In this post, we are going through everything you need to know about customer experience. We will also go through some things you can do to improve customer experience and make your businesses customer experience as great as possible. Let’s start with what customer experience is.
What is customer experience
Customer experience is everything from pre-purchase to purchasing process, consumption and post-purchase. Everything your customer feels, notices, thinks about your process is customer experience.
Pre-purchase / discovery
The first thing about customer experience is how your customers discover your business. That might be an ad, if that is the case, you should think about what kinds of feelings you want to bring up with the ad. I have a post about how to create a perfect ad for your product or business, you can read it here.
Purchasing process
Next up comes the purchasing process. This is where your customer service needs to shine. Customer service is like the face of your company. It is sometimes the only thing your customers see in your business, so they make their opinions based on that. I have a post about the importance of customer service. You can read it here.
Consumption
Consumption includes the part where a customer uses the product or service. In some cases, the consumption phase is less available for the customer to follow, such as car repairs, but as a company, you can affect this as well.
Make the repair fast and smooth, so your customer will have no issues along the repairing process. You could, for example, offer a rental vehicle for the repair duration.
In other businesses, this can be more visible to customers. Therefore, you should focus on the aspects the customer can see.
Post-purchase
This is everything that happens after the customer has purchased and consumed the product. How well do you handle returns and questions that come after? Also, what kind of guarantee do you offer for your product or service?
All this, even after the customer has already purchased and consumed your product or service, can also affect the customer experience either positively or negatively. Make sure you give as good and as fast service to your previous customers as to new ones.
It is much easier and cheaper to maintain regular customers than to attract new ones. Even harder to attract new ones if the old ones are not satisfied. Customer experience is a good benchmark of how your business is handling things.
How to create a great customer experience
So, how to create a great, memorable customer experience that will bring in old and new customers all year around?
It all starts with discovery. How your business is discovered. Is that through ads? Other customers referrals? Googling? Focus on these aspects.
Make a great website that can be found on google. Create a perfect customer experience to attract new customers via customer referrals. If you decide to do ads, make them represent your business perfectly.
Then comes the purchasing process. Customer service is the key player here, but also different payment and installment options you have available, to make the payment itself as easy as possible for the customer.
After that is the consumption process. This will vary a lot among different industries, but a common tip for everyone is to test your product. Test your competitors’ products and compare those. Collect feedback from customers. I have a post about the importance of customer feedback. You can read it here.
Post-purchase: Handle returns and broken products smoothly and fast. If the product breaks or doesn’t meet the needs of the customers, that is your fault. Don’t blame the customer and make them feel guilty, if that is the case, you could potentially do even more harm than one returned product would.
Think about how you can make the product better or change your target audience. Collect feedback, especially from the dissatisfied customers.
How to create customer experience strategy
To create a customer experience strategy, you will have to put yourself in the shoes of your desired customers. Go through the whole process mentioned before, from pre-purchase all the way to post-purchase.
First, you will have to identify your targeted audience. Who is the product or service for?
Then you find ways to contact and access your desired audience.
Think about all the different aspects. Colors and images on your website as well as in your physical store, if you have one. All through the eyes of your desired customer.
Analyze the products of your competitors as well. See what they do well, copy that. What they do poorly, find ways to do it better. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Learn from other people’s successes and mistakes. You don’t have to make all the mistakes yourself and learn from those.
To finalize the customer experience strategy, put yourself into the shoes of your desired customer and go through the process. Think about every aspect and what if something happens, what if the customer also wants this or that.
Customer experience trends in 2022
Some trends that can positively affect your customer experience and your brand image are:
- great customer service
- sustainability
- simple return policies
- availability of different and flexible payment methods
- responsibly produced goods
Before the price was the greatest factor that affected customers choices. Nowadays, when people overall have more purchasing power, price is no longer the main factor. Sure, it has it’s place, it always does, but these aspects are also to consider.
Some people are willing to pay premium to get the sustainable eco-friendly product or just for the better customer service.
Final words
Customer experience is a very broad topic. Perfecting your customer experience towards your targeted audience is a great way to keep your regular customers coming back, as well as attracting new customers via referrals.
Other business-related posts can be found here.
Hopefully this was helpful to you, have a nice day.