- United Continental lost about $800 million in total value in just a few hours after a video of a man being dragged off a flight became a major news story.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
With customer experience management (CXM) becoming the next stage of the customer-centric business transformation, it\u2019s imperative for the entire C-suite\u2014CIOs, CMOs, chief digital officers, or other customer-facing functions to own the brand customer experience.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nA PwC research says 86% of buyers will pay more for a great customer experience, while 32% will walk away from a brand they love after a single bad experience. A Gartner survey further predicts that 81% of brands expect to be competing mostly or completely based on customer experience in two years\u2019 time. And it\u2019s not just this. Customer experience also influences on-the-spot purchasing as 49% of buyers have made impulse purchases after receiving a more personalized experience.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo, what is this fuss all about?<\/strong>
<\/h2>\n\n\n\nAs customer experience becomes more commonplace in our lexicon, let\u2019s see what it is. It\u2019s essentially how your customers feel you are treating them \u2013 their perception and such perceptions affect and guide their behaviors and feelings, ultimately driving their loyalty.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn simple words, if they continue to like you, they are going to do business with you for a long time and recommend you to others. This puts things in perspective as to why it\u2019s important for so many companies to focus on customer experience.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nTo understand why customers\u2019 choose a specific brand, it\u2019s important to know the factors influencing them to say yes or no. Typically, there are three categories of factors that influence consumer behavior:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Personal factors: an individual\u2019s interests and opinions, mostly informed by demographics such as age, gender, culture, etc.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Psychological factors: an individual\u2019s response to a marketing message, mostly informed by their perceptions and attitudes.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n3. Social factors: an individual\u2019s family, friends, education, social media, income.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat can brands do about customer experience?<\/strong>
<\/h2>\n\n\n\nNow that you know why a customer chooses a brand, it\u2019s time to dive deep and analyze their buying behavior and patterns. There are so many of them; we list a few:
<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlace or purchase location:<\/strong> The location of the store is very important for a customer, so the brands should always give a lot of thought to it. Some customers prefer not to visit a beauty salon, if located next to a mechanic garage. Some can be put off by the unavailability of their favorite products or even parking. Additionally, a lot of customers prefer to shop by comparing prices across stores in different locations. So, it\u2019s not necessary that a customer will remain loyal to a single store for a very long period.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nProduct type and quantity:<\/strong> To deliver on customer experience, brands must analyze the type of product the customer wants to purchase and its quantity. This will again depend on various factors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Customer\u2019s purchasing power<\/li>
- Product Perishability or durability<\/li>
- Product availability <\/li>
- Product storage<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Purchase frequency and time:<\/strong> Various factors affect a product\u2019s purchase frequency:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n- Festivals or life events<\/li>
- The product type<\/li>
- Customer Lifestyle<\/li>
- Product\u2019s perceived need \u2013 is it essential or can-do-without-it<\/li>
- The influence of the individual who accompanies the buyer<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rocketium.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-994848-scaled.jpg\")
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/photo-of-woman-holding-her-phone-994848\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Customers\u2019 response towards the promotional techniques:<\/strong> Sales promotion methods are a known factor to aid in the impulsive buying behavior of a customer. Commonly used techniques customer prefer can be classified as:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n- Special discount schemes and pricing on products, offers during festivals, and others like coupons, contests, etc. <\/li>
- Product displays<\/li>
- Social or print\/TV ads<\/li>
- Product demos and free samples<\/li>
- Direct conversation with a sales rep<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
So, what\u2019s the secret ingredient to getting customer experience right? Believe it or not, the magic word is consistency.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nBruce Springsteen famously said, \u201cSustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.\u201d Of course, he was talking about his music stardom, but his words are just as applicable to the world of customer experience.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s not enough to make customers happy with each individual interaction. Brands need to get it right every time and across channels to derive the maximum customer satisfaction.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow to measure customer experience?<\/strong>
<\/h2>\n\n\n\nCustomer experience as a concept can look subjective but in reality, it\u2019s quite objective to measure. Here are four top metrics used to track customer experience over time:
<\/p>\n\n\n\nNet Promoter Score<\/strong> (NPS)<\/strong>: A simple closed-ended question can get you the answer to what\u2019s basically a customer loyalty score: \u201cOn a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this product\/company to a friend or colleague?\u201d From the set of answers, you can derive a simple numerical score on a scale from 0 to 100 that represents customer experience.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nCustomer Effort Score (CES):<\/strong> It measures a customer\u2019s experience with a product or service in terms of how \u2018difficult\u2019 or \u2018easy\u2019 it is for them to complete an action. Usually, brands send them out after a customer interaction, such as a talk with customer service. It mostly includes questions such as \u2018How easy was your issue resolution?\u2019 and a rating scale going from \u20181: very difficult\u2019 to \u20188: very easy\u2019. These are also sent out after customers reach important milestones in their journey; for example, signing up for a free product trial or successful completion of a transaction.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nCustomer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): <\/strong>CSAT surveys typically measure customers\u2019 satisfaction with your product or service. You can assign a 5- or 7-point scale with 1: very unsatisfied and 7: very satisfied or give yes\/no answers. But this is different from NPS in the sense that this score focuses on the customer\u2019s attention on specific touchpoints they were satisfied or dissatisfied with. In contrast, NPS is more focused on the customers\u2019 overall feeling towards the brand.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nTime to resolution (TTR): <\/strong>TTR is the average length of time it takes customer service teams to resolve an issue after a customer complaint. It\u2019s a hard-core statistic and can be measured in days or business hours. Typically, the leading cause of customer frustration is a long wait\/response time. So, the shorter your TTR, the higher would be your customer experience score.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow can brands get the customer experience right?<\/strong>
<\/h2>\n\n\n\n1. Reviewing your current customer service strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first step to getting the customer experience right is reviewing your company’s existing approach to customer support. Analyze the interactions using your company\u2019s call center<\/a> data or ticket stats, NPS and CSAT scores, as well as customer churn. You need to understand what’s working well for your business and where you can stand to improve.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnother way you can do this is by mapping out all interactions a customer has with your brand through a customer journey map. This map will invariably point out all the major pain points as well, helping you identify friction within your customer experience.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Training your staff<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you know where you need to improve, the next step is to train your staff on new protocols. Communicate openly and transparently so your employees will get on board with your decisions, reducing pushback against your new policies.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n3. Solving problems for the customer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
A superior customer service strategy focuses on solving problems for the customer. A brand can\u2019t just account for the anticipated problems. It needs to include unexpected problems as well. These days, most brands have customer success<\/a> teams whose job is to anticipate potential problems and intercept them before they affect the customer. These teams also check-in with customers routinely, post-purchase. This proactive customer service reduces churn and strengthens your relationship with your customer base.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n4. Providing Self-Service Solutions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
With today\u2019s technology, customers are more aware and self-reliant than ever. As a customer-focused brand, it should be your goal to reduce friction at every interaction by introducing self-service support options to your customers. Rather than requiring people to call your business <\/a>whenever they need help, customers can find answers to questions on their own through tools like live<\/a> <\/a>chat<\/a>, chatbots, knowledgebases, FAQs. This will also help your customer service team to focus on the more complex issues that require more time to troubleshoot.\u00a0
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