WHAT IS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (and why it's important for your business)

Everyday you will interact with a company of some sort, whether it’s for work or whether it’s in your personal life, take a minute and think of a time when you had a great experience and interaction with a company.

Think about the type of company is like, think how the great experience made you feel and what specifically made it great, that the reason you go back and interact with the business again and again?

Now on the flip side, no doubt, Somewhere, you will have had a bad customer experience with another company, again, think about how the bad experience made you feel and what exactly made you feel that way. What was it that made you never return to that business?

Now, again go back and think about the time you had a great customer experience and how it made you feel. That is the exact same feeling you need to make every single one of your customers feel, each and every time each customer interacts with your business!  You need to delight your customers! 

The better the customer experience, your customer has, the more likely they will return and not only that, but also will increase additional revenue. These group of customers are most likely to help market your business, by telling their friends and family about the great experience they had when interacting with your business.

Do you think about your customer experience? The truth is, most businesses don’t, businesses simply launch a business, to sell a certain product or service and don’t really think about the experience their customer or potential customer has when interacting.

So, what is Customer Experience?

Customer Experience, is basically how the customer feels when interacting with your business. Do they feel delighted or dread?

How easy is it for a customer to speak to someone in customer services? Does your phone just ring and ring? How easy is your website to navigate from the initial search to completing an action? For example, are there too many steps in the process? Is your website design not easy flowing? When a customer purchases something in your store, how did your staff interact with your customer? All these and more contribute to the customer experience.

So, why is Customer Experience so important?

The whole customer experience is important as this is what builds your business growth and sustainability. How you make a customer feel is how you build customer loyalty to your brand.

Since the internet and social media came along, the power has shifted from businesses to the customer. Customers can now research your business online, read previous customer reviews of your product or service! Customers can now price check your products against your competitors to find out who is offering the better deal.

Your customers are your best marketing tool as they can share their great experiences with their followers on social media, so it’s important you delight your customers every single time! 

Just as word of mouth is good for your business to grow and build loyalty, if a customer has experienced a bad interaction with your business, they too will tell their friends and family, on average, dissatisfied customers tell between 10 and 15 people about the bad experience they received while interacting with your business. While studies show customers who had a great experience with your company will only tell about 3 people mouth to mouth.

It’s so important as a business owner or a manager you know everything that goes on within the customer experience environment of your business. Your customers now rule and you must be able to manage their expectations with such precision!

So what now?

If you haven’t done so already, have a think about your business and how you interact with your customers another good way to see the experience your customers get, is to go undercover in your business! Yes, Mystery Shopping services is a great way to find any issues customers have to deal with when engaging with your business. You can no longer hide away from this.