However, creating a great customer experience isn’t as easy as it sounds. Read on for a complete guide to making a great customer experience that’s sure to make your brand a favorite among customers!

What is customer experience?

Customer experience (CX) refers to what customers feel when dealing with your business or brand. It’s the sum of their experience with your company’s touchpoints, from browsing your storefront to post-sales support. 

Everything your company does impacts how customers see your business, so an outstanding customer experience is essential.

While every part of your company influences customer experience, four key elements measure the quality of customer interactions:

• Company culture: A great customer experience starts with the company itself. A company culture that puts customers at the forefront motivates employees to find new ways to delight customers, improving customer experience as a whole.
  
• Customer touchpoints: Touchpoints like your website, customer service reps, and social media accounts are the “face” customers see when they do business with you. Nobody likes to be greeted by a rude and scowling face, so user-friendly and empathetic touchpoints are essential.
  
• Consistency: No matter your industry, day-to-day conditions may vary, but your service quality shouldn’t fluctuate. Even having one bad day can negatively influence customer perceptions, so make sure that you deliver the best customer experience consistently.
  
• Customer satisfaction: An excellent customer experience leads to high customer satisfaction scores. Use reliable tools and metrics to get the most accurate data on your customer satisfaction.

Is there a difference between customer experience and customer service?

The main aim of customer experience and customer service is to make customers happy. However, there are some important differences between these two.

Let’s go deeper into them.

Control level

You typically have full control over the company’s customer service. For example, you can train your reps to offer new services and answer customer questions effectively.

However, you don’t have as much control over customer experience. You have some say on how you want to present your company to customers, but there are external factors (like the public perception of your business) that you can’t directly change.

Metrics

Customer service metrics are generally more technical and measure the performance of your reps. Common metrics include:

• Customer service ticket volume.
• Average response times.
• Average resolution times.
• Customer satisfaction score.

Meanwhile, customer experience metrics are geared toward how well your company can retain customers and how likely they’ll recommend your business to others. Key measures of customer experience include: 

• Customer retention rate. 
• Churn rate.
• NPS (Net Promoter Score).

Responsibility

Customer service is primarily the domain of your customer service managers and their team since they’re the ones interacting directly with customers. 

Meanwhile, your entire business plays a part in shaping the customer experience through its many touchpoints.

Why creating a great customer experience is vital to your success

Knowing how to make a great customer experience is important for your business. 

Why? Below are the top four benefits that arise from improving the customer experience. 

Understand your customers better

Listening to honest feedback and learning what customers want out are the keys to improving the customer experience. 

Learning about your customers means you can also provide more personalization on your touchpoints. For example, you can give special discounts on products they frequently buy.

Improve customer retention

A satisfied customer comes back for more business and is less likely to buy from your competitors. 

Another good reason to keep providing an enhanced customer experience is that many customers are likely to walk away from a company after one or two bad experiences. 

If you consistently deliver exceptional customer experience, you can build up enough goodwill that customers can forgive the occasional mistake.

Enhance your brand’s reputation

Consistently providing a great customer experience builds trust in your brand. If your brand is synonymous with great service and quality products, you can draw in customers with the strength of your company name alone.

This means more business, with fewer marketing efforts. 

Reduce your costs

Creating a great customer experience also helps you drive costs down. 

By analyzing customer engagement data, you can figure out which initiatives and marketing campaigns aren’t working and stop spending money on those efforts. This way, you can spend more money on the things that customers actually respond to.

What’s the impact of a poor customer experience?

If you don’t figure out how to make a great customer experience, your company will likely suffer down the line. 

Negative customer experiences can influence your business in many ways. Below are just a few. 

• Damaged reputation: The first victim of a bad customer experience is your brand. All it takes is a flurry of negative reviews from angry customers to tarnish your name overnight. With a damaged reputation, new potential customers are likely to look at your competitors first.
  
• Loss of current customers: A poor company reputation doesn’t just drive away new customers, but it also may cause your regulars to leave. If they feel that their needs aren’t consistently met, they may decide to do business with competitors instead.
  
• Decreased profits: Losing customers means you lose out on sales. Naturally, fewer sales directly impact how much money you make.

What makes for an enhanced customer experience?

Before getting into how to make a great customer experience, you need to know what a good CX looks like. The key traits of a company with an enhanced customer experience are that it:

• Listens to customers: You can’t provide a good customer experience without knowing what your customers need.
  
• Asks for customer feedback and values their opinion: Asking customers for feedback is an excellent way to learn their needs and how they see your company. 
  
• Has systems to collect and analyze feedback: If you’re taking feedback regularly, you need a system to do so. This way, you don’t have to craft reports from scratch every time you do a survey.
  
• Knows how to improve its customer journey: By understanding your customers, you’ll understand the potential issues in your customer journey. With that information, you can start drafting up ways to deliver an optimal experience.

How to make a great customer experience

Now that you’ve learned the what’s and why’s, it’s time to understand how to make a great customer experience. 

Below are eight ways to improve your customer experience. Read on and implement the ones that are most appropriate for your business.

