3 Tips to Improve the Customer Experience (CX)

The Customer Experience (CX) refers to the overall feelings and emotions that a customer goes through before, during, and after purchasing a product or service from a company.

It also encompasses all the actions taken by a business to prioritize the needs of its customers, manage their journey, and provide a customer-centric service.

A positive customer experience is crucial for the success of any business. Happy customers become an invaluable marketing tool as they spread positive word-of-mouth, refer others, and are more likely to remain loyal over time. Additionally, it’s an excellent way to distinguish yourself from the competition.

86% of consumers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience, according to a recent Forbes article. In addition, 58% of consumers would recommend companies with superior customer experiences.

In contrast, negative customer experiences can harm a company’s reputation and, more importantly, can result in a loss of customers.

Here are 3 tips that can help improve your customer experience:

1. Survey your customers regularly

Customer satisfaction surveys can be immensely beneficial. After a significant moment in a customer’s journey, it is crucial to ask the customer about their experience and gather any suggestions they may have to improve the service.

Collecting these valuable insights and applying them when possible is a great way to enhance the customer experience and maintain alignment with the image you want to portray.

A valuable metric for measuring customer experience is the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which gauges the likelihood of customers recommending your business to others, ranked on a scale from 1 to 10.

Customers whose scores are 0 to 5 are called ‘’detractors’’ and are strongly dissatisfied with your services or products and may even speak out against your company. Customers with scores of 6 or 7 are called ‘’passives’’ and are not motivated to promote your business. Finally, scores of 8 to 10 are called ‘’promoters’’ and are enthusiastic or excited to share their experience and are likely to be long-term, repeat customers.

Other widely known customer satisfaction surveys include 5-star ratings or Likert Scale surveys. Both methods involve presenting a statement or a question to the customer and asking them to respond based on their feelings. For 5-star ratings, customers rate the comment or question using a scale of 1 to 5 stars. On the other hand, Likert scale surveys provide customers with five or seven answer statements ranging from ‘Very dissatisfied’ to ‘Very satisfied’.

Finally, timing is everything when it comes to getting quality feedback.

Gathering NPS feedback quarterly allows for the timely resolution of negative experiences. The optimal timing for collecting consumer product feedback is 7-10 days after purchase, allowing customers to use the product and form an impression. For B2B product or service feedback (e.g. providing an IT or consulting service), 2 weeks to 1 month after project completion or implementation is ideal.

2. Be transparent

Did you know that products with an average rating between 4.2 and 4.5 stars sell better than those with a 5-star rating? It may sound surprising, but a study conducted by Northwestern  found that products that are not rated as ‘perfect’ or ‘excellent’ tend to sell better.

So, why is that?

It seems that transparency is more attractive to consumers than perfection.

The study suggests that customers are more likely to trust and purchase products that have a few flaws or negative reviews, as it makes them feel that they are getting an honest representation of the product. When checking reviews online, 82% of consumers first look at negative reviews, skipping the 5-star ones and going directly to the 1 to 4-star reviews to get an idea of the experience.

This tells us that consumers nowadays are more cautious about dishonest information and that transparency is a crucial component of a positive customer experience.

Being honest about what your product can or can’t do and owning mistakes will go a long way in establishing a positive reputation for your brand and building trust with your valuable customers.

3. Empower your employees

A third way to improve the customer experience is by empowering your employees. Empowering your employees implies giving them the authority to make decisions and act independently to satisfy the customers.

According to Gallup, empowered teams show 21% greater profitability, have a 41% reduction in absenteeism and 59% less turnover.

For employees to feel empowered, they must have access to all the necessary resources and tools that enable them to perform their jobs effectively and to keep customers content.

Here are some practical ways to make your employees feel empowered:

1. Invite them to a co-creation workshop where the customer persona and customer journey are mapped. The more they understand these two elements, the easier it will be to do their job and make better decisions for the customer and the company;
2. Establish clear expectations for your employees while also giving them the freedom to make their own decisions that are aligned with the company’s overall goals;
3. Provide opportunities for professional development to help improve and refine their skills and knowledge to serve the customers better;
4. Mentor employees when mistakes are made and offer guidance to design effective resolution strategies;
5. Encourage out-of-the-box and creative ideas when exploring different problem-solving approaches;
6. Acknowledge the hard work of employees and share positive feedback received from happy customers.

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