How Great Customer Experiences Grow Revenue

Customer experience is often the only notable difference between brands, so businesses invest heavily.

Great customer service experiences win over customers first with sales and then loyalty. In a recent report, Gartner revealed that half of the businesses surveyed said they could track sales back to their customer service.

Unsurprisingly, an industry is built around managing customer experiences.  This article considers customer experience management (CEM) and its impact on marketing and sales strategies.

Customer Experience Management (CEM) or CXM)

Customer experience management (CEM) is more than just another acronym; it is a business strategy that focuses on creating and managing positive interactions between a company and its customers throughout the customer journey.

With CEM, many components are involved to help businesses understand and optimize every touchpoint a customer has.

Understanding and improving customer experiences aims to enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and overall perception of the brand.

Customer journeys

What is a customer journey?

A customer journey refers to the complete process of interactions that a customer experiences when engaging with a brand or company. Therefore, to understand a customer’s journey, all the connections and experiences a customer has, from the moment they become aware of a product or service to the post-purchase support and any potential future interactions, must be recorded.

Understanding and mapping the customer journey is a crucial aspect of Customer Experience Management (CEM).

Feedback and measurement

Another fundamental component of understanding customer journeys is gathering customer feedback through surveys, reviews, and other channels.

Companies use various metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES) to measure and assess customer satisfaction.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

CES, also known as Customer Effort Score, is a metric utilized in customer experience management to evaluate the level of exertion required by a customer to accomplish a specific goal or resolution with a company. It measures the ease with which customers can interact with a business to address their concerns, complete a purchase, or carry out any other task.

Typically, CES is measured by asking customers, “How much effort did you have to put forth to resolve your issue?” Customers then provide a numerical rating, often on a scale from 1 to 7 or 1 to 10, where lower scores indicate lower effort and higher scores indicate higher effort.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Businesses use the NPS when they want to know the likelihood a customer will recommend it, i.e. one of their products or services to others. Asking a question such as: “How likely is it that you would recommend our [product/service/company] to a friend or colleague?”

The customer is then asked to provide a rating on a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being “Not at all likely” and 10 being “Extremely likely.”

These satisfaction metrics and the CSAT are used as KPIs (key performance indicators) to work out overall customer satisfaction.

Post-purchase experience

Additionally, after the purchase, the customer’s interactions continue. This stage involves using the product or service and evaluating the overall experience. The post-purchase customer experience is essential as it includes customer support, onboarding processes, and any follow-up communication.

How well a business performs during these touchpoints can make or break it’s reputation, therefore using multi-channel integration is a must for ensuring the customer can contact it and get a speedy response.

Multi-channel integration

Customer experience management must provide a seamless experience across different channels, such as online platforms, social media, in-store, and customer support. Integration helps deliver a consistent experience regardless of the channel customers choose and encourages customers to interact with the business.

Using emerging technologies with AI to capture and share data for insights into customer behaviour and preferences is essentially for customer experience management. Businesses can learn and respond quickly when they can identify patterns, trends and areas of improvement in customer service.

Improvements in Customer Service

Customer service is a crucial touchpoint of customer experience management. There are many ways to create and retain loyal customers by improving customer experience with your service and support.

Active listening

When an actual human customer support representative interacts with a customer, they can immediately build rapport through active listening.

Giving the customer time to vent or air their experiences shows you are empathetic and understanding. However, to problem solve, you must show you have been actively listening by paraphrasing what you’ve heard.

Effective communication

Use language your customer understands, i.e., avoid being too technical or using jargon that alienates the customer. Ask questions to clarify your understanding of their issues and address the customer by name.

Be transparent about any issues with your products and services and what’s being done to resolve them. Use your social media profiles to share incidents that may impact customer use or enjoyment of your products or services.

Consistency

Ensure your processes are consistent across all channels and there is minimal red tape to getting a satisfactory resolution or question answered.

All interactions with customers need to follow a similar template and be user-friendly. Use customer support surveys post-resolution to get instant feedback.

The support staff survey needs to be quick and focus on service areas integral to maintaining a satisfied customer.

Meeting customer expectations reduces their likelihood of seeking alternatives and increases forgiveness for occasional issues.

Customer Experience Management Improves Revenue

Businesses can leverage Customer Experience Management to improve revenue even in a downturn economy.

For example, marketers and salespeople can create campaigns to improve the following:

• Customer retention – to enhance the overall customer experience, leading to repeat business and long-term revenue
• Word-of-mouth marketing – or referral marketing to acquire new customers and increase revenue
• Differentiation – to set a business apart from its competitors by attracting more customers and positively impacting revenue
• Reduced churn – use value-driven storytelling to identify and address issues that may lead to customer dissatisfaction or churn. Everyone loves a good story!
• Cross-selling and upselling – to increase the average transaction value and overall revenue

Customers often choose brands that provide products or services and a positive and memorable overall experience.

Final Thoughts

Businesses use Customer Experience Management today as a strategic approach to create positive and memorable customer interactions, leading to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and, ultimately, improved revenue.

Satisfied customers are more likely to advocate for a brand, recommending it to others. The more rewarding and lowest-cost sales strategy is customer referrals.

Focus on your customer experiences to create and sustain a community of loyal customers to edge out the competition because businesses prioritising customer experiences are better positioned to thrive in the long term.