The overall market industry is highly competitive by nature, and brands need to cultivate their customer relationships to stand out. They need to shape their customer experience according to the ever-changing consumer demands and needs.
Whether it is internal or external, it is now crucial for businesses to innovate their customer processes for their patrons’ convenience and safety.
The better customer experience you provide to consumers, the more repeat transactions and positive feedback you receive. At the same time, it cuts down your customer complaints, negative reviews, and returns.
Now the question is, how can you offer the ultimate customer experience that equates to happy and satisfied customers? Simple: you need a robust customer experience strategy.
Customer experience (CX) strategy – definition
Customer experience refers to the outcome of every interaction each customer has with your brand. It pertains to their holistic perception of their experience with your organization.
One study conducted by PWC shows that 73% of consumers consider customer experience as one essential factor in their purchasing decisions. 65% of customers also believe that a positive customer experience is more effective than any great advertising.
An excellent experience will not be possible without a strong customer experience strategy. Your customer experience strategy encompasses the plans you put into action to create a positive experience on all your customers’ touchpoints.
As per Forrester, your customer experience strategy should cover the following:
- KPIs to measure your success
- A road map to meet your desired results
- Your organization’s vision in terms of customer experience
- Well-detailed customer personas
- Processes that will make each team member accountable
- Gap analysis of preferred areas of improvement
Note that your customer experience strategy goes beyond managing your customer service.
How to develop a customer experience strategy
When you get your customer experience strategy right, you may turn your one-time buyers into repeat customers. More so, you can transform them into loyal customers.
Here’s how you can craft a well-rounded customer experience strategy:
1. Go through your current existing customer experience strategy
Review your current customer service strategy to figure out which areas are performing well and which ones need improvement.
You can start by checking your help desk or call center for key metrics that are successful. Examples are customer satisfaction score (CSAT), net promoter score (NPS), or customer churn rate.
2. Establish your customer journey map
Your customer journey map should cover all interactions between your business and your customers, including their pain points. It will help you determine issues within your customer experience, as well as how you can resolve and replace them with positive experiences.
3. Train your agents
Once you have identified which areas you need to improve, you have to inform your team of your findings, especially if you will apply changes within your existing customer experience strategy.
And of course, next is to provide the proper training for your agents to do better moving forward.
4. Identify your customers’ expectations
Take note that not all customers will have the same customer expectations, and you have to be open to that. In some cases, these customer expectations may also vary according to what your customers feel when they reach out to your brand.
5. Solve your customers’ problems
An effective customer experience strategy is focused on solving both expected and unexpected customer problems.
Some organizations even have customer success teams designated to anticipate potential customer problems. Thus, pacify these issues before they can affect the customers.
It is also vital that you proactively check on your customers after their purchases. This approach helps you cultivate your customer relationship and establish a loyal customer base.
6. Offer self-service solutions
Given today’s tech advancements, providing omnichannel services has now become the norm. And this includes offering a self-service support option to your patrons.
Integrating self-service solutions to your customer experience strategy lets your customers immediately solve problems on their own. It reduces the need to reach out to your customer service agents.
Meaning, it will lessen the customer support interactions having common issues or concerns. Your agents can have more time attending to customers with complex problems that require expertise and deeper knowledge.
7. Collect customer feedback
As mentioned earlier, customers’ wants and needs constantly change, so it is essential to have up-to-date information about your patrons.
Besides, for you to truly understand your target market, you must gather as many reviews, feedback, and comments as possible regularly. More importantly, you need to listen to what your customers are saying.
8. Keep track of your agents’ performance
Businesses should always think of better ways to keep improving their services and add more value to their customer experience.
One way of doing this is by routinely checking your team’s performance. It will help you verify whether your current customer experience strategy is still effective or not.
Plus, keeping track of your agents’ performance can help you distinguish which part of each agent’s performance needs improvement.
Increase customer loyalty with a robust CX strategy
Customers are most likely to switch to brands that can offer them greater deals, including better services. Having an effective customer experience strategy allows you to make informed decisions that enable you to establish a solid and loyal customer base.
