How Great Customer Service Can Turn Anger Into Happiness

How Great Customer Service Can Turn Anger Into Happiness

by | May 1, 2021 | Retention & Loyalty

Mistakes happen all the time, because there’s a human at the other side of a business transaction. What employees (the face of your company) do when errors occur affects customer trust and loyalty. For example, do employees make excuses or take accountability? Do they ignore a problem as if it didn’t exist, or do they respond promptly and go up and beyond to provide better customer service?

I’ve witnessed over and over again that customers are more forgiving when problems are not ignored.  Providing customer service in an empathetic manner can boost customer feelings and turn NPS detractors into promoters as in the case of Conray Weaver’s hotel visit. I’m happy to share his “Wow Moments” as they provide great brand lessons about turning bad situations into positive stories that go viral.

Contray’s original article can be found here.

Two years ago I had the privilege of staying at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in western Pennsylvania. I was on a job for a client who paid for my stay at the resort; not a bad gig, I must say.  Nemacolin is truly a 5-star facility, it’s a gorgeous place with huge rooms – mine even had a chandelier. When I arrived at the hotel, I was greeted by a professional staff of valets and bell hops, everyone I encountered was courteous, professional, and completely focused on making my experience comfortable and relaxing.

So, I was quite perplexed the next morning when I jumped into the shower to get ready for my day and the shower head didn’t seem to be working properly. The stream of water coming out of the shower was really wimpy, so I tried adjusting the shower head but couldn’t seem to get it working the way I thought it should.  Since I had a very busy day ahead of me, I didn’t spend too much time messing with it, but after a second morning of a poor shower experience I decided to tell someone – well, actually I decided to tweet about it.

So at 9:51AM I sent out the following tweet:

shower

To make a long story short, within 30 minutes of sending that tweet, I had a response from the Nemacolin staff, and by the time I got to the room that evening, the shower head was replaced and in excellent working condition!  Of course, I thanked the folks at Nemacolin with a tweet!

Fast-forward one year later. Twelve months after my wimpy shower, I found myself once again at Nemacolin – lucky me!  When I arrived in my room – to my amazement – I found a note on the desk along with a gift package. The note mentioned the “wimpy shower” from 12 months before, and said the gift on the desk is for the trouble I had.  I was sincerely impressed!

Nemacolin NoteBut hold on – this year I was back at Nemacolin Woodlands working for the same client, and walk into my room, and on the bed – yes, TWO YEARS after I had trouble with a wimpy shower head  – they had a huge gift basket on my desk and a note. Two years later, they remembered and gave me a gift!

Nemacolin Gift BasketThe level of customer care that’s exhibited by the staff at Nemacolin Woodlands is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced anywhere – and I’ve stayed at some really nice places!  Why do they do this? Maybe it’s because they’re a 5-star resort? Maybe its because they really understand the power of social media? Maybe it’s because they actually care about their guests!
I think it’s because they really understand how to treat people – their customers.

Without customers no business can survive. Without customer service, no business will thrive. Going above and beyond expectations adds value to your business, and often earns customers for life.  For me, I will always be a huge fan of Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, and I will be a customer for life!

Take time today to do something that goes above and beyond your customer’s wildest expectations!  Surprise them, and they may surprise you!

Get more actionable tips about creating great customer service to drive loyal brand advocates even when mistakes happen in my other aricle. Tell me your stories as I love hearing and featuring Wow Moments.

What Is A Buyer Persona & Why Does It Matter?

What Is A Buyer Persona & Why Does It Matter?

by | Apr 20, 2021 | Guest CX Articles, Personas & Journey Mapping

Persona development is an important part of any customer experience (CX) practice. I’ve written an article to provide you helpful tips about persona development. I’m happy to also share a guest post about buyer persona, and what I call Doing CX Right, by Dallin Porter which first appeared on Galacticfed.com. Enjoy Dallin’s article and encourage you to share your views.

The ultimate goal of any business is to gain customers. These customers are what build brands, share your product, and of course, make money. But how do you gain or appeal to customers if you don’t know what they like, where they are, or how they live?

Instead of casting a wide net and hoping for a bite, creating buyer personas for your products are one of the most effective ways to increase your customer pool while decreasing the risks of making uninformed decisions and creating the wrong type of products. The results speak for themselves; customers are 48% more likely to consider businesses that personalize their marketing to address their own specific issues.

