Over the last five years, customers' expectations have moved beyond great products to include great experiences. People do not just want to get value, they want to have a great experience. Tech advancements have also contributed to this shift in customers’ expectations. And someone is willing to give it if you think it is not relevant.
Customer experience, also called CX, is the totality of interactions a person has with your business, right from the point of contact, to making a purchase and remaining as a customer. It is not a one time or first impression thing. It is a journey in which every interaction plays a vital role in the overall experience.
While both are often interchangeably used, Customer experience is not the same with Customer service. Customer service is part of the Customer Experience, and it primarily involves just one department. Customer service happens when a customer reaches out for support in product information, terms, and site navigation. It is an event in the journey. All interactions are with just one department, and the damage control is more manageable. In customer experience, the customer interacts with many departments - either directly or indirectly, and each contributes to the total experience.
However, both are of equal importance to your success. The Customer experience is incomplete without Customer service, and Customer service cannot be effective without a positive customer experience. It is almost useless.
Investing in Customer experience or not is no longer a point to debate. Customers are not only interested in making a purchase but also in making a connection. For the business, it is not just making sales but ensuring customer retention. People are willing to spend more and overlook less competitive prices when they rate a company as having a good customer experience.
Benefits of Customer experience for your business
- Customer Satisfaction
- Customer Loyalty
- Brand awareness
- Improved credibility
- Recommendations and referrals
- Improved feedback
For a business that has not been intentional about customer experience, it is a capital-intensive decision. It could involve shaking up an already established structure, altering product design, new partnerships, and creating new departments. Even for businesses with Customer Experience strategies in place, its continued success requires continuous investment and improvement as trends are changing fast.
Bad Customer Experience costs more!
More than $62 billion is lost each year to bad customer service. Meanwhile, another study found 91% of unhappy customers leave a brand without complaining. - Superoffice
And just having a feedback system does not cut it. Most unhappy customers do not complain. They quietly move on to another provider. When you take a service lightly, there is a competitor who holds it as valuable. And customers get the message.
