Just how important is it to create a positive customer experience for your users? Research shows it’s a primary consideration for consumers.
On the flip side, while a great customer experience (CX) can drive brand loyalty and create customers for life, poor overall customer experience (CX) could repel patrons, negatively impact sales, and stall organizational growth. Take, for example, one study shared by Fintech Global, which reported that the majority of online users would leave a digital bank if they ran into one negative experience. In a survey of 4,200 consumers spanning 200 countries, 65 percent of respondents stated that they would abandon a digital service if the sign-up process was too difficult.
Customers today have a wealth of options at their disposal. This means they can pick and choose the solutions that are most convenient and well-suited to their needs. In a time where so many customers leave following a single bad experience, it also means that having a seamless customer experience (CX) journey is integral to attracting and retaining customers.
What does this mean for businesses? A customer-centric experience is more important than ever before. The CX digital journey should be simple and streamlined. Customers want a positive and seamless experience, but instead they often encounter a fractured ecosystem filled with broken customer journeys and hurdles that today’s customers don’t want to work to overcome.
A positive customer experience journey meets the needs of customers without throwing up friction and roadblocks. Here’s what organizations should know about reimagining the customer journey.
The Rise of Bad CX
With more technology available at our fingertips than ever before, one would assume that the customer experience is constantly improving. But this is not necessarily the case. In fact, Forrester’s 2022 Customer Experience Index reported that almost 20 percent of brands saw a drop in the quality of their customer experience over the past year—the highest drop since the creation of the survey.
Forrester chalks up this decline to a decreased focus on the customer, even though customers increasingly expect more from both digital and hybrid experiences. The study claims that in 2022, only 3 percent of US-based companies truly center the customer experience in their leadership, strategy, and operations, a decrease of 7 percentage points from 2021.
What’s more, it seems that these findings aren’t unique to Forrester; studies all over the country are arriving at the same results. The American Customer Satisfaction Index shared that in the first quarter of 2022 alone, customer satisfaction fell to its lowest level in 17 years, following a trend that began back in 2019.
Why is the customer experience plunging to new lows?
Of course, some factors are out of the brands’ control. Factors like sky-high inflation, supply chain issues, and staffing shortages are undoubtedly contributing to some bad customer experiences. But organizations need to be prepared to take responsibility for these plummeting statistics as well.
Rick Parrish, Vice President and research director at Forrester shared:
“CX quality in the US, which reached new heights in 2021, has fallen to pre-pandemic levels due to brands losing their customer focus. This is unfortunate for businesses that survived the worst of the pandemic but are now losing CX-driven customer loyalty gains. For brands to regain CX momentum, leaders will need to refocus their behavior on helping their companies become customer-obsessed.”
The real reason many organizations are struggling with bad customer experiences? We’ve lost sight of the customer.
What Makes a Customer Experience Good or Bad?
There’s plenty of talk about good and bad CX, but less about exactly what makes a customer’s experience positive or negative. The quality of an organization’s CX can make a big impact on a company, and poor customer experiences can minimize the value of a business in the same way great CX can enhance its overall value.
Fractured partner ecosystems and broken customer journeys make customers feel neglected and want to leave. Poor CX is caused by a myriad of factors which can fall into three categories:
● Poor alignment: Good customer experience happens when an entire organization is aligned from department to department; it means everyone is working to reach the same end. So, if a customer support team goes all-in on CX, but the sales team does not take a similar approach, this lack of alignment can lead to a poor overall CX.
● An ambiguous customer journey: Having a deep understanding of the customer journey from one step to the next helps your CX team find the pain points and the steps in the journey that influence customers to make a purchase. Without this understanding, it’s nearly impossible for brands to really connect with customers and create a smooth, positive experience.
● Failures in technology: CX technologies have never been so advanced in helping organizations collect data, measure customer satisfaction, and track customer information to provide the best possible customer experience.
What about positive customer experiences? What are the factors that lead to a truly exceptional, customer-centric CX?
Organizations can use customer experience management (CXM) tools to follow and track customer touchpoints, then use this information to improve the way that customers interact with their company throughout the customer journey. Depending on the size and complexity of the organization, customers may encounter many different touchpoints and departments, all of which have a hand in the overall customer experience. Sales and customer support may directly interact with customers, but other departments like operations, finance, and legal all make decisions that together impact the overall customer experience.
Exceptional CX requires all departments to work together. Sales and customer support need to share feedback with operations and marketing teams in order to address issues and make improvements. Without this level of coordination, it’s nearly impossible to make changes and fine-tune the customer journey. Everyone has to be on the same page. That’s where customer experience management tools come into play.
Positive CX revolves around one thing: The customer. In the case of OvationCXM’s CXMEngine platform, it means keeping the customer in view along their entire journey–across different systems, internal teams, and partners - so organizations can jump in to provide support, guidance, and assistance in the moments customers most need it to move forward. What are some examples of great CX strategies?
● Designing personalized journeys by customer segments or use cases that are customized to their unique expectations and needs.
● Creating a unified view of all of a customer’s interactions in one place so teams inside and outside the organization can work together with the most up-to-date information to help customers and provide excellent service.
● Communicating with end users in the channels that they prefer, even crossing from SMS to chat to email as they do. In CXMEngine these omni-channel conversations happen in a single screen, no toggling needed.
CXM is all about unifying the customer experience by breaking down data silos leveraging modern CXM tools and technologies to make it happen.
Own the journey. Guide the experience. Unleash the benefits.
Steve Jobs famously stated, “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology, not the other way around.” It all goes back to the customer experience—and CXM is how to make it happen. Satisfied customers lead to outstanding business outcomes.
We live in an age where customer data is more valuable—and more useful—than ever before. It can be used to craft precise, personalized experiences that guide clients through the full customer journey, put them at ease, and make them feel welcome.
When done correctly, CX is a key differentiator, providing organizations with a long-term competitive advantage. By implementing the right tools to see a full view of the customer through every touchpoint, organizations have visibility that empowers them to put customers first, and that provides massive benefits to business performance.
CXMEngine, in particular, gives organizations the tools they need to avoid bad CX and foster positive, memorable customer experiences in the moments that matter.
OvationCXM’s CXMEngine connects your existing ecosystem in one place for you to track and guide your customer’s journey and prevent problems before they happen. We are the first CXM platform purposely designed to guide and fix customer experiences in the moment you can celebrate customer success while driving significant financial benefit to your business.
If you are ready to use smart tools to help you collaborate, communicate, share data, and elevate your CX, discover OvationCXM today.
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