The importance of a buyer persona can not be understated. Although sometimes overlooked, it can guide several parts of your marketing strategy like which metrics you measure, what social media channels you use, and even what products you bring to market in the future.

What is a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is a fictional character, but it represents very real people – your customers. It’s a detailed outline of who exactly is the person researching, buying, and sharing your product. When we refer to a buyer persona, it can of course represent an individual person, but oftentimes, especially in the B2B space, it’s representative of client business or brand.

Source: HubSpot

Figuring out who your customers are and nailing down specific and detailed characteristics of them will and should guide almost every aspect of your marketing. It’s important to note that creating these personas should be completed in the early stages (and if not then, right now) to ensure your marketing decisions align with the people who actually want your products. A recent survey conducted by Act-On, showed some staggering results of having an identified buyer persona:

  • a 900% increase in length of visit on webpage
  • a 171% increase in marketing-generated revenue
  • a 111% increase in email open rate
  • and a 100% increase in the number of pages visited.

Although you have many different types of people who are in your customer base, a brand should only have a handful of buyer personas. This will help centralize the focus of your business and streamline the implementation of your strategies.

A great place to look for inspiration for your buyer persona is (surprise) your audience. Do you have a similar type of person who lives and dies by your product? Are there overlapping characteristics in the types of businesses and clients that reach out to you? Take these attributes and flesh them out into your personas and use them as your foundation.

Before we get into into the specifics of your buyer profile, start by thinking of your audience within the frame of your brand, and what they might be:

  • Thinking
  • Feeling
  • Wanting
  • Concerned about
  • Frustrated about
  • Expecting
  • Planning
  • Hoping

Although these “emotional metrics” are not wholly quantifiable, they are meant to emphasize the fact that you’re creating your products and services for actual humans – imagine that. Looking at your business through the lens of these human characteristics breaks down the barriers between you and your customers, and is the first step in creating your own buyer persona. This persona should be at the heart of your entire marketing, since in its most basic form it allows you to provide support to the people who need it at the exact right time.

How is a buyer persona used?

In marketing, the use of a buyer persona is multifaceted and can be regularly evaluated to ensure its accuracy and effectiveness. And for good reason, 93% of companies who either surpassed or achieved their yearly revenue milestones, segmented their audience database by buyer persona. Creating and implementing this valuable tactic will improve:

Branding: Having a solidified, fully fleshed out persona will guide internal processes and even enhance collaboration between teams. Each individual on the marketing and sales team (and arguably the whole company) should know these personas off by heart; copywriters, videographers, digital marketers, directors, social media managers, and the CMO. The awareness of the personas will make them more effective in understanding their own role, and it will streamline the work produced as a whole, while creating outcomes that are cohesive and intended for the same person.

Strategy: Creating a persona is a strategic endeavour. It’s done so that when decisions need to be made, there’s no confusion who you’re making it on behalf of. That can be decisions like, which social media channels should we focus on? For example, if you know that Silicon Steve, one of your personas, is most active on Twitter and Reddit, you know where you’re going to be posting content. It can (and should) even guide where you target your paid ads and where you go to receive feedback.

Content: Every content marketing strategy should be based on your buyers persona. This requires you to nail down what types of content they like to consume, for how long, where they are finding it, what they are sharing, and how often. This data will feed into content like what campaigns you create or what blogs you publish._

Metrics: The data you use to create your buyer persona is crucial, and should drive the future of your business. You need to be analyzing how long users spend reading your blog to know what types of blogs to produce. You can examine your audience email open rate to determine what headlines perform the best. In fact, for one brand, using buyer personas in an email campaign improved open rate by 2x and click through rate by 5x. Almost every customer-facing metric you look at can be used to identify your core buyer persona and speak to their pattern of behavior.

The buyer persona information is helpful for all forms of marketing, but is especially applicable to inbound marketing, as it allows you to be fully aware of who you are trying to attract, and how to recognize a meaningful lead when they appear. Ultimately, it shows that you’re addressing your customers pain points, and gaining their trust by providing relevant and contextual solutions.

How to create a buyer persona?

Most of creating your detailed buyer persona will come from gathering information from different sources. This information will help you define a realistic portrait of your audience, and will be supported by actual data collected from your business.

