“Feedback is the breakfast of champions!” Now, who said that? Non-other than Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot. And he’s right! Think about it – if you don’t know what is working for your customers, how will you know what to do more of? And if you don’t know what is driving your customers away, how will you know where to improve your customer experience?
Put simply, it has never been more important to prioritize- and invest in the customer experience of your business. Failing to do so will set you back compared to your competitors who are probably already taking steps to ensure their customers a great experience with their brand.
I’m really trying not to sound like a doomsday prophet here, but it’s kinda hard when – every day at work – you see the results our customers are creating by investing in their CX.
And, also – it won’t help you to deny what matters to your customers now – and that is the overall experience with your brand. It even trumps product and price now!
You aren’t convinced yet? Well, then I’ve got 4 reasons why you should start investing in your CX – so keep on reading! If you’re busy, you can go straight to the conclusion by clicking here.
No. 1: Insights = Possibilities
“What gets measured gets done!” This phrase might be somewhat overused, but it really hits the nail on the head. When you get feedback on your customer’s experience with your brand, you can act on it and solve any problems you might have. And yes, there’s always room for improvement!
The main goal really should be keeping your customers happy. I mean, who wants grumpy customers? Who wants 2 stars on Trustpilot? No thanks, we’ll pass! We want happy customers because happy customers are loyal customers, who will recommend you to their friends, family, and coworkers.
If you want to create a pleasing experience, you have to ask your customers what they want (spoiler alert: they have great ideas!). And then you have to use that insight to create a personalized and consistent experience that they’ll remember. If you do this, chances are that your customer experience is better than your competitors’, leading to loyal customers that will be less likely to join the dark side (i.e. your competitors).
No. 2: Competition is fierce!
Everybody has an e-commerce business nowadays. Or a blog. Or a consultancy agency. Most markets are saturated with companies that do (pretty much) the same thing.
So how do you stand out? How do you compete with companies from China if you want to pay your workers a decent salary?
The number 1 thing you should be focusing on is creating a great customer experience! But before you can start doing that, you need information! Information about what your customers think of your company – both the good stuff AND the bad stuff!
To stand out from the crowd, you need your customers to become loyal to your brand – and what better way to do that than giving them the best experience you possibly can?
If you have no idea where to start; check out this blog post: Customer Experience Trends of 2019 (there might be a little somethingsomething on feedback in there as well… Wink wink).
No. 3: It has never been easier to collect data
Data is one of the hottest trends right now. Well, to be exact, it has always been important to measure the different aspects of your business; but now (more than ever) it’s important that you build your business strategies on reliable data.
For one, there has never been so much data available, and we have all of the new tracking technology to thank for that.
It’s the same when it comes to measuring your customer feedback! Online surveys have been around for years, and a lot of companies have used them to send out maybe once or twice a year to their customers to get an overall view of how they perceive their brand.
But things have moved quickly in the last couple of years, and now you can interact with your customers at every touchpoint they have with your business. This way, you can get a much clearer view of what your customers think of your efforts at every step of their customer journey.
This means, that you can catch any friction your customer might find when interacting with e.g. your website, delivery, returns etc.
There are many different ways of doing this, but we’ve found that using a platform like Surveypal can help you capture all the information you need for you to be proactive in engaging with your customers. Their holistic and customer-centric approach will provide you with the tools to supercharge your CX and retain those dearly bought customers of yours.
No. 4: It pays off!
The main argument we hear against doing more to ensure your customers a great experience is MONEY! Well, more specifically: Time and money!
We get it, though! We know what it’s like to be slaves of excel sheets and constantly worrying about, how you’re gonna pay the bills next month! And don’t get me wrong – it’s tough out there (see reason no. 2…)!
But the question, I think you need to ask yourself, is: “Can I afford NOT to invest in my customers’ experience with my brand?”
And if you want to retain customers; making them into loyal customers who will recommend you to friends and family, your feedback-game has to be on point!
Don’t believe me? Then take a look at these statistics:
- By increasing customer retention by as little as 5%, you can increase your profit by 25% to 95%.
- Depending on your industry, acquiring a new customer is anywhere from 5-25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.
- Highly engaged customers buy 90% more often and spend 60% more per transaction.
Have I captured your attention now? If not; try reading some of our other blog posts:
- Customer experience trends of 2019
- 2019 will be the year of customer experience
- 6 stats to prove the importance of e-commerce customer service
Conclusion
The actual conclusion of this blog is this: Don’t be an ostrich! Meaning that you shouldn’t bury your head in the sand – you need to start listening to your customers and invest in getting the right tools to do so.
The four reasons are these:
No. 1: Insight = possibilities:
You need the information to make informed decisions about the future of your business
No. 2: Competition is fierce:
You need to get ahead of your competitors if you don’t want to fall behind
No. 3: Data-collection has never been easier:
New technology makes it possible to collect data from every touchpoint your customer has with your brand
No. 4: It pays off:
Statistics show that improving your customer experience on the basis of customer feedback will quickly prove worthy of the investment
Read more about Surveypal here and Zendesk here.