What constitutes good customer experience (CX)? Is it simply a new name for good old-fashioned customer service? The simple answer is no - a business can deliver good customer service, yet the perceived CX could be mediocre or even poor.
CX does not simply equate to meeting a customer’s expectations – it’s about delivering an experience that goes above and beyond anything the customer could’ve imagined.
Around 95% of senior business leaders have stated CX as the “competitive battleground and a source of sustainable differentiation”.
Yet, this phenomenon of CX is not a new concept; it has simply escalated in importance since larger organisations realised their customers were dissatisfied and didn’t like doing business with them.
World leading research and advisory firm Gartner discovered that the top 500 companies with a declared focus on boosting CX, increased profit by five times more than the S&P 500.
If we look back to the 1990s, the top four factors influencing a customer’s purchase decision were:
- Advertising
- Product
- Price
- Recommendation
In 2018 this has flipped on its head. The top four factors are now:
- Recommendation
- Product
- Price
- Advertising
Customer recommendations have displaced advertising from number one to number four, which is causing the importance of customer recommendations and word-of-mouth to increase.
For a long time, we used advertising to create demand. Today however, fewer people read newspapers or magazines and even less watch TV ads which is causing advertisers to turn to using banner ads and other digital channels to get consumers to take notice. However with the rapid increase in ad blocking software on social media sites and websites, opportunities to advertise businesses are drying up fast.
Authentic customer recommendations cannot be bought like advertising; reputations must be earned. They come from an honest, genuine customer – someone with an emotional attachment to a brand or business rather than a monetary one. Consumers desire to feel connected to the business; they want to feel genuinely valued. The fact is 86% of people will pay more for a product or service from a business they feel values them. Therefore to charge a premium price, businesses must look towards establishing and developing an authentic rapport with their customers.
Your current and past customers will always dictate the success of your business. Treat them shoddily and pay the price; it’s hard to rebuild and restore a tarnished reputation. The influence and power of mainstream media is unparalleled; if mainstream media suggests or even hints guilt, the mantra of innocent until proven guilty is irrelevant.
Another way of showing customers you care is by knowing what they want. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now available to help businesses identify their customers – this is being achieved by analysing phone numbers and their voice. The software analyses the data received and instantly advises the system, contact centre agent or smart Chatbot about the information previously gathered from that customer. This can include the colour widget they previously purchased, their preferred payment method or whether their original issue was resolved. AI is transforming the way we do business by ensuring all available business communications channels can identify, analyse and access valuable information about recurring customers. This means customers no longer need to repeat account numbers or ID passwords during a call to continually identify themselves.