Sometimes the obvious approach just works. One of the easiest ways to get an indicative snapshot into your buyer is take a look at your existing audience. Whether it’s followers on social media or recurring customers on your website, examine these analytics to solidify defining characteristics such as age, location, professional status, income level, and even purchasing behavior. You can also reach out directly to your customers in a survey or interview, to get feedback from them first hand about who they are and what their problems, hopes, and wants are regarding your services.

To make sure your buyer persona is data-based and founded in real information, you also can use the insights combed from Google Analytics. Reviewing the information there will help you develop these personas, since it’s based on real people. You can gather stats regarding if your customers prefer mobile vs. desktop, what locations they are finding you from, and even what other interests they have, through affinity categories. All of this extremely valuable information will help you define your persona, but then should drive other decisions in regards to product development and implementation.

What patterns or behaviors do you see across the board? What is a common piece of feedback you get online? You will show your customers not only that you are listening, but that you’re developing solutions for them too. In just a moment we will get to what other important stats you’ll need to create a robust buyer profile.

What do consider when creating a buyer persona?

When you move to physically creating the buyer persona, it’s helpful to create a template by examining a list of characteristics and filling in the gaps using your sourced data.

Let’s take a look at an example. If you were a company in the online education industry, in addition to identifying basic character traits such as age, gender, profession, you’ll need to extend your scope to a wider lens. Remember, the more information you can confidently identify about your buyer, the more insight you will have to provide solutions for them. Some of these key questions are:

  • What are their professional aspirations?
  • What problems do they encounter that we can solve?
  • What common objections might they have to our products?
  • What keeps them from becoming a repeat customer?
  • What takes up the most of their time?
  • How do they spend their free time?
  • What resources do they trust?
  • Where do they spend their time online?
  • How do they consume their content?
  • What would they want to know in regards to our brand?
  • Where would they “splurge” with their money?
  • Why haven’t they found us sooner?
  • What does a day in life look like for them?

As you can tell, the best buyer personas put themselves directly in the shoes, offices, and homes of their customers. Analyzing these questions and deciding on realistic, viable answers will also be a form of problem solving for your services. They will help you relate to your customer and ultimately allow you to position your business as one who understands the needs of its audience.

Let’s take a look at some excellent buyers persona examples:

Source: Brafton

  1. This persona has been given a real person’s name, a stock photo, and all of the typical background information you’d have in your customer or client management system. They went into great detail like archetype, motivations, and proficiency with different types of technology. They even highlighted some of the other brands where she is a loyal customer. All of this information will help guide what type of content they produce, how they update and market their products, and what type of language they will use when reaching out.

Source: Alexa Blog

Another version dives into multiple aspects of this fictional, yet based in reality, persona. Important areas that they have considered are her finances; which shows being conscious of their own price points, and things that make her life easier. This could guide future products and promotions for the brand. As you can see, the persona is a lot of detailed information that, when combined, gives an insightful and accurate depiction of the type of people that use their product, and that who they want to attract.

Source: Content Harmony

  1. Finally we have a buyer persona that is more professionally oriented. This could be for a product or software that specializes in B2B or the corporate world. You’ll notice at the top, that there’s different sections including perceived barriers, success factors, and, the buyer’s journey (which you’ll find out about next.) They even identified what her roles at work are, and who she would report to – this helps us know that she is a decision maker. A specific buyer persona like this can see if the product or brand is aligned with the customers responsibilities and how they are individually evaluated.

The buyer persona and the buyer’s journey

Although we are highlighting what a buyer persona is and why they have the power to be so effective, it needs to be noted that the buyer persona should also speak to where your audience is in the buyer’s journey. Similar to the marketing funnel the buyer’s journey represents which stage of the process your customer is in, and how close they are to making a purchase, download, or investment. There are three key stages: awareness, consideration, and decision, and identifying different buyer personas that fall under each stage of this process, will help you guide them along to the next, eventually leading them to the decision-making stage.

It would be beneficial to create a version of each of your core buyers journeys as they go through this process. What would make them move from awareness to consideration? What hesitations might they have that would keep them in the consideration stage? What barriers need to be overcome to make a decision?

Source: Neil Patel

The result of considering your buyer personas with the buyer’s journey is highly targeted content. You’ll be producing content and solutions that are addressing the combination of who your buyer is, with where they currently are, which ultimately leads to conversions.

Putting it together

The role of a buyer persona is much more than to simply serve as inspiration. Its purpose is foundational to guiding many aspects of your business, and should be reviewed often. By creating detailed, specific, and realistic personas, you’ll not only save yourself time (and a few misses,) but the vision for who you customer is will come into focus and the road to conversion will be clear. From strategy to content to development, considering who your audience truly is, and what they need to become or remain a customer of yours, will be the guiding light that leads to success.

 

Continue learning best practices to differentiate your brand. Read my article about Journey Mapping and also download a free template to help get you started.

 

The Patient Experience – How To Do It Right

The Patient Experience – How To Do It Right

by | Mar 29, 2021 | Voice of Customer & Insights

.Stacy Sherman’s Patient Experience article originally published in Incisal Edge- Lifestyle Magazine For Dental Professionals (page 24) in honor of the Lucy Hobbs project (Women in dental initiative).

Imagine you booked a Dentist appointment, and when you get to her office, you learn that there was a mistake in scheduling. You leave frustrated and later return at the new date and time. Upon arrival, the front office staff does not greet you, and the waiting room is overly cold. Eventually, the administrator asks your name and says that the Dentist will see you in a few minutes, which turns into a half-hour later.

Finally, the hygienist calls you into her room, cleans your teeth followed by the Dentist examination. All goes as expected, and you agree with the Dentist to return in two weeks for a procedure. Upon leaving, you approach the front desk to arrange another visit. You’re informed that there are no appointments available for over two months. It becomes painstakingly clear that the dentist and office staff never communicated with one another and you’re left running in circles.

This is a real story. It describes my friend’s patient experience that was so aggravating, she ended up choosing someone else to care for her dental needs and family members too. It is unfortunate because she genuinely likes the Dentist and her costs are reasonable too. Yet as in any industry, people buy products and services based on how they feel. It goes way beyond price factors.

What can Dentists and other service providers do to attract and keep patients from going to a competitor? How can they ensure a satisfying experience so that patients share raving reviews versus bad press on social media?

 

There are three best practices to differentiate your company and keep patients happy:

 

1. Design an ideal patient experience through journey mapping.

Write down how patients may learn about your practice, schedule appointments, get service, pay invoices, receive help whenever needed, and related tasks. Describe every interaction that patients may have before arrival, when onsite, and post-visit. Include details, such as the waiting room atmosphere, and how patients get notified of upcoming appointments. When creating a journey map, involve everyone in your office so they “walk in the patient’s shoes” and continue to be mindful of delivering excellence every day.

2. Get and apply patient feedback.

In other words, validate your journey map with real patients to ensure it meets their needs. If, for example, you offer an online portal, ask people to rate their level of effort. Is it easy to use or difficult, and why? Apply this same tactic at each interaction point, otherwise known as “moments of truth” in the customer journey, so that you can identify “pain points” and improve experiences.

3. Train and empower employees to do what’s right, even when the boss isn’t looking.

Hold everyone accountable to deliver great experiences, regardless of job function or title. Use patient survey feedback for coaching opportunities. Discuss as a group what customers are saying, and problem-solve together. Likewise, celebrate examples of great performance, especially as patients mention your staff by name. When your team is valued and appreciated, your patients will see and feel it too. They go hand in hand.

In conclusion, a dentist’s expertise, training, personality, and service costs matter. Yet, there are additional factors that impact patient decisions to return and recommend to others. It’s in your control to differentiate your practice and keep patients smiling. Focus on their entire experience and measure their satisfaction level at every interaction point.

NOTE: The Winter 2021 special magazine edition focuses on women driving positive changes in the dental industry in honor of Lucy Hobbs, who graduated in 1866 and became the nation’s first licensed female dentist. Quite different than today where half of the dental school graduates are women. In her honor, Incisal Edge is dedicating its magazine to Lucy Hobbs and discusses empowering people to drive change, achieve success, and bring women together from all facets. Learn more about the Lucy Hobbs project 

 

What Are Customer Expectations in 2021? 6 Data Driven Predictions

What Are Customer Expectations in 2021? 6 Data Driven Predictions

by | Mar 29, 2021 | Metrics & Measurements

Customer Experience Article featuring Stacy Sherman originally featured on Botscrew blog. March 2021 

 

2020 has brought many challenges and surprises. Businesses and their customers had to learn how to adapt to the “new normal”. However, not every company managed to adjust to the current way of leading a business. Even some of the biggest companies suffered losses and faced troubles. As of August 31, 163,735 total U.S. businesses on Yelp have closed since the beginning of the pandemic.

 

Yelp business closure stats

Yelp business closure stats

 

But, today, as a brand, you have experience and knowledge of what you should do to keep your company alive even during a global crisis. We all expect 2021 to be a more predictable and stable year. So now it’s time to look in the future and see what business and customers might face this year.

 

Here are some of the predictions for business in 2021 that will help to meet customer expectations and keep your business growing:

 

1. Customer Experience is even more important. We must understand customer expectations.

Customer Experience (or CX) importance is growing every year. 2020 and 2021 are not an exception. And most of the businesses already know this. 

“My prediction is that people have less patience and higher expectations of brands. This means that the customer journey must be well designed and optimized based on customer feedback.” Stacy Sherman, Founder at DoingCXRight

 

Stacy sherman joins Botscrew about customer service topics

Stacy sherman joins Botscrew about customer service topics

 

The Super Office recently asked 1,920 business professionals to share their number one priority for the next 5 years.

The results? Customer experience came in first (beating product and pricing).

 

SuperOffice Customer Experience stats

SuperOffice Customer Experience stats

 

There is no doubt that people want a better experience. Even more, they are ready to pay more for the better CX.

 Other than the opportunity to earn more by investing in CX, businesses are now dealing with a highly competitive situation. With COVID-19, customers became pickier when it comes to choosing brands they want to buy from. Customers will leave the brand if they don’t receive the service they expected.

“Data on customer service statistics show that almost 7 in 10 customers within the U.S. end their relationship with a business due to poor service. Nearly half of the customers are also likely to make a switch to a competitor within a day of experiencing poor customer service.”

Given this data, it’s vital to understand that CX is crucial. If you don’t want to lose your customers, you have to take good care of them – listen to their needs, analyze the feedback, implement what’s right for customers and the brand overall.

For many, the ‘consideration of others’ has been a welcomed result of the uncomfortable ride in 2020. And businesses that are truly customer-centric will recognize this as part of what ‘putting customers first’ means. With 2021 likely to be similar to 2020 in many ways, we anticipate this will grow. It could become, for many consumers, part of the decision-making process. Christopher Brooks, Managing Director at Clientship CX 

And don’t forget to keep an eye on your competitors. Take note of what works for your competitors and where their problem spots are. Analyze the data and improve based on that.

 

2. Self-service works both for brand and customers

Earlier, many people considered self-service as an option for businesses to save money on customer service. However, now not only companies but customers want self-service options.

Brands can save costs on 24/7 customer service by implementing self-service options like chatbots. Chatbots can help companies save from 30-80% of their customer service spendings. That’s a huge win for brands, especially during COVID-19 and this period of tight budgets. And now customers also want a good self-service option. More and more people would rather talk to a smart chatbot that can resolve their issues much faster than a call or email to the human customer service representative.

“Modern customers want what they want now. They’ve gotten used to getting their shipments within hours or overnight and now want everything right away. Companies need to meet that demand with quick service and delivery.” Shep Hyken via Blake Morgan Blog 

Today, 67% of customers prefer self-service over speaking to a company representative.

Furthermore, 91% of customers would use an online knowledge base if available and tailored to their needs.

The data above shows that self-service is an excellent option for both – brands and customers.

 

3. Mobile is on its highest mark

 

Statista Mobile Users 2020-2024

Forecast number of mobile users worldwide from 2020 to 2024

 

40% of online transactions are done using a mobile device. Moreover, nearly half of mobile users switch to your competitor after a bad experience with your mobile site.

“Shopping via smartphones is growing exponentially. Customers are becoming more comfortable with devices because the needs of the pandemic required quick adoption to digital channels, including mobile.” Jeannie Walters via GetFeedback Blog

The mobile experience is now very important. However, many companies still ignore that.

60% of companies think they’re providing a good mobile experience, but only 22% of consumers agree with that. (Qualtrics)

That’s a massive amount of disappointed users! This means there is room for your company to shine through by creating an amazing mobile experience. Mobile-friendly websites, chatbots, and brand apps are what people want to see now from a business. So, be sure to investigate these options for your 2021 digital strategy.

 

 

4. The shift from website to social media

The growth in usage of social media is not a secret. People used social media to contact their friends, and now, people use social media to engage with brands.

Here are some stats to prove that:

– 80% of consumers use social media to engage with brands. Hubspot

– 54% of people that have social media use it to research products. Global WebIndex

– 54% of customers prefer social media for customer service over phone or email. Conversocial

 

Okay, so people want to chat with a brand via social media, but that’s not the only reason to invest in social media. Solving an issue on social media is 83% cheaper than resolving it through a call center interaction.

 

By implementing a chatbot to take over your social media channel, you can save up costs, speed up response time, and improve overall CX. So you save some money and use the platform your customers are more comfortable with.

 

Win-win.

 

5. Security, security, and again security.

Shopping online is the new normal, and 30% of buyers plan to shop more online in the future.

“Now that customers have seen the convenience of online ordering and pickup or delivery, they don’t want to go back to normal. Online ordering and a rise in ecommerce offerings from companies not traditionally associated with ecommerce will continue in 2021 and far into the future.” Blake Morgan, Customer Experience Futurist, Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker

 

Due to this rise of online, mobile, and social media customer activity, the security risks will grow. The past few years haven’t been that great in terms of data privacy. 80% of firms have seen an increase in cyber attacks this year.

 

Wow, that’s a lot of cyberattacks!

So, there is no wonder why it’s harder and harder for customers to trust their data to the brand.  Not a surprise that 98% of customers are concerned about their personal data and what happens to it.

 

In 2o21 companies have to make sure that their security measures are up to date. To make your clients trust your company, you have to protect your client’s info. And it is not just about matching all policies and compliances, like GDPR, because it’s been a must for a few years now. Make sure you have your security in place because it will be an important factor in 2021.

30% of firms will increase spending on cloud, security and risk, networks, and mobility. @Forbes 

 

 

6. AR is here to save the day

With the coronavirus pandemic, it became complicated to do shopping the “normal” way. That’s why companies are experimenting with Augmented Reality (AR) to bring customers the feeling of real shopping, even when at home

“As of Q4 2019, 36% of US consumers had tried augmented or virtual reality. In 2021, we predict that another 10% to 12% of US consumers will experiment with the technology, expanding overall exposure to almost half the US online adult population. (Forrester)”

For example, have a look at Sephora virtual makeup assistant that helps people choose makeup. Thanks to Sephora’s facial recognition technology, a person can try out different makeup products in real-time, compare, and share looks, as well as complete the purchase:

 

 

 

 

As you can see, AR can help companies become closer to their customers, even in social distancing. People can try out makeup, clothes, accessories, shoes, and many more without leaving their homes. Moreover, this technology has much bigger potential in retail. Not only fashion retailers can take advantage of AR, but furniture and car sellers can also take note of what Ikea and Toyota did:

 

Toyota AR

 

 

Toyota’s New Augmented Reality Shopping Experience: A Shift In The Car Buying Journey?

 

 

IKEA AR

 

IKEA Launches Augmented Reality Application

 

The number of online shopping is increasing, which means that 2021 is the perfect year to try and test AR technology for your company.

“The pandemic led brands with traditionally more in-person shopping to embrace options like AR as customers stayed closer to home. Customers have been asking for more options—and it behooves brands to listen.” Jeannie Walters via GetFeedback Blog

 

As you can see, the online shopping industry is growing and the prediction is that it will keep increasing its popularity. So the main thing business should do is to include a strong digital strategy in their 2021 goals and plans. It’s also important to focus on your customers first. Listen, analyze, and give them what they need and expect.

Are Your Customer Experiences Driving Customer Loyalty?

Are Your Customer Experiences Driving Customer Loyalty?

by | Mar 28, 2021 | Retention & Loyalty

Customer loyalty article featuring Stacy Sherman originally posted March 26, 2021 in CMS Wire by Phil Britt.

