Managing an increase in customer expectations
There is little doubt that investing in customer experience (CX) technology is a business priority. Digital-first businesses have transformed the landscape by providing customers access to anything, anytime, and meeting their needs with personalized experiences.
Delivering a positive customer experience significantly impacts a company's bottom line, with 85% of customers willing to pay more for a positive brand experience. Studies show that companies prioritizing customer experience perform better than competitors thanks to higher customer retention, enhanced brand reputation, and better cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
Customer retention
A positive customer experience can increase customer loyalty and retention rates. Increased revenue from existing customers is much more cost-effective than attracting new customers. This makes managing the customer base by offering an exceptional post-sale experience essential during challenging economic times.
Enhanced brand reputation and word of mouth
Customers who interact with a brand that exceeds expectations are more willing to recommend it to their friends, family, and social networks. This organic word-of-mouth marketing is valuable. According to Nielsen, 88% of global respondents trust recommendations from people they know more than any other channel.
Cross-selling and upselling opportunities
Satisfied customers who have had positive experiences with a brand are more likely to buy again and buy more. This can be highly effective in driving revenue growth, as companies implementing cross-selling strategies can see an increase of up to 30%.
By understanding customer needs and offering relevant, personalized product or service recommendations, companies can increase the average transaction value and generate more revenue from existing customers. Adding cross-sell offers to physical messaging tied to easy-to-use online interactions is a strategy helping many businesses to add value to existing client communications. Modern customer communications technology makes extending the messaging to multiple digital channels easier.
Despite increased investment in CX, 73% of enterprises need help managing siloed organizations, measuring ROI, integrating a human-centric culture, and leveraging real-time customer data. Meeting customer expectations in a business environment where competitors are highly customer focused requires buy-in across your entire organization.
Experts predict large-scale investment in digital transformation and CX initiatives to continue in 2023, with robust, comprehensive, customer-first solutions emerging to win and retain customers. But where to start? Our experience shows businesses should focus their efforts on 4 key areas to maximize results in delivering an optimal customer experience:
- Employee experience
- Advanced IT technologies
- Customer journey management
- Digital transformation
Start with the employee experience.
To enhance customer experience, it's essential to begin with the employee experience. Research indicates that improved employee experience directly boosts customer experience, with highly engaged employees contributing to up to 147% better performance.
Scott Draeger, VP of Customer Transformation at Quadient, emphasizes that poor employee experience leads to a subpar customer experience. Achieving exceptional customer experience requires a culture emphasizing the importance of going the extra mile - a culture encompassing the entire organization - not just a single CX team. Companies must prioritize their employees and invest in employee experience for a successful customer-first strategy.
As covered in the Quadient eBook Critical Customer Experience Investments, here are 5 business benefits of a highly engaged workforce:
