Why Your Business Needs to Focus On Customer Experience

Customer experience is viewed as the future of marketing and should be one of your main focuses when running your business. In this blog, we’ll explain what customer experience is and why it’s so important to succeed.

 

What is customer experience?

Although customer experience (CX) coincides with user experience (UX), they are separate matters. Customer experience refers to the interactions a customer has with a business. These interactions will be with people and products/services. 

Is a customer happy with what they’ve purchased? Has the company’s support service helped them with a query in an efficient manner? At every stage of the customer journey, they should be satisfied or else what’s stopping them from ending their journey? Learn more by reading our blog on the importance of user experience in online booking systems.

 

Why is customer experience so important? 

It’s more important than ever for customers to have a positive experience, as this provides many benefits to a business. Loyalty, increased sales and improved brand image to name a few. With so much choice out there, businesses can’t afford to give negative customer experiences. 

One in three customers will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience. It’s that straightforward – customers won’t give you a second chance and will take their custom elsewhere if you don’t hit the mark.

Customer experience is a simple thing to get right, and it allows you to stand out against competitors. In the Econsultancy and IBM’s Consumer Conversation Report, there is a significant difference between a business’s intention and their customers’ satisfaction. Brands believe they are experts at providing a great customer experience, but customers aren’t so sure.

Consumers were asked to rank seven company factors from most to least important. At the top end of the importance scale was “very trustworthy with my data/information”, with “products that are customised for me” sitting at the bottom. This goes to show how influential a positive customer experience can be, it is even more important than the product’s features!

 

Customers want to feel understood 

66% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, but 66% say they’re generally treated like numbers.

Unless you run a relatively small business, it is impossible to know every one of your customers on a personal level. But it is possible to know what they want. Consumers are demanding an improved experience, better service and more channels to engage with more frequently, and with this engagement comes invaluable insight. Plus, each of your customers has at least one thing in common: your company.

Make this the centre point of all marketing communication by ensuring your brand is consistent, breakthrough customer experience requires close collaboration between your marketing and technology teams. 

 

How to gather customer feedback 

To understand how your customers feel about your business, just ask them! Send customer satisfaction surveys and gain recommendations to improve your service. 

It’s easy to send personalised emails using BookingLive’s integration with Mailchimp. You can segment your customers based on their demographics, previous purchases and more and automatically send them the relevant email. After analysing the data, you may find that small actions like sending booking confirmation emails are all a customer needs to feel secure with your business.

 

Satisfied customers are loyal 

It’s well known that retaining customers and selling to them is more cost-effective than acquiring new customers. With so much competition, it can be harder to retain customers – dissatisfy them once and you’ll never hear from them again. 

To get loyal customers it’s simple – keep them happy. To make customers happy it can be beneficial to create a sense of community. This can be achieved through branding, the efficiency of your customer support, social media tactics and rewards for loyal customers. 

Create positive experiences for your customers and make them feel valued and they will begin to champion your business to others. Strong social proof enables your service and experience to do the talking. Just think, how often do you search for reviews of a business before you decide to spend money with them?

 

Encourage reviews to showcase your great customer experience 

There will be many customers out there to sing your praises. You just need to encourage them to leave a shining review online for the world to see. With an online booking system, you can automatically send customers notifications and emails after their appointment. Include a link to a review platform such as TripAdvisor or TrustPilot. Using BookingLive, you can embed these reviews on your website to encourage a sale at the start of the booking journey.

 

Improve customer experience with BookingLive 

Using online booking systems is a simple way of improving customer experience. They provide convenience, are mobile friendly and give complete control to the customer by keeping your business online and open for bookings 24/7, 365. Read our blog on ways online booking and scheduling will improve your customer experience here.

We offer an Enterprise level system for larger corporations that can be custom built to your needs. If you’re a small business, we offer a booking system on a tiered pricing plan so you only pay for what you need.

If you have any questions, contact the team today. You can also book a demo – with no obligation to buy.