Acquiring a new customer can be up to seven times more expensive than maintaining the existing one. Regular customers are an invaluable source of income, so it is worth putting at least the same effort into building loyalty activities as acquiring new buyers. In this context, Customer Experience and improvement of customer satisfaction with the transaction, contact and service play a crucial role. What is Customer Experience and how to optimise customer experiences?
What is Customer Experience?
Customer Experience (CX) is the sum of all customer experiences and the range of associations with the brand at all contact points during interaction. Currently, consumers expect quick solutions and answers to individual needs. As it turns out, not only the price of the goods matters, but also experience with the brand. In other words, consumers do not always buy in the cheapest online stores, but also in those that arouse positive emotions. This is related to many factors, including:
- Sum of experiences connected with the sales process (e.g. hassle-free purchase, straightforward purchase path)
- Sales-related activities (e.g. after-sales service, additional benefits after purchase, quick response to questions and doubts)
- Encouraging marketing messages (e.g. unobtrusive offer, presentation of benefits, provision of guide materials that meet recipients’ needs and answer their questions)
- Experiences related to the product or service (e.g. satisfactory quality, acceptable price)
- Brand attachment (e.g. positive customer reviews, brand recognition)
Consumers perceive a brand or store at three levels – cognitive, regarding facts (e.g. delivery time), behavioural (behaviour in response to a given event) and emotional. Emotional assessment is one of the most important parts of the sum of experiences. Positive impressions related to the purchasing process stay in memory for the longest time.
Customer Experience Management – how to manage customer experiences?
Customer Experience is something much wider than customer satisfaction survey. It is a comprehensive approach to doing business, taking into account multidimensional, pro-customer activities. In order to manage experience, an enterprise should create a customer-oriented strategy covering all interactions. The first step is to understand recipient needs and behaviours, and to create segments on that basis.
Next, attractive customer travel maps should be prepared to help identify contact points and predict how it will interact with the product or service. Another very important step involves establishing a relationship with the recipient, i.e. evoking positive feelings and emotions. Relationship marketing focuses on individual communication with the customer and requires both the involvement of the sales department and customer service.
Positive customer experience is affected by appropriate after-sales service, as well as encouraging offers and messages that will help attract the customer back to the store. Push notifications and newsletters effectively remind the recipient of the brand, but the messages must be customised, i.e. tailored to their preferences and expectations. Push notifications allow to inform the subscriber about a new collection, discounts, sales, or other benefits adjusted to their needs in a less intrusive way.
Optimization of customer experiences
Customer experience at all points of contact with the brand requires a good balance between recipient expectations and company’s business goals. User experience optimization consists in improving the forms of communication regarding both telephone contact and marketing tools, such as push notifications and newsletters. User experience optimization also boils down to carrying out necessary analyses of customer behaviour that will measure their actual increase in number and sales growth.
