Are you suffering from a long-term sales dip? Ask yourself the following question: Is my CX strategy up to par? You may think you’re company provides an impeccable customer experience, but the following underlying problems could be plaguing your business:
A) You’re not collecting customer feedback
B) You don’t know if your employees or happy or unhappy
C) You don’t know how your customers truly feel about your products
D) You don’t know what you’re average customer is thinking or feeling
If any of these problems apply to you, you’ll need a better course of action. A CX plan will help you retain existing customers and enhance customer acquisition.
This article will explain what CX is in greater detail. Read further to know how you can launch your company to new heights.
Table of Contents
Capturing the Customer Journey from Beginning to End
To improve customer interactions with your brand, step inside the shoes of the customer. This means capturing the voice of the customer and understanding how they think.
What are their wants and needs? How can your company satisfy those needs and wants?
You can create the customer journey by stringing together key data points at a certain time. Some vital data points may entail marketing campaigns, loyalty programs, and social media use. From there, establish a universal outline that ensures positive interactions with your brand.
A Positive Customer Experience Is Key
The main goal of CX is to ensure all customers walk away with a positive experience. All interactions with your company should leave the customer feeling happy and/or satisfied. To improve interaction with consumers, companies should take the following measures:
- Simplifying the buying process
- Making your marketing campaigns target-focused
- Providing self-service for extra convenience
- Fostering the ability to connect with customer service reps at any time
- Customer care through multiple channels (i.e. mobile devices or social media)
Customers expect instant communication if they have a question or concern. That’s why many companies offer customer service via social media.
This is just one example of instant gratification. If a customer has a question, they can talk to a customer service associate through social media without delay.
Social media is just one component of the digital experience. A poor digital interface will leave customers dissatisfied. When it comes to digital tools, some industries are more equipped than others.
Therefore, know where your industry stands in terms of a positive digital experience. Then, you can develop key strategies that will help you flourish in your profession.
Study Bad Customer Experiences
Gathering data on bad experiences is just as important as collecting positive data. A bad customer experience is any experience that leaves the customer feeling dissatisfied, unhappy, or frustrated.
If you don’t collect negative data, you won’t know how you can improve. Negative consumer interactions can spread like wildfire.
- Example: A disgruntled customer leaves a one-star review about your business. Even though you have a five-star review overall, most customers will focus on the negative experiences of a few individuals.
Even though bad reviews are part of doing business, excessive complaints and bad reviews can hamper your sales in the long run. According to studies, 51% of customers said they will no longer return to a business after a single negative interaction.
Winning dissatisfied customers back isn’t impossible, but it takes additional resources to win them back. Instead, use company resources to find weaknesses within your operations.
A bad customer experience can arise in any area, such as:
- Websites that are hard to read and use
- Low-quality products that underwhelm consumers
- Poor marketing (i.e. reaching the wrong consumers)
- Inattentive customer care
Customer care is especially important because your reps are the face of your company. Reps who give customers the runaround or evoke a negative attitude will reflect poorly on your company.
To enhance the customer journey, foster greater collaboration among individuals within a team. Further, learn how you can improve communication between different departments so everyone can work together as a unit. Customer care requires that all teams and departments are on the same page.
Boost Employee Morale
Keep your employees happy to satisfy customers. If you’re attentive to employee needs, you can prevent issues rather than responding to them.
First, improve working conditions wherever possible. One way to improve conditions is to recognize hard work when you see it. Recognition encourages employees to exceed expectations and become more engaged in their duties.
Proper Training
Make sure that your workers have the resources and equipment needed to deliver stellar customer service. However, customer service is one part of the equation. Customer service is mostly a transactional experience.
The customer experience mostly relies on emotion. How can you get the customer attached to your brand? To make your customers feel welcome, your staff must also have customer experience training.
Remember: the customer experience involves the customer’s interaction with all aspects of your business.
Collecting Feedback
CX involves collecting all positive and negative feedback. To gather feedback, you can ask all customers to complete a questionnaire or survey.
Additionally, respond immediately to feedback on public forums. A quick response can alleviate a negative interaction, and you’ll show the public that you can address conflicts promptly.
Overall, customer complaints should be handled with compassion and understanding. When you show empathy, you’re treating the customer as a brand ally who can help your company grow.
Boosting Your Sales with CX Strategies
If you implement a CX plan, your company will benefit from long-term sales. If done right, a great customer experience can help you amass life-long customers who are loyal to your brand. To treat customers well, however, make sure that your employees are satisfied.
