Article by Richard Houwing, Business Advisor, Western Sydney Business Centre

 

Customer Experience Will Build Loyalty

 

Many business people focus on the product or service and the price of their offerings. Once your product or service is perfected, this is not where your attention should lie. The customer experience should now become your number one focus.

 

Why?

Because according to research by the Peppers & Rogers Group, 60% of customers leave a brand as they feel it does not care or is indifferent towards them. Further, according to Harvard University’s findings, it costs up to 5 times more to generate a new customer than it does simply to satisfy and keep a current customer.

These statistics show one thing definitively: Improving your customer experience will increase your company’s success, be it steady earnings or increased sales.
But how is this done? Below are 3 points to review. They are easy to implement and can be assessed as a part of your internal quality control.

 

1.

If you deal with customers face-to-face, your body language is the first and foremost indicator of your authenticity. In other words, approach your customer with sincere enthusiasm, energy, and happiness.

 

2.

Always be of service. If your customer cannot find something on-hand, offer genuine help. Offer alternatives, check your stock, call around to see if another branch may have what you need in stock. Offer real help.

 

3.

Offer a friendly and streamlined checkout experience. Remind them why it’s better, not worse, to deal with a person.

 

Other things you can do to improve the customer experience are:

• If you have a website, make your navigation easy as possible. Make it fast, efficient, and pleasant.
• Make your FAQs searchable and easy to understand so site visitors can solve problems on their own.
• Use automated emails to keep customers updated on the status of their order.
While customer experience has always been a key factor in business success, it will be more so in the digital age of the customer. It will be a major differentiator in 2019. Remember, to remain competitive, make your customer’s experience streamlined, friendly, and most of all – satisfying.