Customer experience (CX)

Gaining the interest of a potential customer is one thing, but keeping them can be much more difficult. Meanwhile, building a relationship based on loyalty has a big impact on sales - a loyal customer is likely to decide to use your offer again. Therefore, you need to ensure a positive customer experience (CX).

In this article, we'll answer the question of what CX is and what it stands for, how to analyze its value, and what to do to positively impact your customers' customer experience. We encourage you to read on.

What is customer experience?

Not sure what CX means? The explanation of the term is very simple: customer experience in Polish is nothing but customer experience. The term refers to all the experiences a customer associates with a particular brand, rather than a single transaction. The translation of the phrase "customer experience" itself conveys its nature very well, but it is worth noting that the customer experience itself is influenced by many elements, including:

• Price,
• Quality of customer service,
• Assortment,
• Reception of advertising messages,
• Brand Return Policy,
• Aftercare,
• The speed with which any problems are resolved.

As you can see, there are a lot of factors that affect the customer experience in practice, so it is difficult to give a complete list. The way a consumer evaluates an interaction with your brand also depends on their individual needs and expectations.

It is worth noting that in the case of a stationary store, shoppers' satisfaction is largely influenced by its appearance. Here professional merchandising comes to the rescue. Products should be set up aesthetically, and the store must be clean.

Why is the customer's shopping experience so important? If the buying process is evaluated positively, it is possible that the consumer will not only visit your store again or buy your brand's products, but most importantly - there is a chance that they will recommend them further. In other words, optimizing the customer experience is a good way to increase sales in your stationary and online store.

Note, however, that this weapon is double-edged. If the CX is poor, it is very possible that the customer will share the negative opinion with his environment. Moreover, he will probably be even more inclined to do so than in the case of a positive review.

How to analyze customer experience?

You already know the definition of customer experience, or customer experience, but do you know how to evaluate it in practice. In fact, all you need to do is glance at your sales results. If they're poor, it's very possible that poor CX is to blame. Want to check how consumers perceive their interaction with your brand? The best solution is to ask them.

With your help comes customer satisfaction survey. How do you conduct them? The simplest and cheapest way is, of course, surveys. However, it is crucial to skillfully construct the questions so that they actually depict consumer experiences. The survey itself, however, should not be too long and complicated - it will bore the recipient, who may therefore give up on filling it out.

You can also check the consumer experience in B2B or B2C by analyzing the reviews that appear online about your brand or company. Just take a peek at industry portals that allow them, read user comments on your Google Business Card, or perform Internet monitoring with dedicated tools, tracking mentions that appear about your products or services. If your Internet analysis is not successful - it's time for a change.

See also: what is experience marketing?

How do you build a positive customer experience?

It's clear that a positive CX is crucial to the image of your company forming in the minds of consumers: both those who have taken advantage of your offer, and those who are looking for information about it or have heard unflattering reviews. To begin with, perform a customer experience journey mapping, check what are the points of contact between the consumer and your offer and pay special attention to them when optimizing your activities. Customer experience map will help you prioritize changes. What else can you do to ensure a positive customer experience? Examples of actions are plentiful.

• Don't keep customers waiting for an answer. Provide them with several channels of communication with the service department and make sure that the response time to customer questions is as short as possible. Annoyed by the long wait, a consumer may choose a competitor's offer.
• Provide clear information. Information on price, forms of order payment, shipping, loyalty programs, discounts, promotions, etc. should be clear and well understood. Reliable communication with customers is essential.
• Implement an attractive loyalty program. Give customers a reason to come back to you, and attractive consumer programs are a very effective motivational tool.
• Appreciate your customers' suggestion. Listen to what your customers have to say to you. This is the best and quite free feedback. Remember, if you already ask for their opinion, actually implement the suggested solutions. On the contrary, customers may feel disregarded.
• Resolve customer problems quickly. Customer experience in e-commerce and stationary stores should be based on resolving potential problems as efficiently as possible. This includes returns, acknowledging complaints, etc.
• Don't inundate customers with marketing messages. Customer experience in marketing is all about being able to exercise moderation. If you overdo it, it is possible that you will irritate the recipient.
• Simplify the buying process. This is especially true for e-commerce. The customer's purchasing pathshould be as simple as possible. The buyer is supposed to intuitively know what steps to follow to place an order.

Determine what is of key value to the customer and try to respond to their needs. The biggest changes in optimizing the customer experience often involve the work of service departments - the employees they employ are one of the first elements of the customer's contact with your offerings.

Besides, attention should also be paid to the attractiveness and correct construction of the brand's website. Today, when the search for information begins primarily by typing a relevant search term into a search engine, this is crucial. If the website is outdated or starts loading slowly, it is possible that a potential customer will unfortunately give up further interaction with your brand.