Lasting customer relationships often mean the difference between success and failure. Many people confuse customer service with the overall experience, but they are two different facets of serving customers. It is essential to understand the difference and what the customer experience actually is.
Customer Experience vs. Customer Service
In the simplest terms, customer experience is how a customer perceives a brand from all their interactions across the customer life cycle. Customer experience is the sum total of how they view your company’s treatment of them at every step of the buying process. Customer service is one part of a good customer experience, but they are not the same concept.
Customer service is more widely seen as the support a company provides when customers are dealing with issues using their services or products. Service like this typically only occurs when a customer reaches out to the company for assistance. This leaves the company to only take action when the customer is already having a problem.
Measuring the customer experience is a touchpoint that you cannot afford to ignore. Some aspects of your business that should be included in measuring experiences are:
- Website design
- Available content
- Customer service reps
- Customer contact portals (social media, contact centers, etc.)
- The mobile experience
The importance of customer experience extends beyond just a metric to track. Taking the lessons you learn from measuring the experience you’re providing gives your company the chance to create a great customer experience. Why is the customer experience important for a business? Positive interactions with customers will determine whether they choose to come back and continue their relationship with your company or recommend your services and products to someone else.
A recent study on customer experience states that in the future, customer experience will be the key differentiator that has consumers choosing one company over another.
Why Is the Customer Journey Important?
Let’s take a look at some of the most revealing statistics about customer experience and its importance.
- 62% of companies view the customer experience as delivered by contact centers as a competitive differentiator. The truth is that contact centers play a role, but a positive experience involves more than just direct customer contact.
- 87% of customers think companies need to put more energy into providing a consistent experience. This stat reveals a weakness across the business world and untapped potential for companies that can change customer perceptions.
- 66% of customers will switch providers thanks to poor customer service. That 66% of customers looking to switch could become yours if you make customer satisfaction a priority.
- 55% of companies are willing to pay more for a guaranteed good experience. Companies put a lot of money into finding a positive experience. The companies that will thrive going forward are the ones investing in customer experience today.
- It is 6 to 7 times more expensive to get a new customer than it is to keep an existing customer with a good experience. In the long run, it is more fruitful to invest in raising your customer experience management than it is to just reach out to new customers.
Only 3% of unhappy customers will complain and give customer feedback; the rest will just leave. This last revealing statistic shows that your company is losing customers because of factors under your control—you just don’t know it. If you’re not addressing your customer experience, the customers are not going to do it for you. To learn more about the customer experience and measuring it, check back in with the Affiliated Communications blog soon.
