In a world where your potential customers are just a click away, customer experience has become the new battleground.
According to a study by RightNow, 86% of consumers are willing to pay up to 25% more for better service.
This is why major brands like Apple, Disney, and Airbnb invest so heavily in creating great customer experiences. This allows companies to build brand loyalty through service while simultaneously growing profit margins.
Instead of competing on quantitative aspects (low price, larger quantity, etc.), Airbnb and Apple chose to improve qualitative metrics (empathy, support, appearance, and behavior), and that's exactly what customers want and perceive.
Customer experience techniques, when used effectively, facilitate acquisition, boost loyalty , and improve retention. However, customer experience needs to be viewed as a series of actions to be truly successful in the long term.
Shall we delve deeper into this subject?
What is customer experience?
Customer experience is the overall perception of your product or service across all interactions throughout the customer lifecycle.
However, its significance is not limited to the consumer experience alone. This perception influences customer behavior and builds memories that drive loyalty and affect the economic value generated by the organization.
According to Beyond Philosophy, the world's first consultancy focused on this technique, customer experience is a customer's rational, physical, and emotional perception of any part of an organization.
Gartner defines customer experience as "the related perceptions and feelings caused by the unique and cumulative effect of interactions with a vendor's employees, systems, channels, or products. "
Forrester Research defines customer experience as: "How customers perceive their interactions with your company."
Clearly, the two basic elements of a definition of customer experience are perception and interaction.
Thus, customer experience can be defined as the impression a consumer gets of your company after any contact has been established. This contact can be physical service – in-store or by phone – or virtual, through the website, social media, and online chat.
📌Check out our post: Humanized service: make your customer experience amazing
Difference between customer experience and customer service:
Contrary to what many believe, customer experience is not the same as customer service. Customer experience refers to all the moments a customer has with your company, not just those with the customer service team.
For complete alignment, different groups within the same company that normally work independently, such as marketing, design, customer service, and sales, often need to work together to create a single point of contact.
📌Check out our article: The new experiential marketing: total focus on the customer.
This involves a careful examination of the emotions your company evokes at different times, including how customers perceive that experience.
Therefore, a satisfied customer is not measured solely by the act of selling or a smile on their face. It's also important to remember that customer satisfaction shouldn't be evaluated only by comments on Google or Facebook Recommendations reviews, or by referrals from new customers.
📌Check out our article: Improve customer experience using online reviews
Otherwise, one might think that a customer is only truly satisfied if they tell everyone about it or recommend the company to others.
In many cases, a customer's first point of contact with a company is through interaction with an employee (whether visiting a store or speaking on the phone). This gives your business the opportunity to offer excellent customer service.
However, customer service is only one aspect of the overall customer experience. Let's look at a practical example of the relationship between customer experience and customer service.
Let's look at a practical example…
If you book a trip over the phone for the first time and the person you're speaking to is friendly, that characterizes good customer service. In this way, you're not yet loyal to the brand, but you recognize the good service provided.
Another situation: if you book your trip online, complete the entire process quickly and easily, receive a confirmation call, and even get a booking bonus, your perception changes, right? And do you know why your perception changed?
Because it's simple and effortless. Offering the basics is already a major differentiator these days.
"Investing in memorable experiences is only worthwhile if the company is delivering the basics.".
Francisco Zapata | Head of Customer Centricity at Rokkets | CCXP
📌 Check out our article: Customer Effort Score (CES): Measuring customer effort
The experience should begin from the inside out: the experience of the employees
This is certainly a topic that could be discussed at length, but the fact is that many companies provide incredible experiences for their customers, and forget about the most important thing – their employees.
For example, if a company hired employees who were misaligned with its mission, apathetic, and didn't really want to be there, what would happen?
They would likely have poor interactions with customers, leading consumers to perceive the brand as lazy and uncaring about its business.
On the other hand, if a company hires people who are passionate and committed to its purpose, those employees will likely help customers have a great experience and a strong perception of the brand.
In addition, there are several factors that can contribute to the overall perception, including product quality, store cleanliness, or ease of navigating its service.
Employee experience drives company culture and is a fundamental part of any organization. Culture is its soul, its personality, its intrinsic values, and its beliefs. Culture is what sets a business apart from its competitors, the attraction that helps attract and retain customers and employees.
So remember: Happy employee = Happy customer 😀
We are in the "Age of Experience"!
For a long time, companies believed that price was the key differentiator in winning over customers. And that's not a lie; after all, this technique is still a reality in many businesses.
Thanks to the internet, this has greatly changed shopping habits, as well as decentralizing a large part of the more traditional commerce that only competed on price. But as we know, habits are constantly evolving, and we are consuming more and more experiences.
