Menu Close

7 Ways to create a great consumer experience in 2020

Web Editor | ConsumerConnect

Consumer experience is the most exciting opportunity to businesses next year and the reason is simple: the companies that focus on consumer experience reduce churn and increase revenues – leading to higher profits!

For many, customer service and consumer experience are seemingly interchangeable. Yet, one is a single touch point with a brand, while the other impacts feelings and emotion, and encompasses the entire consumer journey.

The consumer experience impacts all areas of your business, but how you get started? As pieced together at www.superoffice.com, we provide you with 7 steps, to help you create a great consumer experience strategy.

What is consumer experience?
Consumer experience is defined by interactions between a customer and an organization throughout their business relationship. An interaction can include awareness, discovery, cultivation, advocacy, purchases and service.

Consumer experience is an integral part of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and the reason why it’s important is because a consumer who has a positive experience with a business is more likely to become a repeat and loyal consumer.

In fact, a study by Oracle found that 74% of senior executives believe that consumer experience impacts the willingness of a consumer to be a loyal advocate.

And the consumer experience statistics don’t stop there. If you want your customers to stay loyal, you have to invest in their experience!

Simply put, happy consumers remain loyal. It makes sense, right?

The happier you are with a brand, the longer you stay with it. And so, if you treat your customers poorly and ignore their customer service e-mails, then they are more likely to leave. This is why companies that deliver a superior omni-channel customer service experience outperform their competitors.

How is consumer experience different from customer service?
In most cases, a consumer’s first point of contact with a company is usually through interacting with an employee (either by visiting a store or by speaking on the phone). This gives your business an opportunity to deliver ‘excellent customer service’.

However, customer service is only one aspect of the entire consumer experience.

For example, if you book a vacation on the phone and the person you are speaking with is friendly and helpful, that’s good customer service. Yet, if your tickets arrive early and the hotel upgrades your room, then that’s a great consumer experience!

That’s how the two are different! Like most things in today’s market place, customer experience has changed – it’s more than person-to-person service and thanks to technology, companies can connect with their customers in new and exciting ways.

Using CRM software, for instance, you can view customer purchase history and to predict future needs even before the customer knows they need it. Having the ability to predict a future need will let you be proactive and attentive and, it means you can do things like:

• Provide related products based on purchase history
• Create and deliver targeted email marketing campaigns
• Understand the 360 degree view of the customer

Customer service is still as important as ever; it’s no longer the sole focus of consumer experience. Now, the consumer experience brings new ways to strengthen customer relationships through technological breakthroughs.

How important is consumer experience?
A business cannot exist without its customers, and this is why companies are focusing on how to win new business and perhaps more importantly, retain existing customers.

A survey by Bloomberg BusinessWeek found that “delivering a great customer experience” has become a top strategic objective.

And a recent Customer Management IQ survey found that 75% of customer experience management executives and leaders rated customer experience a ‘5’ on a scale of 1-5 (5 being of the highest importance).

The challenge here is that even though it’s a high priority, many companies are failing.
When Bain & Company asked organisations to rate their quality of customer experience, 80% believe they are delivering a superior experience. This is compared to only 8% of customers who believe they are receiving a great consumer experience.

So, how many brands are truly delivering an excellent consumer experience? Surprisingly, not too many. In fact, less than half of all companies deliver a good (or better) consumer experience.

Each year, the Temkin Group release their Customer Experience Ratings study.

By analysing feedback from 10,000 consumers and recording their experience with over 300 companies, the latest report shows a decline in the number of companies that scored a ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ rating, down from 45% in 2017 to only 38% in 2018.

Consumer expectations are rising, and faster than the speed that companies can improve their consumer experience. Consumers expect every interaction, end-to-end, to be the best experience they have with any company – not just yours!

So, the question remains, how can your organisation create a great consumer experience?

Kindly Share This Story

Kindly share this story