What Does Customer Experience Even Mean?

Customer service and customer experience are two terms that are commonly used interchangeably. Understanding the difference between these two terms often means exploring the customer experience as a whole. It is important to keep in mind that your customer service experience and your customer experience as a whole will represent the way your company is perceived.

Everything that your company does to change the way your customers perceive it will make up the customer experience. This includes everything from the messaging that you use in your advertising, the quality of the products that you sell, the process of your sales or any follow-ups that happen after the sale. Internal factors like the way your company is networked and the quality assurance, engineering and leadership will all come down to further points included in your customer experience.

Companies can be great in one area but often struggle in many others and this can detract from the overall customer experience. When you consider some of the areas that you could be lacking in, it can be easy to see where you might be facing difficulty with your overall customer experience. A company that hires and trains passionate people and creates quality products will always outshine an organization that has faults.

There are many items that can contribute to the perception of your business and this can come down everything from the cleanliness in your store to the overall ease of navigating your website. Making sure that every step along the journey with your customer is going to create a better perception and make it more likely that your customers will come back to tell their friends and family will be important. The way your business is perceived is very important and maintaining strong customer experiences are one of the most important factors in keeping that perception high.

Now that you’ve determined more on customer perception and the difference between customer service and customer experience, it’s important to consider some of the strategies you can take on to improve your customer experience. Here are some top strategies to improve your customer experience.

Creating A Customer Experience And Feedback Opportunities

Customer surveys are an excellent place to start. Using customer surveys are a fantastic way to gather data about your company and get feedback from your customers. Understanding more about how your customers feel about your business and some shortcomings of your business can help you in generating improved levels of service at every level of your company.

Focus On Your Framework

Focusing on the framework of your business including your point of sale, showroom, quality of product and more will help you to clearly define your brand. Without having focus points for your business, you may not stand out in the market and it may be difficult for you to identify an audience for your product.

Consumer Research

Doing more research into your main demographics can help you understand who your customers are and how you can form a better framework for the future. Properly understanding who your customers are and how you can expand your abilities in business remains very important to the future of your business.

Act On Your Feedback

Companies are willing to act and offer personalized experiences to customers that have had poor experiences, will be able to create more loyalty as well as head off any bad feedback. Acting under feedback early on will show you are reputable.

If you are interested in learning more about building better experiences for your business, contact us today.

This blog was written by Ingrid Lindberg, a customer experience speaker and founder of Chief Customer. Her work has spanned the Fortune 500 – including Finance, Healthcare, CPG, Telco and Retail, working with companies to create differentiating customer experience strategies and cultures.