The graph above shows the evolution of searches for the term "customer experience" in search engines since 2017.
Therefore, it will be necessary to offer the customer a different and memorable experience. In other words, more than selling a product, companies will need to sell services.
The idea is that the value of your business is created through interaction with the user, solving problems, meeting their needs, desires and demands, some of which they don't even know they have.
And to understand these customer desires, you need to be close to them to hear what they say about your company.
📌Check out our article: Voice of the Customer (VOC): What it is, and how to implement this strategy.
The product alone no longer guarantees a competitive advantage for brands. Differentiation was greater in the past, but today all products are similar.
Think about your computer or cell phone. You don't buy brand A or B just because of the device, but because you identify with the brand's proposition, because you like the service, the environment; there's social proof behind it all.
Therefore, there is a strong investment in adding services to products precisely to create differentiators, and consequently surprise the consumer.
Statistics you should know about customer experience in 2024:
- 89% of customers say that customer experience is important to their purchase decision. (Zendesk, 2022)
- 70% of customers will leave a company after a single negative experience. (American Express, 2018)
- Brazilian companies lose approximately R$ 1.6 trillion per year due to customer dissatisfaction . (Study by the National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism, 2021)
- 65% of Brazilians say they have stopped buying from a company because of poor customer service. (American Express survey, 2023)
- Resolve a complaint in the customer's favor and they have a 70% chance of doing business with you again – Lee Resources
- It takes 12 positive experiences to offset 1 unresolved negative experience – Glance
- For every dissatisfied consumer who complains, 26 remain silent – White House Office of Consumer Affairs
- 72% of consumers say that, after a negative experience, they share their experiences on social media platforms . (Source: Harris Interactive – “Customer Experience Impact Report” 2023)
- 87% of customers share positive experiences, while 95% share negative experiences. (Source: Zendesk Research – “Customer Experience Trends Report 2022”)
- 58% never use a company again after a negative experience – NewVoice
- 66% of consumers who switched brands did so due to poor customer service – ThinkJar
- Resolve a complaint in the customer's favor and they have a 70% chance of doing business with you again – Lee Resources
- 91% of customers say that customer experience is as important as price or product quality. (Source: Forrester )
- 79% of customers are more likely to buy from a company that personalizes their experience. (Source: Gartner)
How can we improve the customer experience?
There are many ways to improve your customer experience, but before that, you need to be delivering the basics. Remember that quote from Francisco Zapata you read earlier? Well…
But the good news is that we're going to help you on this journey!
#1 Customer Journey
The customer journey is the first task on our list. Before thinking about a thousand different options for delivering a memorable experience, we need to understand the steps our customer takes during their journey with your company.
In addition to understanding user behavior, the customer journey map can be used to identify areas for improvement and problems to be solved.
Essentially, the customer journey map focuses on:
- One persona, because each persona has a different context;
- Before the purchase, find out what motivates the customer to buy your product and what makes them continue using it;
- Identify your company's touchpoints;
- What your client expects / what you should do;
- What is he receiving at each stage?
- Find out if there are any obstacles that are hindering the purchase or renewal;
- Finding ways to improve communication and become more accessible to the customer;
📌Have you seen our webinar yet? 👀
#2 Reduce effort
After you've mapped the customer journey and identified all the points your customer goes through, it's time to reduce their effort so they can be more effective in their actions.
At this stage, it's important to follow the same path as the customer and note which stages of the operation are the most complex. To do this, find:
- A stage that requires a great deal of technical or intellectual knowledge;
- Difficulty or multiple clicks required for an interaction;
- Speed and accessibility;
- Focus on popular stereotypes to make them easier to use.
#3 Customization
After mapping the journey and understanding the friction points with your product, it's time to deliver something personalized to your customer.
When I say something personalized, it doesn't necessarily have to be something expensive or super innovative
The tip is: be creative, always focus on solving a problem, and then think about customizing.
For example, if a Harmo client is starting to conduct surveys with their customers, it makes sense at this point to send some supplementary materials about survey metrics, explaining them in more detail, doesn't it?
Customer expectations are getting higher every day, whether on social media or through traditional channels. That's why offering personalized service is essential.
📌Check out our article: Customer Experience: How to create a solid strategy for your company
#4 WOW Moment: What is it?
In the business world, it's very common to talk about the importance of "delighting a customer." That's where the "wow" factor comes in, an expression used to describe the feeling customers have when a delivery exceeds their expectations at the time of purchase.
In short, this is the moment when you surprise the customer and cause a positive and unique reaction in them.