1. Prioritize the needs and wants of your customers

A customer-centric mindset is essential to keep customers happy. Your entire team should strive to deliver a positive experience in whatever way they can. 

If you can engrain this belief into your team and culture, creating a great customer experience becomes that much easier.

For instance, the customer service team should always be ready to answer customer inquiries — demonstrating that their concerns are your top priority. 

On the other hand, your sales team can come up with new products that address customer pain points.

2. Implement employee ideas on improving the customer experience

Your customer-facing employees deal with your target buyer every day — which means they’ve heard their fair share of comments and suggestions. 

You want to open the door for their unique insights on how to make a great customer experience. Whenever you hit a wall in figuring out how to make a great customer experience, talk to your employees for suggestions.

Not only does this help you better your customer experience, but it also shows employees that they’re valued, improves morale and engagement, and makes them even more willing to help customers.

3. Encourage customer loyalty

Creating a great customer experience in itself encourages customer loyalty. 

However, you can foster even more loyalty through other means, such as special offers for longtime customers or an incentivized referral program. 

After all, customers are more likely to promote your business if they can get a discount or a free product every time they successfully refer a friend to your company.

4. Use the right technology to create a great customer experience.

Technology is one of the keys to an enhanced customer experience. Tools like email software and social media give you a lot of avenues to connect and delight customers. 

For example, customer relationship management (CRM) software tracks your customer base’s purchase history and preferences. This allows you to formulate personalized offers and show customers that you know who they are and what they like to buy.

Below is an example of how a CRM tool like Method benefits businesses eager to strengthen their customer experience. 

5. Lead with an omnichannel approach

Taking an omnichannel approach means putting up a consistent customer journey across multiple mediums and touchpoints. 

This is especially important because people consume multiple types of online and offline media every day. 

Presenting a unified journey and message across different channels makes it easier for people to connect with your business.

6. Focus on customer journey mapping

An enjoyable customer journey makes for a better customer experience. 

Map out your customer journey so you are confident in the customer experience you’re offering. 

Then, ask your employees to test out the customer journey to identify what issues the customer may encounter before rolling it out to the general public. From there, collect customer feedback and continue to iterate on it!

7. Make your appreciation for customers known

People love to be appreciated. As a business, you can show appreciation to customers in many ways, including:

• Free items, services or merchandise with purchases.
• Personalized marketing materials. 
• Tailor-made offers based on customer purchase history.
• Establishing real connections with customers.

Whatever you choose, the main thing is to make customers feel like they’re contributing to the success of your company. When people feel important and valued, they’re more likely to engage with your brand.

8. Provide an enhanced customer experience with online portals

Online customer portals, like the one provided by Method CRM, make things easier for you and your customers. These portals enable customers to pay for your products and services and send messages to customer support easily with minimal help from customer service reps. 

Below is an overview of what portals can do for your business!

Most customers will feel empowered when they can make transactions at their own pace. Plus, you shorten your payment times in the process!

Improving the customer experience: 8 actions to take

Delivering a positive customer experience builds customer loyalty and satisfaction, which results in higher retention and more new customers. 

Want to know how to make a great customer experience? Take action now by:

1. Prioritizing the needs and wants of your customers by listening to them.
   
2. Allowing employees to suggest customer experience improvement ideas and then implementing them.
   
3. Rewarding loyal customers with special offers and referral programs.
   
4. Using the right technology to connect with your customers like Method CRM!
   
5. Adopting an omnichannel approach to customer experience.
   
6. Mapping out your customer journey and addressing any issues.
   
7. Appreciating your customers through personalization and going the extra mile.
   
8. Implementing online portals to make the customer journey easier and more enjoyable.

With these eight steps in mind, you’re bound to delight customers and win more hearts!

See how Method CRM strengthens your customer experience!

Image credit: Sam Lion via Pexels

The post How to make a great customer experience: The ultimate guide appeared first on Method.

But those best practices include more than just remembering customer information. That’s just the basic stuff you need to make the sale.

Instead, a comprehensive customer management strategy, especially in today’s digital environment, goes beyond the simple details. 

A robust customer relationship is experiential. It’s a complete picture – a link from beginning to end – of the customer journey, with customer touchpoints at every stage.

That’s why we call it the “360-degree customer view.”

What is a 360-degree customer view?

A 360-degree customer view encompasses every part of the customer journey. You see the past, present, and future of your company’s relationship with a customer. This step is the starting point for what makes an organization’s customer interactions experiential rather than just transactional.

Companies can obtain a comprehensive view of their customers’ stories by leveraging customer data from various types of sources. As a result, they are able to: 

• Access customers’ account information quickly.
• Understand customers’ priorities and preferences.
• Anticipate future needs to create ideal consumer experiences.

But despite the importance of truly knowing your customers, the practice is not yet widespread. 

According to Gartner, fewer than 10 percent of companies have a 360-degree customer view, and only about 5 percent are able to use this view to systemically grow their businesses. But those 5 percent definitely enjoy a competitive advantage.

