There are many moving parts in play when trying to explain, let alone execute, an exceptional customer experience. Therefore it truly takes a village and a good game plan to get things done effectively. Staying on top of your customer experience strategy is vital as the customer behaviour and digital channels of engagement continue to change how business is done.
But it’s easy to be overwhelmed even before you get started. Where do you start? How do you prioritise the endless list of online and offline opportunities within your customer journey? Take a breath— we’re here to help break things down for you on how to build a customer experience strategy.
Let’s begin with what “customer experience” means.
What is Customer Experience?
The term refers to the sum of a customer’s perception of your business. It’s the result of every interaction they have and the experience varies based on the extent of the exchange, who it’s with, and their general expectations before and after said interaction. Customer experience is increasingly recognised as a powerful means of differentiating your business from its competitors. Unlike variables such as price or product range, customer experience creates opportunities for strong, resilient relationships with customers over time.
Fortunately, there are many ways you can ensure each customer experience is consistently high in quality.
What is a Customer Experience Strategy?
A “customer experience strategy” is the actionable plan to deliver a positive, meaningful experience across every interaction between the customer and your brand.
What is the Business Impact of a Customer Experience Strategy?
Warren Buffett once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” His statement strikes the core impact of having a customer experience strategy: mitigating churn. 74% of consumers are likely to buy based on experiences alone and it’s hard to earn back trust once lost.
Secondly, customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that don’t focus on customers. Why? That’s because better, more consistent experiences forge deeper loyalties. Loyal customers are five times more likely to purchase again and four times more likely to refer the company to people they know and work with.
How to Build a Customer Experience Strategy
When developing a customer experience strategy, there are several key components that need to be considered to ensure its effectiveness. These components include:
Customer Information
Understanding your customers is crucial. Identify who your target audience is, their needs, preferences, and their geographical locations. This information will guide your strategy in catering to their specific requirements.
Company Culture
Your company’s vision and values should align with the desired customer experience. Evaluate how you hire front-line employees and how their interactions with customers can reinforce the company culture. Additionally, assess internal processes that have a direct impact on the customer experience.
In-store Experience
If you have physical stores, consider how you want them to look and feel. This includes factors such as store layout, ambiance, staff behaviour, and customer service protocols. Creating a welcoming and comfortable environment enhances the overall customer experience.
Communication Channels
Determine the various channels customers can use to contact your brand. This includes phone, email, live chat, social media, and more. Ensure that each channel is easily accessible, user-friendly, and provides prompt and efficient responses to customer inquiries.
Technology
Assess the technology platforms you currently use to manage customer interactions, such as customer relationship management (CRM) software and help desks. Identify any gaps in your tech stack and explore solutions that can streamline and enhance the customer experience.
Once you have identified these components, the next step is to analyse market data and develop a step-by-step action plan. It is crucial to involve all departments, not just those in customer-facing roles, during this process. Incorporate feedback and insights from various teams, including marketing and product, to gain a holistic understanding of how all aspects of the organisation can contribute to improving the customer experience.
By aligning your strategy with organisational goals and involving all departments, you can foster a customer-centric culture and build strong relationships with your customers. This holistic approach ensures that every touchpoint with the customer is optimised to provide exceptional experiences.
5 Ways to Build a Future-Proof Customer Experience Strategy
1. Invest in an Omnichannel Experience
Adobe research determined that companies with the strongest omnichannel customer engagement strategies enjoy a 10% Y-O-Y growth, a 10% increase in average order value, and a 25% increase in close rates.
Offering customers the option to contact you how they want provides a much better customer experience. But simply offering multiple channels isn’t enough. You also need to be able to provide consistent support across channels using historical context. Customers want to have the same experience across each channel, and they don’t want to have to repeat themselves when switching between two channels.
An omnichannel help desk can make this goal easier. Find customer information easily with a 360-view of all their engagement and respond to different channels from a single page without switching tabs.
2. Make Self-service Your First Line of Defence
According to a Freshworks study, 76% of consumers globally prefer to first try to solve issues on their own before contacting support. So, empowering them to help themselves with the right information should be a priority in your digital customer experience strategy.
- Launch an intuitive knowledge base with FAQs and help guides
- Set up community forums that enable customers to help themselves
- Deploy AI chatbots that offer instant resolutions
3. Offer Speedy Customer Service
Nearly 50% of consumers expect a response to social media questions or complaints within an hour, with 18% expecting an immediate response. To meet or exceed these expectations, it’s critical to implement technology that helps agents deliver quality support, quickly.
For example, deploying agent-facing AI helps offer faster resolutions with contextual assistance that makes agents better at their jobs. When you’re using a modern help desk, there are many different ways you can reply faster, without needing to hire more agents:
- Automate ticket assignment with rule-based routing
- Create canned responses and combine tickets for similar queries
- Customise ticket views for agents based on the issue type and their urgency
4. Create Personalised Customer Experiences
A good customer experience strategy has a big positive impact on your sales. 49% of buyers have made impulse purchases after receiving a more personalised experience. Being able to personalise every interaction makes each customer feel cared for.
To do so:
- Use a help desk that offers agents complete context of prior support interactions, so they can deliver personalised care, rather than asking customers for information they’ve already provided.
- Gather information from prior customer interactions for targeted messages and upselling opportunities.
- Use third-party integrations to leverage your customers’ behavioural data for marketing and product-related messages.
