Customer experience is far more than just providing good customer service. It encapsulates the whole process that the customer goes through and should refine every possible touchpoint of your business to deliver the most positive customer experience possible. Customer experience management is the collection of processes a company uses to track, oversee and organize every interaction with a customer throughout the customer lifecycle.
A strong customer experience is one of the most effective marketing tools, which is why marketers must place the customer experience at the center of their marketing strategy and deliver a highly personalized, targeted experience. A “spray and pray” approach to marketing can drive customers away from your brand due to this causing a generic, broad customer experience - and as technology develops, customers’ expectations of a personalized experience are becoming higher and higher.
The importance of customer experience management
In order for brands to fully understand, organize and improve the customer experience throughout every touchpoint, a robust customer experience management process needs to be in place. A business cannot exist without its customers which is why many companies should focus not only on winning new business but also retaining existing customers.
Research shows that potential customers are more influenced by the word of mouth of friends and family rather than traditional advertising. As companies strive to refine their customer experience management, they must implement best practices. Research shows that 13% of customers will share a negative customer service experience with 15 or more people. However, 72% of consumers will share a positive experience with six or more people. Therefore, this means creating memorable experiences for customers to help them engage with the brand in exciting ways – experiences that engage them in a holistic way and gets them talking positively about the brand.
Creating a customer experience strategy
Customers expect every interaction they have with a brand to be better than the last, so marketers need to be focusing on this precise objective. But where do you start?
- Have a clear vision - You must have a clear, customer-focused vision so you have specific principles that will drive how your marketing strategies work.
- Know who your customers are – If you want to know what your customers need, you must understand them. A way of doing this is to create customer personas so your customer support team can recognize who they are talking to and what makes them tick. These profiles can be built from the information you gain from a Single Customer View.
- Connect with your customers - The best marketing strategies are ones that create a personalized, emotional connection with the customer. Those who buy your products or services are more likely to become loyal paying customers if they are emotionally attached to a product or service.
- View real-time customer feedback – This lets you know exactly what your customers are saying as and when they are saying it. This invaluable information can be gained by feeding your data sources into a Customer Data Platform, enabling you to analyze this information and provide an enhanced service based on what customers are saying.
- Train your customer support team – Because every customer is different, it is important to teach your team how to interact with different customers and each of their needs.
Customer experience travels fast but you are not alone! Every organization’s customer experience needs to be nurtured and cared for. As companies do this more and more, they will see a dramatic rise in customer loyalty, retention and revenue
Efficiently manage your customer experience with BlueVenn
With BlueVenn you can channel your customer data from all your disparate siloes to gain an enhanced, holistic view of your audience - including precisely who they are and what they need. BlueVenn’s suite of multi-channel marketing tools then empower you to orchestrate and execute a seamless customer experience based on this newfound insight, catering to each of your customers’ individual needs and requirements in real-time.
For more information on how BlueVenn provides you with the tools and insights to effectively manage your customer experience, contact our team today for a demo.
An integral part of managing the customer experience resides in optimizing the customer journey. To discover how to create contextually relevant journeys for every customer, download our Customer Journey Optimization eBook.
