How and why you should start a podcast
24th February 2020
When it comes to cementing your industry credibility, increasing brand recognition, and growing your...
24th February 2020
As Hana Dickinson, MD of The Bridge, explains, effective marketing is a sure fire way to bring customers to your door, but once they’re through the door… that’s when the real work begins.
So you’ve done your marketing right, and everyone is taking notice of you. You’ve seen a spike in website visits, those enquiries are flowing in, and you’re about to open your doors to a long queue of people… now all you have to do is live up to the hype. Which is where getting your CX on point becomes key.
What is CX?
Customer experience, or CX for short, is what the name for your customers’ overall perception of their experience with your company or brand. Every visit to your website, each call to your customer service team, and any time someone uses your products or services, is an opportunity for them to form an opinion of your company.
You don’t need us to tell you that the better the experience, the greater chance they will come back for more. But according to research by EstebanKolsy, it goes deeper than that:
However, of customers who have an unhappy experience:
So whilst happy customers will likely spread the word, those who were unhappy are likely to tell even more people.
In terms of customer retention, a survey of 15,000 consumers by business consultancy PwC found that:
And a business might never even know about these bad experiences, because further research suggests that:
These figures paint a clear picture: customer loyalty might help get you through a few bad customer engagements, but after that they’ll walk away, tell people why they weren’t happy, and probably won’t even bother to give you a chance to put things right. Which means your most effective line of defence is to focus hard on giving them a great experience, at every point of contact, every time.
How to sharpen your CX
There are many more ways to improve your CX, and having a customer focussed approach to your business is an ongoing process. However, the rewards are great, because strong CX has been proven time and time again to increase retention, satisfaction and revenue. What more could an ambitious SME ask for?