Why is a great customer experience important to your business?
In a world where there is so much consumer choice, it is no longer enough to have the best products and services, you need to differentiate your business through your customer first experience.
What is the Customer First Experience?
Customer experience is your customers’ perception of how your company treats them. Customer first is putting your customers at the centre of everything you do, assessing how every decision you make impacts your customers and looking for ways the business can consistently provide a great customer experience. These perceptions affect the customer behaviours and build memories and feelings to drive their loyalty to your business long term.
If they like you, they will continue to do business with you for a long time and recommend you to others. People are much more likely to trust a recommendation, so it’s important to provide a great service that your customers will want to talk about – word of mouth is one of the most effective forms of advertising.
Listen to your Customers
Understanding the behaviours, attitudes, motivations and needs of your customers and listening to feedback at every given opportunity is essential for building the customer first experience. Asking your customers for feedback is a key area of focus as it enables you to take their opinions on board and show them how you use this information to improve your business.
Businesses that have a great customer experience will grow their revenues at a higher rate than those that don’t follow a customer first approach.
Creating a Customer First Culture
Within your business it’s essential that everyone knows everything about each customer and their background. Every interaction and detail is important to ensure your team provides the best possible customer experience, whilst also giving your customers a sense of appreciation and value.
Keeping your customer service team happy is also an important factor. When your team is happy, they respect the business and high employee satisfaction leads to high customer satisfaction. Therefore, giving recognition and also providing development programmes to train your team to have the essential skills and attitude is essential to building a successful customer service approach.