The messages companies convey to customers are important, but they’re rendered meaningless if those promises aren’t delivered through positive experiences. In other words, it’s well and good to set expectations of quality and efficiency in ads, videos, signage and email promotions, but the actual experience is what counts.
Steve Koch, managing director of Cast & Hue, drove home this point at GPS Insight’s 2018 user conference held Oct. 4. Seventy-five percent of brand experience results from customer perception, he says.
Sheryl Pattek, vice president and CMO executive partner at Forrester Research, puts it another way: “Customers define their brands. Every touchpoint makes a difference in how the brand is described and whether customers believe in the company’s promise.”
The numbers confirm this premise. According to Salesforce, 80 percent of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services, and 50 percent say they’ve switched brands to a competitor that provided a better experience.
The data crosses over to the professional sphere as well, with business buyers placing equal value on having a positive customer experience. Yet, Koch reports only a quarter of business buyers say they’re satisfied with their experience, meaning any improvements an organization makes can vault it ahead of the competition.
To start, when it comes to building a positive experience, businesses must recognize they aren’t just competing in their industry, but rather with every organization their customers interact with—whether it’s Zappos, Disney, Nordstrom, Lexus or USAA.
Additionally, focus on emotions (e.g., peace of mind) rather than traditional benchmarks such as efficiency, ease and satisfaction. According to Forrester, emotion is the leading indicator of customer loyalty in 94 percent of industries studied.
“Most people think they make decisions based on rational reasons, but the reality is that the emotional mind makes almost all of our decisions for us,” Koch says. “The emotional mind works about 1,000 times faster that the rational mind. The rational mind is just trying to catch up and validate those decisions.”
Will Kaplan, customer marketing manager at GPS Insight, recommends thinking about customer experience programs as an investment, not a cost. Also, use quantitative and qualitative data alongside proactive and reactive methodologies. Customer support is a crucial pillar of any healthy organization, but it’s also reactive. Be sure to balance that out with proactive solutions that prevent problems before they happen—all based on a customer’s journey, Kaplan says.
Koch offers three ways build or expand existing customer experience programs:
- Measure and understand the current state of holistic and emotional experiences. Comment cards and surveys are OK, but the key is actually talking to people. Try “journey mapping” with clients: Write down every touchpoint they have with the organization and talk about what went right or wrong. How did they learn about the company? What was the contract signing process like? Why did they choose to do business with the company? Better yet, talk to some people who didn’t choose to conduct business together and find out why.
- Create better touchpoints. Determine opportunities for improvement and develop new experiences—then test them. Keep customers involved by asking what they would think if the firm’s website looked a certain way or if products were delivered in a different way. This feedback will help refine better experiences.
- Benchmark, measure and continuously improve. There is no finish line.
Bonus tip: Look into Net Promoter Scores and benchmark how your business is doing compared to your industry’s average.