Here are four ways in which having a 360-degree customer view gives your business an edge.

1. Enhanced customer intelligence

A 360-degree view drives your customer management strategy by providing a more complete sense of consumer attributes, activities, and priorities.

Too many teams have strategy discussions that are limited by “recency bias.” Sales reps or managers often discuss strategy by referencing a single piece of information: their most recent call with the customer.

But that call was nothing but a moment in time. It’s hardly a complete picture of the individual’s history with your company. Getting to know your customer is an ongoing process. 

The amount of touchpoints available for customers to interact with, including mobile devices, video customer support, and social media, makes it challenging to gather data on customers.

Customer relationship management software offer great solutions for tracking all touchpoints throughout the customer’s lifetime. By using a CRM, your team can focus on the big picture:

• What is the customer’s purchase history? Where do they spend their money?
• Have they opened any service tickets? If so, what were their concerns?
• Can you gain any insights from their emails?
• Do they communicate with your company on social media?

One of the best ways to examine customer behavior is through social media platforms. For example, looking at your customers’ social media activity provides rich insight on their views, buying trends, and the brands they value. 

Ask yourself, what captures their interest? More importantly, do they talk about your brand through any online channels? And in what context do they talk about it?

In addition, the data is unfiltered, so it gives you the ability to dive into your customer’s world through a consideration of their sociological attributes. Some examples of social listening tools that help with this include: 

• Mention: Allows users to monitor their mention on any channel online using social monitoring, analytics, and competitor data. 
• Hootsuite: Allows organizations to monitor mentions on social media in real time to give immediate responses. The tool displays all networks in one place, making tracking and responding simple. 
• Keyhole: Allows a brand to keep an eye on specific keywords or hashtags they have goals to influence, or already are influencing. 

Moreover, integration with CRM systems can take persona-creation and customer segmentation to a deeper level. Using research insights, your company can make better decisions that guide your marketing approach. 

In addition, it ensures that different departments in your business are getting their information from the same source, rather than from multiple data sources. As a result, your interactions with customers are consistent across the entire team. 

The best part: everything is stored in the cloud, so you don’t have to worry about losing valuable data.

2. Superior predictive analysis

It’s not just about conducting research on what your customer has done — it’s also about where they’re going. Since your CRM provides enhanced customer intelligence, you can use this data to drive predictive analytics.

This means you can report on customer behavior, use cases, and transactional trends to find new opportunities for transformation. 

By leveraging SaaS and CRM integrations, you’ll have the insights and resources to: 

• Drive growth. 
• Maximize revenue.
• Improve customer satisfaction.

It’s about taking that complete picture of the customer’s situation — drawing on the collection of their accounts, transactions, priorities, and requests for services. And then putting the pieces together to predict where they’re headed and what they’ll need in the future. 

As such, your sales reps can act upon opportunities for re-ordering, upgrades, and cross-selling. For example, are your customers interested in retargeting or cookies? What advertisements or content are they interested in? 

Predictive analytics are also beneficial in helping your team leaders and executives develop sophisticated strategies for improved efficiency. If you’re trying to forecast how customers might respond to changing products, timelines, or campaigns, you can use your 360-degree view of past customer behaviors to predict their future actions.

3. Seamless customer service

Customer relationships aren’t just about driving purchases. Service is a big part of the customer journey and each customer’s happiness.

A prudent company doesn’t prepare for the “if” moment — the possibility that a customer might need help making their product run smoothly. Instead, the smart ones prepare for the “when” moment — the reality that there will be times when they must jump into action to address concerns or challenges.

How you handle those challenging calls makes all the difference to the customer’s experience. That’s why a 360-degree view is essential. 

Don’t make your customers do any extra work to explain their needs or provide details about their purchase. Remember, you act as a partner, providing ease to them during a difficult time. 

Instead, give your employees and service agents the education and tools they need to assess their questions quickly and respond competently. You’ll be surprised at the amount that these small steps transform shopping experiences for a consumer. 

4. Improved customer loyalty

Landing a customer is important for starting a business, but keeping them coming back is the secret to long-term success. It costs six to seven times more to gain new customers than to retain existing ones. 

Well-timed and informative communications are at the heart of building those ongoing customer relationships and improving customer retention.

This is another opportunity to leverage the power of an effective CRM. By anticipating customer needs and developing a strategic communication plan, you can keep your business top-of-mind. 

For instance, you might use your CRM to schedule reminders for follow-up calls at specific intervals, or to send targeted email campaigns based on customer history. 

Additionally, you can leverage CRM integrations with other third party applications. This ensures smoother workflows as you no longer need to switch between apps.

Conclusion

No matter what your business does, it’s important to truly know the people you’re serving. That’s why it’s crucial to look beyond your day-to-day interactions. 

By developing a 360-degree view of your customers, you can deliver amazing experiences while setting yourself up for long-term success.

Transform your customer journey with a free trial of Method CRM.

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The post 4 Benefits of a 360-Degree Customer View appeared first on Method.