Customer Experience and How It Drives Your Bottom Line

Ah, the customer experience. The bane of every business. These two words, like online reviews, have the power to make or break your business.

When was the last time you were satisfied with your experience as a customer? Or the last time you had such a poor experience that you didn’t want to have anything to do with the business? Chances are you’ve shared both these kinds of experiences with your family or friends. 

What Is Customer Experience and Why Is It So Important?

Customer experience (CX) refers to the impression that customers have of your brand throughout their buyer’s journey. It covers the interactions they’ve had with your business the entire time they were your customer, regardless of whether they end up making a purchase or not. 

In very broad terms, customer experience is the relationship between you and your customers. It’s about what they feel about the whole journey as a buyer. 

What about customer service then? Customer service is just one aspect of CX. Customers are more powerful than ever, they’re inundated with more choices in where they’re going to spend their money.

Excellent CX is integral to your brand’s growth. Being able to consistently deliver exceptional CX has the power to turn satisfied customers into loyal ones who can promote your business through word of mouth. Yes, word of mouth is still an influential marketing strategy. When optimally employed, it can help any business scale up. Even a single recommendation, whether you go the traditional route or use social media, can make substantial ripples. 

Here are all the other things that excellent customer experience can do for your business, according to staff writer Erin Hueffner from Zendesk:

• Improve customer retention 
• Enhance customer lifetime value
• Improve brand reputation
• Impact your bottom line

CX: How It Drives the Bottom Line

Your bottom line, also known as net earnings, is your business’s net income after you’ve deducted all your expenses from the revenue. Meanwhile, customer experience can positively or adversely impact your bottom line.

We, humans, are very emotional creatures. In fact, emotion is a driving force that determines a buyer’s behaviour. A whopping 95% of a consumer’s purchasing decisions are influenced by the subconscious. 

Still, the question remains: how does this affect your bottom line?

Good customer experience can improve your company’s revenue by encouraging customers to spend more or make repeat purchases. With the amount of competition nowadays, good CX is a linchpin that can give your brand a competitive edge. A good experience creates more value, not only for you but also for your customers. 

However, poor customer experience can drive customers away. This can significantly damage your brand’s reputation and can negatively affect your revenue. In Australia, 24% of consumers say that even just one bad experience is enough to make them stop doing business with a brand, even if it’s a brand that they happen to love. More than half of Australian shoppers are more forgiving, stating that they’ll stop doing business with a brand only after having a few bad experiences.

Improving Your CX

So, how do you improve your CX? By banking on human interaction.

This doesn’t mean abandoning technology—instead, leveraging technology to complement human interaction and create valuable experiences.

It’s worth noting that with customer experience, customer feedback and customer appreciation are valuable. Customer feedback is an invaluable source of insights, informing you of any issues or challenges that your customers might have. They’re crucial to helping you make necessary changes for improvement.

Make it a point to give your customers several avenues to share their honest thoughts with you. Furthermore, it’s important that you show appreciation for both your customers and your employees. Aside from letting customers know that you’re grateful for their patronage, you’re also showing them that you genuinely care about them. Showing gratitude to your employees also does wonders for their morale, helping you create a more rewarding and motivated workplace.

There’s no denying that the customer experience is a crucial factor with the power to help your business succeed or fail. Prioritising your CX and developing proactive strategies lets you create relevant and valuable experiences for your customers. These, in turn, can help you stay competitive, keep your business thriving, acquire more customers and gain patrons, and, of course, drive more sales and revenue for sustained growth.