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Topic(s): Customer Experience CX & Business Strategy

Why we should talk about the Right Experience

We googled ‘Customer Experience’, and Google hit us back with 6.480.000.000 search results. But what does customer experience really mean? And shouldn't we be talking about the right experience instead?

Customer perception

Forrester Research defines customer experience as following: “How customers perceive their interactions with your company.” Managing customer perception should be a top priority for companies, as that perception has a big influence on purchasing behaviour.
 
How are you positioning your brand in the market? What’s the promise you’re making and the values that you stand for? When a customer buys from you it’s because what your brand stands for resonates with them in one way or another. In other words, you need to find out why your customers buy from you specifically and tailor the experience to their likes and needs.

... and then what?

Most organisations have a programme to measure customer perception and satisfaction. That programme often ends up in a “customer experience department”, responsible for monitoring this. But what happens then?
 
The issue with customer experience is that it often remains vague and fluffy, and it's hard to prove what it means for business. Also, making it the responsibility of one team only doesn't make sense. All departments need to work together as a customer will come in contact with them one way or another, directly or indirectly. Still the question remains: what’s the added value of all these efforts and how do they impact your organisation? How can we go from the vague concept of CX to business strategy? Our answer: think of it as creating the right experience for your customers.

From CX to the right experience

You could ask ‘what’s the difference between the two’? Two words are important: ‘right’ and ‘your’. Customer experience is too broad of a concept and it's hard to grasp the real importance: tailoring to every customer’s needs. Companies tend to see their customer base as an amalgam of people which they try to serve in the same way. Telling your personnel to be friendly or offering a discount now and then, for some organisations this might already be ‘customer experience’. Not that those are necessarily bad measures, but it’s not what customer experience is about.
 
It’s also hard to measure if these things really make an impact. Or if they do, why it’s so impactful, or if that is what every customer needs from you. No two people are the same. Similarly, not all of your customers are the same, so why would you approach them all in the same way? That’s why it’s important you create the right experience.

Experience pays off

There's no way the business impact can be underrated either. The statistics speak for themselves: customers will pay more for a better experience and there's a high chance they will spend their money somewhere else after a poor one.

hello customer impact of cx

Feedback is the way to go

So there’s market research, customer panels, tracking website behavior etc. But you need one more element to create the critical mix. Or as J.R.R. Tolkien would put it: “One ring to rule them all.” In case: a constant pulse of customer feedback. As one of the organisations that works with us recently put it:
“When it comes down to it there’s only one party who can tell you if strategic decisions have an impact. And that’s your customer.”
It's all about listening to your customers at the right time (a meaningful interaction) and about really understanding what they're telling you. What matters to customers who like your brand? Why do people visit your website, but they don't buy? It’s these kinds of insights that will help you create the right experience for your customer base. You can keep gathering all kinds of data, but if you fail to connect data to experience, it's hard to make the right experience. By the way, if you want to know how Hello Customer can help you do this, make sure to read our blog on distinguishing customer groups in the feedback platform.

 

In short

We can keep talking about customer experience until the cows come home, but it all boils down to this.
  • Get to know your customers by asking for their feedback
  • Find out what matters for different segments of your customer base
  • Link the insights back to your data
  • Make changes and constantly evaluate if you've met your customer's needs
© Hello Customer 2024
Net Promoter Score, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered U.S. Trademarks, and Net Promoter Score and Net Promoter System are service marks, of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc. and Fred Reichheld.
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