Customer Experience
Your customer experience is more important than you think
By Robin Anderson
In this article:
Definition of customer experience
Why it is important
Where we are at today
Where customer experience went poorly
How to integrate customer experience into your business
Fun Fact!
“There is only one boss. The customer.”
Have you ever purchased a product to help resolve a problem, only to discover there are extra features that you didn’t know about, which are undeniably amazing? While the product solves your problem, the added features blow you away. You’ve instantly become a fan.
Many founders would love to be able to claim they had all the answers while building their product. The reality is, founders who have the wherewithal to create this exceptional level of experience with their product, well, they are special. Rather than build their product into something that simply solves a problem, they know it needs to solve the problem with joy. They accomplish this feat is by including customers every step of the way, from product development through launch. They know the importance of listening to their customers before, during, and after using their product to fully understand their experience, enabling them to capitalize on that feedback.
Turns out that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. For anyone competing in a heavily competitive marketplace, one of the best ways to gain a great brand differential is to make your customer experience remarkable.
“If you are not taking care of your customers, your competitor will.”
Definition of customer experience
What is customer experience? Customer experience is defined by the interactions and experiences your customer has with your business throughout the entire customer journey, from first contact to becoming a happy and loyal customer.
Minimizing obstacles your customers may encounter in the purchasing process will always be important. Including them early in your development processes will help to minimize the obstacles with your product before they become an issue. Following up with them after they start using the product will allow them to share what they most remember about their experience. Anything that was a positive experience can ultimately lead to more “word of mouth” recommendations for your product.
Why customer experience is important
Getting a new customer costs seven times more than retaining a customer. A fully satisfied customer contributes 2.6 times as much revenue as a somewhat satisfied customer, and 14 times as much revenue as a somewhat dissatisfied customer.
One of the best ways to build that customer relationship is to incorporate them into your product building process before it’s ready to launch into the marketplace. Why? Testing a prototype with your target customer helps to validate your idea - to make sure your design and feature set are what customers want, saving you a great deal of time and money not having to rework a product or finding out no one wants what you have after it’s complete - market ready.
Does your product solve your customer’s number one challenge?
Once customers see your product, do they get it?
Do they want it?
Will they pay for it?
“The hardest thing is being able to put your ego aside so that you can learn. We all want to create what’s in our head, but you need to be able to put your own ideas to the side and really listen to your customers to solve their problems.”
Where we are at today
Once upon a time, delivering good customer experience used to be the goal. As the competition increased, companies focused on delivering exceptional customer experience. We are now moving towards delivering an ‘empathy-driven’ experience.
An empathy-driven focus is not just ensuring your product meets the need and is usable, it also takes into account the customer’s feelings when using the product. Understanding how your customer feels at each touchpoint enables you to improve the experience at every level. Those companies that excel at delivering a positive experience at each interaction, will sprint ahead of the competition.
An example of an out of this world, amazing customer experience
In 2013, a Canadian airline decided to do something special for their customers over the holiday season. Prior to boarding a flight from Toronto to Calgary, more than 250 passengers recorded what they wanted for Christmas with a virtual Santa when scanning their boarding pass. Unbeknownst to the passengers at the time, while in flight, airline staff in Calgary took those wishes and shopped locally to fulfill the requests. When the flight landed, the passengers discovered the Christmas gift they requested waiting for them on the baggage carousel along with their luggage. The look of amazement and excitement of the passengers was heartwarming. The video of this experience has received over 49 million views.
The Cost of Poor Customer Experience
As noted earlier, it is more costly to get a new customer than to retain an existing one. One of the easiest and most expensive ways to lose a customer is to not take customer experience seriously. A report from Right Now Technologies showed that 9 out of 10 customers (89%) would walk away following a poor customer experience to do business with a competitor. And with the prevalence of social media, that poor experience is likely to be shared with many others.
“It is so much easier to be nice, to be respectful, to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and try to understand how you might help them before they ask for help, than it is to try to mend a broken customer relationship.”
A customer experience example gone wrong
A dad and his son were in Walmart looking to buy a lego set for his son. The set in the store is priced 35% higher than the price of the item on their website. The dad asks store employees for the lower price of which they refuse. The dad then proceeded to order the lego set online for in-store pickup (the very store he was in at the time). He and his son watched an employee pick up the set and take it to the location for pickup. The dad did not get the email notification that his package was ready to pick up until the next day. He had to wait an extra day to go back to the same Walmart to pick up the lego set.
How to integrate customer experience into your business
Culture. Integrating good customer experience starts with how well you treat your employees. When you treat your employees well, they will be more receptive to incorporating the customer into their area of the business. From your junior employees to your highest ranking employee, maintaining a positive and customer-centric focus benefits all.
“Everyone within a company should know what it feels like to be a customer, having deep customer empathy and acting on those insights is what will enable you to win.”
Customer experience needs to be incorporated into all areas within your company. Take Lowe’s - early into the pandemic, Lowe’s provided additional resources and services for their employees to help their customers with the surge in demand for home improvement projects. They increased the pay and bonuses, extended their emergency leave policies, and to help manage social distancing created an app to monitor customer traffic. This enabled the employees to feel valued, and which they could then pass on to their customers.
Customer experience has to be the driver for your business. From the beginning, customer intelligence will help when determining the validity of your product, deciding the importance of various features, it will help in focusing your marketing messaging, saving your company time, effort, money and grief.
Your customers will tell you what they need, what they want. You just have to listen to them. So while you may be busy trying to do too many things and solve complex problems, set that aside and listen to your customers. Interact with them. Build a relationship with them. They will become your biggest and most loyal supporters.
“Loyal customers, they don’t just come back, they don’t simply recommend you, they insist that their friends do business with you.”
Need help integrating customer feedback into your product development process? Get a free 30-minute consultation! Contact us today!
FunFact Friday
In the 1960’s Call Centers – Private Automated Business Exchanges came to prominence. What’s that you ask? It’s what we now commonly refer to as “call centers.” And while this was a shift in technology and business efficiency, the real shift for the customer was that these centers were tasked with solely answering and resolving customer issues. These centers and the contact center solutions that were developed were the beginnings of what are now customer service departments.