What is Customer Experience (CX)?
The term ‘customer experience’ is thrown around like it’s common knowledge. And yet, not everyone uses it the same way. So, let’s start by establishing a definition.
Here at kwpx, we believe humans aren’t robots! So, we think of customer experience (CX) as the glue that binds all our thinking – without it, there’s no progress. CX is the connection between humans and brands and for us it means understanding a number of interconnected processes that combine to deliver an exceptional human experience.
CX has been discussed in business as a way of thinking and a term been around for a while, but the real change in CX recently is because customers have changed, hence your customer experience must change too.
When I take off my ‘marketing hat’ and wear my ‘consumer hat’, the formula is pretty simple – I expect brands to value the connection they have with me and to know what makes me tick (what I like and don’t like). Because at the end of the day, I just want (and expect) my experience to be simple, fast and enjoyable.
For example, if you think of a brand that delivers excellent customer experience, you’ll notice that the great experience you have isn’t just present when you are online, or just when you visit a store and chat with one single nice person… your experience is smooth, seamless and when you transition from one platform (physical or digital) or one click to the next, you feel just as connected with the brand (if not more) as you did when you started your journey.
So, CX is about creating relevant connections with your customers. Deeper connections, really.
So, at this point you might be thinking “cool, I get that CX is important but how do I do it?”
The first step is to remember that the purpose of a great CX strategy is to deliver great human experiences. And how do you do that? By creating more personalised connections with your customers while reducing potential friction-points.
The key aspects of a well-designed Customer Experience (CX) strategy are:
- Understanding the customer: Who are they and why do they do the things they do? To answer those questions you need to gather insights into your customers’ needs, motivations and behaviours.
- Journey mapping: What steps do they need to go through to connect with your brand? Create a visual representation of the customer’s interactions with your brand – map out every step they would take.
- Touchpoint analysis: How do they interact with your brand/product/service? Examine each interaction a customer has with your brand (e.g. website, call centre, in-store, etc.).
- Designing experiences: Once you know all the above, what would be the best experience you could provide your customers with? Create seamless, integrated and positive experiences at each touchpoint to delight your customers.
- Measurement and optimisation: What does your data say? Regularly monitor and improve CX through data and feedback.
- Culture and governance: Are your internal systems and teams aligned to your CX strategy? Ensure your business is aligned and committed to delivering a great customer experience.
A well thought-out CX strategy will refine the journey a customer takes with a brand, in order to maximize satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. But you won’t be able to ‘set and forget it’, as creating a CX strategy is not a one-time task, it should be continuously looked at and updated based on customer feedback, data and changes in the market.
The only way forward is to have a laser-focus on personalisation in each conversation with individual prospects and customers to enhance their experience in every way possible. This of course comes from having a robust set of data-points to guide you through the journey, a solid strategy and a team who is on the same page as you. You must transform the way your business ingests and uses customer data to engage with relevant, valuable experiences across the channels that matter.
The formula for doing this is actually simple: listen, learn, engage.
Amanda Metaxiotis
Director of Customer Experience // kwpx