Every business wants to win their customer’s loyalty and retain them. Every business or company felt that the key to doing that is by producing or offering the best quality in service or product.
But the coronavirus pandemic has proved the business thinking wrong. A new factor for determining success has appeared- customer experience.
There is a shift in customer attitude in terms of evolution and shift. Customers have realised what exactly they need and want products or services that align with their requirements. Anything out of line with what they want is not recommended. The Temkin Group in a survey with the right investment in customer experience, companies can earn an additional $700 million within 3 years on an average. SaaS companies can increase revenue by $1 billion.
That is the rate of growth a great employees monitoring software experience will provide your company. This is why customer experience should be a strategic priority for 2021.
With COVID-19, customers have experienced challenges like never before. Customer experience became compulsory as improvements in service became necessary. When customers faced new challenges, companies that rose to the occasion to offer the best service made a set of loyalists. Customers now have real needs and want brands to deliver them.
It is also to be noted that 86 percent of buyers are ready to pay more for a great customer experience. A study by Walker found that customer experience will overtake product and price as the key brand differentiator.
What is Customer Experience?
Customer experience is extremely subjective. It is how your existing customers perceive your company. What they think of how you treat them and work with them forms an important component of customer experience. Their perceptions drive their behaviour, affect their loyalty, and create the bond.
In this world of competitiononly if customers like you, they will continue to do business with you. Focusing on customer experience is important for developing a long-term relationship and delivering a personalised experience.
5 Reasons Why Customer Experience Should be made a Strategic Priority in 2021
Customer experience has assumed a new level of importance in 2021. With customer data, it is possible to improve customer experience and get the best results. A good customer experience strategy will increase satisfaction, retention and improve revenue. Here are some reasons why customer experience should be made a strategic priority in 2021.
Customer Experience is the New Battlefield
No customers want to be associated with a company that doesn’t treat them well. How a customer feels after interacting with the company’s website or representative is a great measure of customer experience. A poor interaction will lead to reduced trust. This is why companies are now concentrating on optimising their customer experience. As per a report by Gartner, more than two-thirds of companies now compete only on the basis of customer experience. To win this, companies need to invest in customer experience projects to set the right streak with customers.
Multi-channel customer experience will thrive
Customers interact with the company everywhere. It can be through website, live chat, hoardings, advertisements, social media and more. Customers choose different levels of service and also expect that the communication remains consistent across mediums. Customer experience needs to be consistent to give customers the feeling of belongingness. This omni-channel experience is what will drive customer experience trends higher.
Customer Frustration will lead to increased churn
Customers like having a great experience. Bad experiences will lead to them getting frustrated. Imagine holding on to a representative call for 30 minutes with no definitive answer. Frustrating right? As per a report, if a customer is not happy, they will share their bad experience will 15 or more prospective users. There are many customers who do not even let people know they are unhappy. They just churn. When the expectations of customers are at a high, it is necessary to meet them and exceed if necessary.
Contactless and self-service customer help will be preferred
If facial recognition provided a great experience in the last 5 years, contactless customer experience is the new trend. In 2021, companies must ensure that customers find answer to their questions via their FAQ’s or such self-service options. Nearly 70 percent of customers prefer self-service over actually contacting a representative. Customers like finding answers to their problems themselves. This is why AI becomes important. Customers like getting automated results via artificial intelligence and machine learning. So when a customer has a problem, they need to have the resources and tools to resolve them on their own.
Customer Experience will dictate purchasing
Post-COVID 19, more customers care about customer experience. Customers want to feel heard, appreciated, known, and cared for. Customer experience will dictate and rule the roost when it comes to purchasing in 2021. If you do not care for your customers in 2021, chances of losing them are more. It cannot be ignored that customer experience is transformative to every industry. There is also an increase in customer experience education making consumers more aware than ever. This has led to customer experience dictating the purchasing behaviour of consumers.
3 Actionable Tips to Improve Customer Experience in 2021
Chalk a customer experience strategy
To get the best in the customer experience strategy, it is necessary to create a plan. The plan will help teams understand the customer success plans of the company. A customer experience plan will also help create a customer-centric culture in the company. A customer experience strategy will help companies plan their marketing and sales strategies also.
Collect Customer Feedback
Through surveys, web forms, social media, or feedback forms, it is important to collect user feedback. Through customer feedback, it is possible to know all the details of customers and how they feel about a certain product. With voice of customer, it is possible to get the right information of customer opinion. This can help with insights, product planning, improvements, and more.
Track Customer Success Metrics
Another actionable way to understand and improve customer experience is by tracking customer success metrics. Customer success metrics determine the kind of customer experience the company offers. Companies get to know the practical impact of the product on the customer requirements or work processes. Metrics like churn rate, NPS, average revenue per account (ARPA), and more can help. With these metrics, you know the vision of the customer experience strategy and how they are translating into results.
Bottom Line: Customer Experience is a necessity for Success
It is now well known that only organisations who take customer experience seriously can win loyal customers. To deliver a positive experience, it is necessary to create high levels of personalisation by knowing your customers better than ever before. Having good buyer personas will help measure and understand customer behaviour across channels. Customers like when their choices are kept in mind while catering to their roles. Research about your customers, know their capabilities, requirements and create plans to set their expectations right. With interactive KPI dashboards, you can get the latest information and improve the customer experience strategy. To keep the strategy short, customers need the right tools to grow and solve their own problems. In the long term, it is necessary to set the right technology in place to develop effective customer solutions. more info to visit: http://thetruebusiness.com/