One example is Uber, an app that connects you with drivers to get around the city. Right from the first experience with the app, the fact that the device shows available cars on a map, the estimated time, and is connected to my credit card, ends up incorporating several "wow moments" with the product itself.
That was certainly one of the reasons the system scaled up and found so many followers.
Furthermore, an unforgettable experience establishes an important emotional connection with your client.
A good time to create a "Wow Moment" is when your client's expectations are low. Think about it – are you more impressed when your expectations are high or low?
For example, you expect a design company to have a great website, right? In this case, it's more complicated to offer an amazing website experience, because the client's expectations are already high.
The best approach would be to consider the experience on the contact page, for example – since most websites only have a standard form in that section.
Case study: The Disney experience to delight customers
Perhaps one of the greatest case studies on customer culture and delight is that of Disney. In fact, we all know that the company has numerous strategies to delight customers, which has made it an expert in this area, right?
In addition to the Disney Institute, there is also the book: The Disney Way to Delight Customers, which showcases its entire culture and internal processes.
When Walt Disney conceived of Disneyland, his dream was to create a magical and safe place where his daughters could have fun.
Over the years, even after his passing, this idea remained strong and is now what motivates thousands of people every day within the theme parks that transform dreams into reality.
Furthermore, Disney has 7 commandments for customer service, which make all the difference and create a great sense of wonder in people who visit the park.
Watch our webinar "How to apply the Disney experience to my business?". At minute 13, Felipe Diesel explains how to map customer expectations and offers some tips for your business!
How do you measure customer experience?
One of the most frequent questions we receive is: “What is the right metric for my business?” The answer is probably: all of them. After all, you need to understand your business situation in different ways and in various situations.
📌Are you unsure which metric to use?
We've prepared a Practical Guide: Customer Experience Metrics. Access it here →
Below are the key elements for each type of measurement to clarify the differences between the three customer experience metrics:
NPS (Net Promoter Score)
NPS , or Net Promoter Score, is a customer loyalty metric. Its goal is to determine a consistent and easily interpretable score that can be compared over time or across different industries.
This metric assesses how much the respondent recommends a particular company, product, or service to friends, family, or colleagues. The idea is simple: if you enjoy using a product or doing business with a particular company, you want to share that experience with others, right?
The Net Promoter Score question is simple. On a scale of 0 to 10, you ask customers:
Depending on their response, customers will be divided into three categories, based on their Net Promoter Score:
- Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will continue to buy and recommend your products to others, fueling the growth of your business.
- Neutral (score 7-8) satisfied customers who buy with average frequency and are vulnerable to competitive offers.
- Detractors (score 0-6) are dissatisfied customers who can damage your brand and hinder growth through negative word of mouth.
CES (Customer Effort Score)
Customer Effort Score is a metric used to measure the level of effort a customer had to put into resolving a specific problem with your company.
The Customer Effort Score question is on a scale of 1 to 7, which asks:
To calculate customer effort, a weighted average of the scores must be taken to determine a score out of 7. The higher the score, the less effort was put in.
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)
The Customer Satisfaction Score is a metric that directly measures customer satisfaction levels in specific interactions, and is measured using a numerical scale that asks:
There are several ways to calculate CSAT because there are different ways to measure this score.
Therefore, customer satisfaction scores can be measured in five ways, which are:
- Yes and No – 1 and 2 (binary)
- Dissatisfied/Neutral/Satisfied – 1 and 3
- 1 to 5 (Likert scale)
- 1 to 7 (Likert Scale)
- 0 to 10 (Likert scale)
If you choose to calculate CSAT on numerical scales such as 1 to 5, 1 to 7, or 1 to 10, you will need to calculate the weighted averageby adding all the occurrences and dividing by the number of respondents.
But if you opt for model 1 and 2, or 1 to 3, the calculation ends up being easier, since you will basically have to subtract the percentage of satisfied customers vs. dissatisfied customers.
Conclusion
Customer perception is one of the most valuable aspects of a company. Managing this perception and measuring customer experience should be a priority for all companies seeking to remain competitive.
Everything a company does directly contributes to how customers perceive the overall brand experience. Before delivering experiences to your customers, think about your employees; they are the front line of your business.
The idea behind customer experience is that by improving interaction, you increase emotional engagement with your customers. This way, they will develop a positive relationship with the brand, form an emotional bond, and become more loyal to your company.
Try not to focus solely on short-term results. Dedicate yourself to increasing the lifetime value of your customers. After all, loyal customers generate 10 times more revenue!
Therefore, customer experience is definitely the way to go. Especially because companies that offer a good customer experience grow more than twice as fast as their competitors.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you said, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou