Enhance Your Customer Experience And Drive Higher Sales

In the last few years, customer experience (CX) has become a vital strategy for business growth and profitability. Even a moderate improvement in customer experience could boost your revenue by nearly 80%.

Many businesses, however, struggle with figuring out how to improve customer experience in their daily operations. In this post, we’ll share some top tips and tricks to enhance CX, drive sales and win your audience’s loyalty.

Enhance Customer Experience And Drive Higher Sales

Map your buyer journey

This is the first and most vital part of building a great customer experience. By chalking out a detailed map of the journey your buyer takes from initial interest to the final purchase decision, you can decide how to link each stage coherently and uncover new opportunities to serve the customer better.

Plus, your buyer’s journey does not end with sales. You also need to look at the post-sales aspect. For instance, a recurring billing software solution can enhance CX by streamlining the payment process and reducing the risk of missed payments.

Automated billing ensures your customers never have to fret over manually making payments, freeing up their time for other things. They have more control over their payments, such as managing their payment schedules, updating payment methods, and viewing payment history.

Have clear brand messaging

This is another foundational step that has a significant impact on customer experience. When customers first encounter your brand, they should know precisely what you do, what your products or services address in terms of pain points, and why they should choose your brand.

As you can imagine, the focus should be on how your offerings improve the customers’ lives rather than how many features you have. Make sure all elements of your branding and messaging are tailored to this, including your website content, social ads, Instagram posts, and any offline marketing materials you share.

Leverage AI to create unforgettable experiences

Technology like Machine Learning and AI are not just cool to talk about. Used well, they can create seamless 24×7 customer experiences that meet customers where they are.

Domino’s, for instance, lets buyers order a pizza through their Facebook Messenger chatbot. Several brands are also using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to pick up on customers speaking their requests verbally.

Make omnichannel your friend

Customers always switch between devices and channels when browsing, and they expect brands to be present on all platforms and provide a synced experience. So if you have not been embracing the omnichannel marketing mindset yet, now’s the time. Going mobile is not enough anymore.

Ensuring your customers can browse seamlessly regardless of where they start or stop is an absolute basic in modern-day customer experience. As a starting point, if your website is not already mobile-friendly, get that upgraded without delay.

Personalize everything

If you did not already know, customers want their buyer journey to be tailored to them specifically. From sharing local notifications based on their geolocation to offering recommendations based on their past buying and browsing history, there is a lot you can do to retain each customer with targeted marketing and make them feel welcome.

A big part of that is in the communications you send out — 81% of buyers want brands to know better when to approach them and when not to, so it is time to dial back on those random promo emails.

Get real-time feedback

Do not wait until your annual survey to determine how your customers feel. Use live chat and email to track how your customer felt at each stage, from interacting with a CX agent to purchasing. On that note, ensure the feedback you collect is tied to a specific CX agent so that you can appreciate the people doing a great job.

Take employee feedback too

Customer feedback is vital, but it is only part of the equation. Keep the conversation going with your CX team so that they can share feedback on day-to-day customer interactions. Are the CX tools working as they should?

Are there any bottlenecks in the resolution process? Create a secure channel on a platform like Slack or Discord where agents can bounce ideas off each other and gain insights on tricky situations in real time.

Offer training opportunities

Your customer-facing agents must be empowered to do the best job for your customers. That calls for a structured employee development program with learning modules, case studies, and coaching sessions so that agents can pick up on best practices and learn from those who have been in the game longer.

You could create a knowledge base that serves as an online repository for information about a product or service, including FAQs, tutorials, and other helpful resources for your agents, empowering them to find answers and solve problems on their own.

Build an emotional connection

It is commonly said that people will forget what you said or did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. When you build an emotional tie with your customer, you are giving them a reason to remember you forever — especially when it is time for them to make a purchase.

Shoe brand Zappos, for instance, reached out to a customer who was late to return her shoes because her mother had passed. They handled the returns and pickup without charging her anything and also sent a bouquet of flowers with a condolence note. That is CX done right.

Look at the numbers

Customer analytics is an integral part of CX. Unless your actions deliver the numbers you want, your strategy will not work.  Several analytics tools leverage AI and big data to give you detailed reports on how your customers interact with your brand, including behavioral insights that give you valuable ideas on how to tweak the experience for more impact.

Be sure to check the numbers periodically and to have a few core metrics to focus on — too many, and you risk being overwhelmed.

Do not forget social proof

Social proof demonstrates to the world that your customers had a great time with you, thus convincing new customers to go ahead with you too. Be sure to collect testimonials and reviews after every purchase and invest in creating case studies out of a few special stories.

You can also ask your customers to post video testimonials to their social media pages and even incentivize them with a prize for the most exciting/quirky video.

Deploy self-service options

Self-service can greatly improve CX by providing customers with the tools and resources they need to solve their problems. It saves time and helps customers locate the information they need more quickly. A comprehensive knowledge base that includes detailed articles, how-to guides, and FAQs can be valuable for customers looking for answers to common questions.

Interactive tools like chatbots and virtual assistants can also help them find solutions faster. Additionally, video tutorials and walkthroughs can help customers understand how to use your offerings, making it easier for them to get the most out of their experience.

Over to you

In conclusion, customer experience has never been more critical than in this age of digital-first experiences and hyper-competition. Companies with robust CX strategies can reduce churn, establish themselves in new markets and eventually boost their revenue.

A PwC study shows that 32% of customers will walk away from a brand they adore after a single bad experience. So if you do not already have a CX strategy, let 2023 be the year you build one.

Besides, it is essential to continuously review and update your CX strategy to ensure it stays effective and relevant. You must also ensure your customers have self-service resources to solve their problems on their own and improve their overall experience with your brand.

Author Bio

Tim Ferguson is a writer and editor of Marketing Digest. He enjoys writing about SEO, content marketing, online reputation management, social media, AI, and Big Data. When he is not writing and editing for Marketing Digest, he spends time learning more about content marketing and getting better at it.