Some customer experience efforts only drive short-term results, without helping build long-term customer loyalty, which as we all know is critical for customer retention, sales and revenue. We spoke with marketing experts to get their advice on how to create customer experience (CX) strategies that drive customer loyalty. Here’s what they had to say.

A Comprehensive Approach and Cross-Organizational Support Drives CX

The key to connecting CX to loyalty is to execute a comprehensive strategy for investing in your customers as a crucial asset. This approach links together customer acquisition, customer engagement, retention, customer value and brand advocacy, according to Jeb Dasteel, founder of Dasteel Consulting.

“The comprehensive approach to CX requires orchestration of the entire executive team,” Dasteel said. “CX leaders cannot do this alone. What the leader can do is outline strategic CX objectives, their impact on loyalty, and how that creates measurable value for customers and results for you.”

Dasteel recommends companies make the following CX investments for long-term customer success and to promote loyalty:

  • An account management program to guide interactions and deliverables for your most important customers.
  • Codified approaches to customer adoption and value.
  • A customer marketing program to translate value and loyalty into new customer acquisition.

“The most powerful loyalty weapon you have is a portfolio of CX engagements, sponsored by your executives, and aimed directly at your customers’ business outcomes,” Dasteel said.

Also essential in driving loyalty via CX is to have participation across the organization, said Ali Cudby, adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Purdue University and managing director of Alignmint Growth Strategies. For most, a loyalty program is not enough, though Starbucks is a notable exception.

“Too often, companies relegate the customer experience to a single department, like customer support or customer success,” Cudby said. “That’s a fatal flaw. CX is bigger than any one department. A customer’s experience includes the promises made by sales and marketing: The product doing the job it was promised. A path to success as a customer. And even technology that makes it easy for customers to engage.”

Companies need someone to be in charge of the customer relationship, and that person needs the authority to influence action cross-functionally, Cudby added. When CX is buried in a single department it’s almost impossible to deliver a truly great, consistent experience.

“Customers need consistency across all of their points of interaction with a company,” Cudby said. “Consistency builds trust and trust is the foundation for authentic, long-term customer loyalty.”

Know Your Target Audience To Achieve Customer Loyalty

Building customer loyalty through CX starts with clearly defining the target customers you’re optimizing experiences for, said Rebecca Szew, GBK Collective executive vice president, research and insights. “Too often, we see companies that are heavily focused on customer acquisition and near-term sales, without a clear segmentation and brand strategy in place to inform what products, services and experiences they need to develop to maximize customer value over the long-term.”

Many CX specialists and marketers define loyalty as repeat purchasers, when in fact, those customers may only be transient loyalists who will quickly switch to a competitor based on price, a new product launch, or other factors, Szew added. “Ultimately driving meaningful differentiation through experience comes down to how well a brand knows what their target customers value.”

Szew recommended that companies have holistic programs to measure the impact of their CX efforts across areas — from product development and marketing to sales and customer service. They also need to be open to new ideas to maximize the impact of their CX efforts.

Build Communities to Foster a Larger Sense of Purpose

“Companies that successfully foster a sense of social engagement or community beyond the transactional use of the product tend to have more loyal followers,” said Dhaval Moogimane, West Monroe director, high-tech and software. “Take the example of Peloton. While the bike or the treadmill itself is a good product, the digital engagement around the product has created a very loyal fan base due to the interactions with the trainers, the social interactions with friends, the synchronization with music, etc.”

B2B companies can follow the same strategy by investing and innovating in their community platforms to foster engagement across customers, gamify experiences, create champions and ultimately advocates, Moogimane added.

Keep Your Customer Journey Maps Up to Date

The customer journey map is essential in driving customer loyalty, said Stacy Sherman, founder of Doing CX Right. “Define how people (your target personas) can learn about your brand, buy, get, use, pay their bills and obtain help when needed. If you already have a journey map from prior years, re-create it because human needs and expectations have changed a lot. Bring employees from different departments to co-create the journey map as everyone owns the customer experience, not just one person or team. They will also feel more connected and empowered to deliver customer excellence when part of the process.”

Sherman also stressed that once designed, the customer journey map must be validated by real customers to determine if any changes are needed. “For example, if you offer an 800 number for customers to get help with their product or service, but the majority prefer to not call and use online chat instead, then there’s a gap that must be addressed. Ask your customers what they want. They’ll tell you.”