5. Take Your Customers’ Voice Seriously with Feedback Surveys
Only one out of every 26 customers is likely to bring up their complaints directly to you. The other 25 customers will simply take their business elsewhere without a word. Be proactive with surveys, web forms, or Net Promoter Score (NPS) programs, read through their comments, suggestions, and opinions to see what they expect from you.
By actively seeking feedback, you’ll be able to respond to what customers want much faster. Rather than waiting to see why customers churn, ask them for their feedback early and often, and then take the time to analyse their responses. Future-proof your customer experience by keeping a finger on the pulse of your customers’ desires, even as they are constantly evolving.
5 Examples of Brands with an Excellent Customer Experience Strategy
When deciding which path to take, the endless branches can easily cause you to stand still for fear of getting lost. This is when you look for breadcrumbs. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to look to those who have successfully tread similar terrains before you.
In this case, you will need to look for examples of how peers combine data from online and offline initiatives while also creating an emotional connection between the brand and customers.
Here are five models we were able to round up of brands that set some very sturdy foundations for creating a compelling customer experience strategy going forward.
Microsoft
After experiencing petering growth in the early 2000s, Microsoft partnered with B2B customers, sharing best practices and building new products. As a result, Microsoft not only got the boost it needed, but it democratised access to the type of technology that empowered businesses and their teams to get the job done right.
Microsoft also began to invest more in its social media presence. Currently, they have a strong presence on Twitter with multiple accounts dedicated to various themes, including careers, development, events, security, and, of course, customer service. By utilising social media in this way, Microsoft’s customers can interact and engage with nearly every aspect of the brand.
The takeaway: Ask questions through social media platforms using polls, surveys, chats, and forums. Seek constant feedback to get a 360-degree view of your customer’s journey as it evolves— not just after the initial interaction— so that you can learn the where, when, and the why touchpoints are to renovate current or initiate new processes.
Each of these approaches to gathering feedback encourages engagement, which, in turn, leads to innovation and keeps the customer coming back for more. Finally, remember to respond to comments on social media promptly. The quicker you respond the more your customers will feel that your business values them, their time, and their feedback.
Airbnb
Airbnb is, arguably, the epitome of personalised customer experiences because they have a firm grip of the two different types of customers in their industry — those looking to rent out their place and those looking for a place to stay. As a result, Airbnb has exponentially simplified the search experience for both audiences by providing them both on the same platform.
The takeaway: Don’t be afraid to let your customers lead. Understand that your customers do not exist within a binary and that there might be other essential use cases for you to offer service. Keep your eyes ever-peeled for potential opportunities to do so.
Casper Mattress
The already ingenious grandfather of the delivered-right-to-your-door mattress company struck innovation again in 2016 when they created a free chatbot for insomniacs with the initiative to “make 3 A.M. a little less lonely.” By texting “Insomnobot3000,” customers can talk to the chatbot about whatever is on their mind, offering them a real conversation. But wait, there’s more.
The Insomnobot3000 option isn’t just for helping insomniacs get to sleep. Through the chatbot, Casper can collect data and send promotional offers and discounts. Now, that may sound a bit sinister, but remember Casper’s goal is to make their customers look forward to bedtime, be it by chatting or by sending reminders that they can make going to sleep on a comfortable mattress more affordable. After the first year of the chatbot’s launch, Casper pulled in $100 million in sales.
The takeaway: Make it easy for customers to connect with you on their channel of choice and humanise the customer experience as you do so. The sleep market is a perfect example of a broad category and of one that’s getting more competitive as time goes. Therefore, it’s pertinent to get creative in reaching new audiences you can tap into and how you can elevate their experience.
Adidas
As shopping has turned more and more to the online space in recent years, Adidas adapted. The company began pouring resources into creating a customised customer experience by personalising its digital messaging and content based on data insights, user engagement, and feedback. Through this lens, they discovered a desire from their customers for more sustainable goods. This led Adidas to begin producing shoes from ocean waste, selling 1 million pairs in just one year. The brand also recently announced that by the end of 2021, 60% of all its products will be made with sustainable materials.
The takeaway: By investing in a customer feedback-first strategy, you can change your company’s growth trajectory and even establish yourself as a frontrunner in the field.
Southwest Airlines
A good customer experience should not only encompass the satisfaction of its customers but of the employees involved as well. As we know, happy employees make happier customers.
Southwest Airlines has a long history of being ranked as one of the best places to work because they’ve taken the time and effort to build a work culture that recognises their employee’s needs as well. By creating a team-based environment with solid core values, Southwest reminds employees why they should take pride in their work and enjoy what they do. This approach creates more opportunities for employees to go above and beyond to delight their customers.
The takeaway: Give your employees the pride and satisfaction to work with your brand, which can ultimately lead to happier customers. Indeed, companies that provide emotional connections tend to outperform their competitors by 85%.
Go Forth and Strategise
As you can see, there is no exact right way to go about creating a customer experience strategy, but there are definite patterns to help your brand become more successful.
First, listen to your customers and seek constant feedback, not just after the initial interaction.
Second, get creative in approaching new and existing audiences by utilising their preferred social media channels.
Lastly (and perhaps most importantly), cultivate a healthy sense of company pride by taking a people-first approach, so your employees like what they do, and exceed expectations in delighting your customers to forge stronger customer loyalty and lifetime value. Taking these touchstones into account, you will surely create a successful customer experience strategy that could even surpass your expectations.