Building a unified customer experience (CX) is essential for ensuring your business’s long-term success. Consumer expectations for brands are higher than ever, and your business must be able to provide consistent value in order to build and maintain a loyal customer base. That means understanding your customer’s pain points and creating a cohesive system to satisfy their wants and needs. As businesses continue to shift their CX strategy focus to online services during the pandemic, new CX technology designed to streamline the process is gaining traction. Luckily, these tools can help you improve your company’s customer experience whether you’ve been in the game for a long time or are just starting out. Read on to learn about how a unified CX can improve your business, or skip to the infographic for 10 CX tips and statistics to know in 2021.
What is a Unified CX?
A unified CX generally refers to a set of experiences that match content, functionality and your brand’s personality to your customers’ needs and expectations across all platforms. Customers need to be able to recognize and easily interact with your brand no matter what platform they find you on. Whether they discover your brand through your website, online ads or a customer service channel, it should be easy for them to join your company’s journey.
Optimizing CX Operations Can Increase Revenue
Customers are often willing to pay more for products and services if they come with a good customer experience. In fact, a Temkin Group report showed that a $1 billion company will earn $775 million on average over three years by making modest improvements to CX. Companies of all sizes have experienced increasing ROIs on CX efforts and technology, and most top-performing companies can partly attribute their success to a unified CX. Unfortunately, failing to take CX into account could not only stunt your company’s growth, but also reduce your revenue stream over time. 32% of customers have said that they would walk away from one of their favorite brands after just one bad experience, so you’ll want to put some thought into your strategy to avoid losing loyal paying customers. Other important stats to consider:
- 82% of organizations’ ROI on marketing technology improved in 2020.
- Over 90% of those involved in an organization agree that CX is a primary focus regardless of discipline, industry or company
- 60% of marketers worry that their CX is putting them at a competitive disadvantage
- 63% of customers are willing to share more personal data with companies that offer a great customer experience.
- There is a very high correlation between CX and repurchasing.
Building Trust and Customer Satisfaction
Increasing your company’s revenue stream is important, but it’s not the only reason you should focus on improving customer experience. Some of the most successful companies out there have put in the time and effort because they know satisfied customers will help generate buzz by telling others about their experiences. The best way to improve customer satisfaction can vary by industry. However, if you’re looking for a universal method to improve your company’s CX strategy, try updating your customer service efforts. Customer service is an essential part of most companies as it provides a channel for customers to ask questions and resolve issues with products or services. 29% of consumers see problem resolution as the most important form of customer support, so it is especially important to strengthen those channels as customers continue to seek out remote forms of communication. Other important stats to consider:
- 54% of U.S. consumers say most companies need to improve their customer experience
- 88% of consumers indicate that voice is still their preferred customer service channel
- Roughly one in three consumers would pay extra to receive better customer service
- 48% of organizations increased content creation for customer engagement in 2020
- 41% of marketers say that creating new content for customer engagement was a top challenge in 2020.
Customer Experience KPIs
Once you implement a system to improve CX at your company, it can be beneficial to start regularly tracking customer experience KPIs (key performance indicators). You can create your own KPIs to track customer experience, but global scoring systems, like the Net Promoter Score, can also help you see how your business compares to the competition. Net Promoter Score tracks positive customer experiences and is used in about 64.5% of companies, so it is important to check it frequently as new businesses are added. If you choose to track your own KPIs for customer experience, focusing in on ROI for CX efforts is a good place to start. Try to regularly track your ROI and make adjustments to your strategy whenever it fails to meet your targets. Other important stats to consider:
- Only about 14% of companies currently measure the ROI of customer experience.
- 21% of companies have developed their own KPIs to track CX
- There is a 21-point difference in NPS between consumers who have had a good experience with a company and those who have had a bad experience.
- Education and Training organizations have the highest average NPS score at 71, and Healthcare has the lowest average NPS at 27.
The Future of Customer Experience
As technology advances and virtual capabilities continue to expand, it is more important than ever to keep up with customers’ needs and desires as they navigate virtual marketplaces and communication channels. 84% of consumers reported using digital channels more frequently in 2020, a trend that is expected to continue into 2021. Most successful businesses have already begun changing and increasing their CX strategy to ensure that they stay competitive. Your company can easily join the ranks of other successful businesses by focusing closely on customers’ needs and ensuring that all products, content, and services are easily accessible online. Even though COVID-19 made in-person shopping nearly impossible, there are still plenty of ways to reach new audiences. In fact, 75% of U.S. consumers still reported trying a new store, brand or shopping experience during the pandemic. Other important stats to consider:
- Globally, 40% of consumers reported buying more online than they used to in 2020
- 70% of executives expect the pandemic to further accelerate digital transformation
- Despite advances in online shopping and communication, 82% of U.S. consumers want more human interaction in the future
- Only about 47% of executives say they clearly understand how robotics and AI will improve customer experience.
- 44% of marketers say they are focused on AI and machine learning.
Tips for Improving CX
Beginning the process of improving your company’s CX can feel intimidating, especially if your business is just starting out. Customer experience is made up of a lot of moving parts, but that doesn’t mean that the process has to be complicated. There are plenty of simple steps you can take to begin implementing a plan that works best for your business. As you build your strategy, consider these five tips:
- Regularly analyze consumer data to identify trends and predict customer activity. If you can catch a potential problem ahead of time, you can avoid making a mistake that will cause your company to lose loyal customers.
- Use surveys to get valuable customer feedback. If you aren’t sure what parts of your strategy are working and which aren’t, hearing directly from customers is the best way to learn how your company can improve.
- Fully invest in customer experience. As more companies choose to focus on CX, fully committing to creating a unified CX for your company is the best way to stay competitive.
- Ensure that your company is communicating with empathy. Customers want to know that you understand their goals and want to help in achieving them.
- Create engaging content tailored to your audience’s pain points. If you regularly create content that matches their interests or helps consumers solve a problem, they are more likely to connect with your brand. This can be challenging to achieve, so be sure to create a thoughtful content strategy or find a team that can help you.
Building a strong customer experience, regularly tracking CX KPIs and prioritizing customer satisfaction are some of the best ways to increase your company’s revenue and build a lasting reputation in your industry. As technology and customer expectations evolve, keep CX at the forefront of your company’s efforts to ensure that you stay competitive. As long as you consistently deliver top-notch, accessible content and services to your audiences, your company will build a loyal customer base that keeps coming back. If you are ready to create a new CX strategy in 2021 but are not sure where to start, consider investing in new CX tools and technology. Things like AI and customer feedback analytics can help take your strategy to the next level. Check out the infographic below for an overview of the top CX statistics and takeaways for growing your business in 2021.
Image Source: Chattermill.com.
