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MARCH 2015
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business
solutions
W
hat is it about your company that makes customers
want to do business with you, and even tell others
about it? Is it your fantastic products? Great selec-
tion? Impressive expertise? It’s probably all of these things
to some degree. But, to an even greater extent, it’s how they
feel about doing business with you, or what is known as their
customer experience.
Improve Customer Experience, Improve Business
A study by RightNow Technologies found, “Customer service is
the most influential thing a company can do to increase customer
advocacy.” The study revealed that 55 percent of consumers rec-
ommend a company because of its customer service, compared to
products at 49 percent and price at 42 percent. In addition, custom-
ers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience—up to
25 percent more!
Incredibly, according to a MarketingCharts.com article about the
study, “RightNow estimates the U.S. airline industry could make
an additional $10.6 billion in revenue this year if they could guar-
antee a superior customer experience. That is more than five times
the predicted deficit for the airline industry this year.” Just imagine
what your company could accomplish with additional attention to
customer experience.
Emotional Bonds are Hard to Break
Customer experience is a somewhat new concept in business.
Wikipedia defines it as follows: “The sum of all experiences a
customer has with a supplier … awareness, discovery, attraction,
interaction, purchase, use, cultivation and advocacy.” With each
of these stages in the relationship, there are many opportunities to
provide an excellent customer experience.
The key to doing so is identifying what emotions customers want
to feel when doing business with you, then creating situations
that enable it to happen. Examples of positive customer emotions
include joy, trust, contentment, and the feeling of “being taken care
of.” The cumulative emotions customers experience as they do
business with you result in an emotional bond that becomes hard
to break over time.
Practices that can instantly improve your customers’ experience
include making them feel valued, listening carefully to their con-
cerns, and overdelivering.
Benefits of a Customer Focus
You may be concerned that improving customer experience will
cost you more in staffing, marketing, and training; however, such
improvements can actually help your bottom line in these ways:
• Customer loyalty.
It costs less to retain current customers
than to attract new ones.
• Additional income.
Happy customers are willing to pay
more for your products or services.
• Word of mouth.
Customers who love doing business with
you will tell others about you.
Remember, it’s not only what your customers think about your
company, but also what they feel about it, that matters. Customer
experience is at the heart of it all.
Going Beyond
Customer
Service
Build loyalty by providing a
great customer experience