unit.

Globally, almost every employee of your company is responsible for the quality and result of your customer experience, but this does not mean that everyone should be engaged in its improvement.


Such a strategy will fail: you must have a separate department that analyzes the customer journey. 
These are specialists who know a lot about building a client card and that are not involved in sales or marketing during their main working hours.  

 What should such a department do?
 

Build an internal feedback analytics system, analyze the "pains" of customers and prioritize the company's actions, develop proposals for improving user experience, and implement these improvements.
 

So that other departments understand the value of the work of such a department, the company's management must support it, emphasizing in internal communication is an important key link in the company's work.

Ideally, discussion of customer experience and ways to improve it should become part of the internal culture.

To see the result of the work in the formation of the department, lay in about a year and compare the efficiency of your employees in the customer experience department from quarter to quarter.

 
Don't forget about an important thing: work with the company's internal customers - employees.

 
To build a positive customer experience, it is not enough to hold seminars, master classes, competitions, or training.

 

Note: It is necessary to change the philosophy of attitude towards your clients, put them at the forefront, and always make it a rule to fix the result of communication. 

To achieve this goal, you should invest in the growth of your specialists.

  

Their actions, involvement, and level of emotional intelligence determine the mood with which clients will remain after their purchases and whether it will change positively or negatively in the future.

 
Step Three: Set Up Your Metrics.
 

To be engaged in the improvement of your client experience, you must know the answers to these questions: What do companies feel when they see our advertisement whether it is appropriate where the client encounters it? What does he think when our manager calls him? What makes him, among a wide pool of players in the market? Does he make or not a choice in your favor?

Note: Accenture's research shows that customers tend to engage with companies that best align with their core beliefs.

Don't forget to keep track of your metrics.


There are several key metrics that allow you to track customer experience and the dynamics of its development.

 
The NPS (Net Promoter Score) helps you determine the level and quality of the client's relationship with your company.

 
With its help, you can identify the causes of consumer dissatisfaction, trace what factors provoke it, change business processes and come to the buyer with feedback on the changes that are made.

 
NPS is easy to use, reflects in detail what is happening in the company at various levels and is quite strictly tied to the company's monetary and operational performance indicators.

  

Technically, a data collection solution can be implemented as an information system that collects and analyzes feedback from customers at each point of contact.

 
The entire team of the company should have access to it, from an ordinary employees to senior managers. 

In addition, there is the TRIM index (measures customer satisfaction with service in comparison with competitors) and the Customer Satisfaction indicator (analyzes customer satisfaction only at points of contact).
 

Step Four: Make Feedback Comfortable.


Revenue growth is not the only indicator of customer loyalty. 

You need to know why they choose you, and not competitors, and what points are important to them when choosing a supplier or partner. 

Without understanding such things, it is easy to miss the client.

To get to know your client, you need to ask him in order to learn about their :

 

• Needs.
   
  
  

• Expectations.
   
  
  

• Assessment of your actions.
    

Do not forget that any survey and questionnaire is another point of interaction with the buyer.
 

Therefore, calculate the frequency of this communication, its duration, and depth.

 
An oral interview, in our experience, should last no more than four minutes.

   
Questions are better structured and divided into groups: about impressions, expectations, and so on.

Professionals should communicate with clients on such sensitive topics (and not always your employees).

 
Note: data collection should be convenient for the client, it is important to ensure omnichannel communication channels in advance and comfortable conditions for a conversation, filling out a digital questionnaire or interacting with a chatbot that conducts a survey.

    

Engage your clients, be genuinely interested in their opinions, handle feedback with care, and be sure to end on a positive note, summarizing what was done or what will be done as a result of your exchange.

Step Five: Talk to Silent Customers 

There is a widespread belief that dissatisfied customers are always seen and heard.
 

Unfortunately, it is not. A client who never gives feedback is a rough diamond, a godsend for thoughtful specialists.

   
It is important to understand both what he thinks and why he decided not to share his emotions with you in the first place.
 

It is important to understand that negative feedback does not destroy, but, on the contrary, strengthens the relationship between the company and its clients. 

The buyer feels significant, needed, and listened to.

 
The company sees its weaknesses and points of growth that it needs to work on.
 
 
As a result, the business improves, and the client feels a sense of belonging to the fact that the company has become better and become attached to a particular brand, and he will be ready to repeat the interaction to test the changes.

 
How often you need to review and improve the customer experience depends on many factors.

 

Periodicity is influenced, among other things, by the industry, the company's position in the market, the information background, extraordinary events, trends, the launch of new services, the internal restructuring of the company, and financial indicators.

  

The things that you should not do while working on customer experience :
  

• Improve customer experience for new customers, and forget about old ones.

• Set a goal to improve customer experience in a month in a continuous manner.

• Force the existing client to endure inconvenience in the process of transition to a new client experience.

• Do not analyze the typical customer journey.

• Do nothing to make the buyer feel the pleasure of communicating with the company.

• Not rebuilding a customer experience when sales plummeted and bad reviews began pouring in on social media.