Why Customer Experience Should Be Every Business’s Topmost Priority

Gone is the time when a company’s sole focus was to drive sales. With the growth of consumerism and the shift to digitization, the focus has shifted to enhancing the customer journey in all possible ways, which not only involves a smooth buyer’s journey but also great customer satisfaction!

In fact, research suggests that in the wake of Covid-19, consumers across industries now value customer experience more than they ever have! With more than two-third of companies already competing on the basis of customer experience, it is critical for businesses of all sizes to now look beyond simply lead generation or customer acquisition and prioritize customer experience.

To begin with, what exactly do we mean by ‘customer experience’?
In simple words, customer experience is a customer’s holistic perception of a brand or business, built over time as a result of a series of interactions, right from exploring the website and interacting on live chat to purchasing the product or service and receiving strong after-sales support.

So, why is customer experience management important for a business?

1. To boost brand loyalty
Delivering a positive customer experience yields a plethora of results, the most noteworthy of all being boosting brand loyalty, which essentially means greater ROI in the long-run. Delighting customers encourages them to engage as well as repurchase from a business, thereby facilitating the business’s marketing endeavors of upselling and cross-selling to a great extent. As a matter of fact, research suggests that customer retention is 5 times cheaper than customer acquisition, making this a profitable marketing strategy for any business!
To learn about 6 effective practices that can help improve retention marketing, read this.

2. To build a community of brand advocates
Naturally, if the customers are happy with the brand or business, they are likely to tell more people about it by way of word-of-mouth or social media! Both of these are very powerful forms of marketing, helping to amplify brand awareness and build a strong brand image. Moreover, 96% of customers do not trust advertisements anymore! Hence, fostering a community of brand advocates by continuously captivating the customer base can indeed go a long way and contribute towards the growth of the business significantly.

3. To stand out from the competition
Another important statistic to take note of is that 93% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. This makes it very important for businesses to prioritize building a strong online presence. Amazing ratings and positive reviews on every channel (including Google My Business listing) can prove to be supremely beneficial. In addition to this, capitalizing on user-generated content is also an incredibly effective marketing strategy to earn potential customers’ trust and drive conversions. Ultimately, all these factors collectively help beat competition and flourish in one’s industry.
To learn how to build a strong online presence, read this.

What are some of the ways to enhance customer experience?
The key to enhancing customer experience is to not just deliver what has been promised to the customers but to go one step further and exceed their expectations consistently. This can be done in a number of ways, some of which include sending a surprise gift along with their purchase, proactively asking for feedback, personalizing campaigns by adapting a segmented marketing approach or even rewarding customer loyalty in some form (example: running a loyalty program)!

For further support to grow your business, our team at Parkyd Digital is available and happy to help you. With a deep understanding of the digital marketing landscape and over a decade of industry experience, we offer holistic marketing solutions that are customized according to your requirements to effectively boost your ROI and achieve your business goals. You can get in touch with us here.