Introduction
Customer experience is critical to the success of any business. It’s how your customers perceive your brand and what they get out of it. It’s also what drives customer loyalty, advocacy, and repeat purchases. But while many businesses understand this—and talk about having a “voice of the customer” in their organizations—few have actually made it part of their overall strategy. To truly connect with customers today requires a deep understanding of who they are and what they want from you as an organization, along with a commitment by senior leaders to take action based on that knowledge.
Introduction to customer as strategic asset
Customer experience is a critical strategic asset. It can be used to create value for your business and drive competitive advantage, but only if you understand how to harness its power.
Customer experience is not just about providing good service; it’s about meeting customer needs in an emotional way that leads to long-term loyalty and profitability. In this guide, we’ll show you how customer experience can be used as a strategic asset through five key steps:
- Understanding what drives customer loyalty (and why it matters)
- Creating value through customer experience initiatives
Why customer experience is critical
Customer experience is critical to business success. It’s not a buzzword or trend; it’s the new marketing, customer service, brand and product.
Why? Because customers are more informed than ever before–and they expect brands to know them better than they know themselves. They want products that solve their problems without making them feel like they’re being sold something. They want brands that understand what matters most in their lives, so you can make recommendations tailored specifically for them (or even just give them a helping hand). In short: Customers want an experience that leaves them feeling like the center of attention–and if you give it to them consistently and authentically over time, then they’ll reward you with loyalty at every touch point along the way–from purchase through repeat purchases afterword!
The customer journey as a key starting point for digital transformation
The customer journey is the key starting point for digital transformation. The journey encompasses every touchpoint you have with your customers, from their first exposure to your brand and products or services, through purchase and use–and even after they’ve finished using them. The goal of a customer-centric organization is to create an engaging experience along each step in this process so that it’s easy for customers to buy from you again and again (or at least recommend others do so).
Customer experience management (CEM) refers broadly to any strategy or initiative aimed at improving how well companies meet their customers’ needs through interactions across channels–whether those are online experiences via websites; physical retail stores; call centers; social media platforms like Facebook Messenger or Twitter DMs; chatbots like Alexa or Siri; voice assistants like Cortana/Siri/Google Assistant on smartphones…you get the idea!
How customer experience can be used to create value for the business
Customer experience is a key component of customer engagement. It can be used to improve customer loyalty, increase customer retention and improve customer acquisition.
Customer Experience (CX) is defined as “the totality of all interactions that an individual has with your company or brand”. CX initiatives are designed to improve all aspects of the customer journey including:
- Customer satisfaction – how satisfied are our customers?
- Product quality – do we meet their expectations?
- Service quality – how quickly can we respond to them when they need us? * Financial performance – how profitable are we at delivering what our customers want from us?
The importance of context for creating customer-driven digital transformation
Context is critical to customer experience. It’s key to understanding customers’ needs, desires and behaviors.
It helps you understand the customer journey–where the customer is in their decision making process and what touchpoints they’re using along the way.
Context also helps you understand how customers use digital tools and channels to interact with your brand or company.
Customer experience lies at the heart of any successful business transformation strategy.
Customer experience lies at the heart of any successful business transformation strategy. The world is changing and customer behavior is evolving rapidly, so if you don’t have a customer-centric culture and strategy in place, it’s time to get one.
The reason why? Because customers are becoming more demanding than ever before. Their expectations are higher than ever before–and they will not settle for anything less than an excellent experience when they do business with you or your company. If you want to stay competitive in today’s marketplace, then understanding how to deliver on this expectation is critical for success.
Conclusion
Customer experience is critical to the success of any business, and it’s something that you can’t afford to ignore. Today’s customers are more demanding than ever before, and they expect their needs to be met in every interaction with a company. Those who understand this and use it as an opportunity for transformation will be well on their way towards building stronger connections with customers that lead to more repeat purchases–and ultimately greater profits!
