INFOGRAPHIC: CX Strategies to Earn Real-value Customers

Customer Experience (CX) is regularly defined in alignment with evolving technology and ever-changing consumer preferences. Customers have more power than ever to share their experiences with others, making it all the more crucial for businesses to provide a seamless, positive CX at every touchpoint.

Subject to the fluidity of their respective industries, most businesses continually revise their CX strategies but retain their foundational elements (loyalty, revenue, reputation, competitive advantage) that serve as a north star to consistently deliver personalized and positive interaction.

Here are five key tips to enhance CX and drive growth and brand loyalty worldwide.

1. Customer engagement

Customers should be able to reach out to businesses via their preferred communication channels. Allowing for multi-channel engagement encourages active sought-after feedback loops, response to needs, and ensuring that each customer feels valued and heard through the brand’s actions and initiatives.

To engage with customers effectively, one must understand them—where they are in life, what they want, and their preferred way of communication. As a result, personalization is becoming increasingly important in CX as customers expect companies to know all their preferences.

There are four types of customer engagement:

1. Contextual engagement – This is achieved with complete information about the customer and proper context of the subject through clear communication and collaboration in an attempt to provide personalized solutions.
2. Engagement of convenience – Engagement is done at the convenience of the brand as well as the customer.
3. Emotional engagement – Brands engage with their customers on an emotional level and also cater to their latent needs, earning their long-term trust and loyalty.
4. Social engagement – Brands interact on social media platforms to build brand networks and communities.

Customer engagement is a key factor in creating positive and memorable experiences for customers and is of paramount importance in a CX strategy.

2. Customer loyalty

A loyal customer is not easily influenced by availability or pricing as long as they have the same positive experience with the brand and their services. Some other characteristics that define a loyal customer include:

• Not actively searching for other suppliers
• Refers the brand to their family and friends
• Not open to pitches from competing brands
• Open to other goods or services by the business
• Understanding of issues and trusts the process of rectification
• Offers sincere feedback for improvement

Customer loyalty is a critical part of the CX strategy:

• Repeat customers spend more than first-time customers.
• Loyal customers produce higher conversion rates.
• It boosts profits.
• Retaining an existing customer is cheaper than acquiring a new one as less money is spent on marketing and promotional efforts to keep them engaged.
• It enables businesses to predict growth more effectively, thus helping in financial planning through anticipatory decisions based on their budget.
• Loyal customers shop regularly
• Repeat customers spend more during the holidays.

If a business treats its customers as members of an elite club with special offers, discounts, and exclusive access to events, they will feel like they are a part of something unique. 

3. Seamless interactions

Regardless of the channel used to communicate, customers should experience a prompt interaction that is positive and personal. Rather than focusing entirely on the inquiry at hand, it is essential to consider the following key strategies to include for seamless customer interactions:

• Omnichannel CX
• Personalization
• User-friendly design
• Consistency
• Automation
• Proactive communication

A seamless interaction strategy can help minimize costs, improve engagement, and create a delightful experience for existing and prospective customers, thereby improving business satisfaction, retention, and growth.

4. Unparalleled CX

Every day people are exposed to thousands and thousands of ads per day, which means businesses have to compete for real estate in the consumers’ minds. The customer experience must be so unparalleled and unique that they keep coming back for more.

Here is how businesses can enhance their overall CX strategies to deliver an unparalleled experience to their consumers:

• Leveraging technology
• Hospitality mindset
• Listening to customer feedback
• Constant efforts to improve
• Reflecting on the internal processes

5. Leveraging data for a competitive edge

To stand out amongst the competition, analytics is one of the most powerful tools for businesses. Through pivotal insights into customer behavior and optimizing business processes and identifying new opportunities, businesses can differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Some analytics-specific strategies include:

• Predictive analytics
• Personalization engines
• Social media listening tools
• Digital marketing and web analytics

Customer experience and brand reputation go hand-in-hand.

Invest in real, value-driven CX.