Why your customer experience matters
If that sounds familiar, the chances are you’re not close enough to your customer experience.
Which means you’re missing out on vital clues as to why all your hard work is going unrewarded.
But why is the customer experience the answer?
Put simply, the customer experience correlates to loyalty.
And loyal customers will not only continue to purchase from your business, but they will also advocate for your brand. Meaning that they will tell others about how great your business is, for free!
What could be better than that?
Not understanding your customer experience in depth means that you’re missing out on identifying opportunities to improve not only the customer experience, but also the employee experience by streamlining processes, breaking down silos, and eliminating internal blockages.
Whilst it’s valuable to learn about what the customer experience IS, it’s also beneficial to first learn what it’s not.
A great book to read if you want to understand your customer experience better is ‘Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Centre of your Business’, by Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine.
In it, they describe what customer experience is NOT.
“It’s not customer service. People call customer service when they have a problem. So equating customer service with customer experience is like saying that a safety net is a trapeze act. Yes, the net is important to the act. But if the performer needs to use the net then something has gone wrong with the show.”
“It’s not soft and fluffy. Of course you love your customers – if not for them, you couldn’t pay your mortgage. But loving your customers won’t help you succeed unless you DO something about it, like offering them products that meet their needs, and making it easy to find, buy, and use those products – all critical aspects of customer experience.”
“It’s not usability. Yes people appreciate it when a product or service is easy to use. But usability is just one piece of the customer experience puzzle – and not even the most important piece. Take your car, for example. Even if the steering wheel is easy to turn and the brake pedal feels just right, your driving experience will still be miserable if the car fails to meet your basic needs, like running reliable and stopping safely.”
So what is it then?
The customer experience is every single interaction an individual has with the products and services your brand offers.
- It’s how they even heard about your business in the first place.
- Why they chose to find out more about you and make contact.
- The decisions they made about your brand before even purchasing anything.
- How they felt when they experienced a problem with your service and asked for help.
- Their evaluation of the entire experience of your brand from start to finish.
- The decisions they will make as to whether they stay with your business or move on.
Manning and Bodine define it as: “Customer experience is how your customers perceive their interactions with your company.”
Once you understand that, once you realise that every single part of your business process impacts on the customers’ perception of your brand and service, then you’re ready to begin building a stronger, more customer-focused business which will have loyal advocates ready to big you up to others whenever they get the chance.
In recent years, it has been demonstrated by various sources that improving your customer experience leads to profits, but only if you treat it as a business discipline. The customer experience has to become a core part of your strategy and focus if it is to truly reward your efforts and drive growth. Customer experience fails to gain traction when businesses treat it like something soft and squishy.
Your customers are not soft and squishy. They’re hard, complex creatures looking to find the best option for their needs. Are you ready to give it to them?
Calm Blue is passionate about the customer experience. We’re here to turn your sad faces upside down and open new doors to satisfied customers and business growth. If you’re ready to take the next step, we’re looking forward to speaking to you.