Customer experience and customer service – what’s the difference? Turns out, plenty. While the terms sound a little too similar, often leading to some confusion, it’s essential to understand what they both mean.
After all, they refer to two different but pivotal aspects of your business!
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What is Customer Experience?
Customer Experience (CX) is the sum of all interactions a customer has with your brand—from the very first advertisement they see to post-purchase customer support calls and everything in between. Every interaction across the customer journey leaves a lasting impression upon the customer, and it all comes together to create what we call the customer experience.
So whether you’re thinking of website design, the YouTube advertisement, or just about anything else, it’s all a part of the experience your customer has when interacting with your brand.
What is Customer Service?
Customer service refers to the support you give your customers when facing queries, concerns, and more. That chatbot on your website does a phenomenal job at reducing wait times, while your customer service agents handle the more complicated requests.
Spoiler alert: customer service is a distinct but critical part of customer experience!
Business Benefits: Customer Experience
You’ve probably heard of how customer experience is a core part of every business strategy. Getting CX right is critical for every business, regardless of industry. However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach (and anyone who tells you otherwise is bluffing).
Customer Experience is a highly personalized strategy that needs to be designed while keeping in mind your customer behaviors, preferences, aspirations, business USP, and more.
It’s all about you and the experience you want to create for your customers.
While measuring the ROI from CX isn’t very straightforward, research shows that businesses who focus on CX are 60% more profitable and bring in 5.7 times more revenue than their counterparts. So, it’s safe to say that the payoff for getting customer experiences right is pretty big!
But it’s not just your bottom line that benefits. Customer centricity throughout your business has several advantages, including:
#1 Customer Advocacy
Happy customers are also more vocal customers! If you’re getting customer experiences right, meeting expectations (and exceeding them), working on delivering exceptional quality, and taking all the measures to make the customer journey intuitive and effortless, you’ll have customers who aren’t just happy being loyal, but ones who want to share the joy, as well.
The next time they come across someone on the lookout for a product like yours, it will be your name they recommend.
After all, while good experiences leave customers happy, great experiences make your brand truly memorable!
An easy way to measure this is with the Net Promoter Score (NPS), a customer satisfaction survey that directly asks customers how likely they are to recommend your product to friends and family members.
#2 Detractors Turned Promoters
This one is tricky. Your customer experience efforts shouldn’t just be focused on easing the customer journey, but also on addressing customers who’ve had subpar experiences.
After all, it isn’t just happy customers who are more vocal. Dissatisfied or angry customers tend to speak up, too! By optimizing your customer experience strategy to proactively reach out and address concerns and complaints, you can reduce customer churn, turning detractors into loyal promoters in the process. This, of course, leads to a higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), benefiting the bottom line!
#3 Better Online Reputation Management
The easiest way to get great reviews is to create experiences that leave customers impressed. They’ll be happy to leave positive reviews and even recommend you on third party websites—improving your online reputation and making it easier for prospective customers to get a reliable perspective of what to expect.
Moreover, a great CX program will also ensure that you respond rapidly to all comments/feedback, whether it’s good or bad. Not only does this make it easier for customers to reach out, but it also demonstrates that your company really cares.
#4 Higher Acquisition and Retention Rates
In the age of extreme competition, your reputation always precedes you. Customers have a sea of choices to pick from, and tend to do their research, especially when it comes to high-value purchases.
Companies that value their customers are the ones customers see more value in. After all, they can procure the product from competitors as well. What they are paying for is the experience—from the thoughtful customer service to the ease of doing business with a company to any post-purchase support that’s needed.
That’s why customer centricity can truly pay off. Having a company that focuses on their customers and delivers exceptional experiences not only stands to improve their retention rate, but also ensures a higher rate of acquisition!
The Power of Great Customer Experience and Customer Support
Customer experience is easily one of the most powerful tools at your disposal. It can transform the way your company is perceived in the market, create a loyal brand following, and more.
We’re living in the age of the customer, and as a result, it’s critical to ensure a customer-centric culture. Keep the customer at the heart of your strategy, from the journey to the product, and much more. The easier you make the process, the more memorable you make it.
In doing so, you can increase customer engagement at every stage. After all, these will also be the first people to adopt any new product you have and support any new venture you consider! Loyalty is one of the most powerful assets a business can have.
The best way to get customer experience right is to start with the many facets of your program, beginning with support. Your customer support is the face of your business where it matters the most: when customers are in a dilemma. Whether it’s a simple query, a happy comment, or a terrible experience, your customer support needs to be trained in handling the situation with empathy and be empowered to deliver solutions that not only appease the customers, but also leave them happier.
The best way to get started in delivering an exceptional experience is with a great experience management solution. Sogolytics allows you to keep the big picture in mind while also diving into the nuances at every step.
