What is Customer Experience?

Customer experience (CX) is an increasingly common term in business, with more attention being paid to it than ever before.
But what exactly is it and why should you care? Customer experience is the full spectrum of interactions between a company and its customers, whether in person or online, and pre or post sale. Since the entire company represents the brand and contributes to consumer loyalty, the customer experience is influenced by every employee, from front-line representatives to back-end support.
Benefits of Enhancing CX
Consumers have many choices, and the way they feel about their interactions with your business is becoming one of the most important factors in where they spend their money. A recent Walker Information report shows that an interactive customer experience is now the most important part of a successful business strategy, surpassing product quality and price. It will become an even bigger factor over the next five years, accounting for a full 50% of sound business strategy. By focusing now on creating a better customer experience, you are building a strong future for your company.
Other CX research has shown the impact of customer experience on loyalty.

The Forrester’s Customer Experience Index says a successful customer experience does much more than create a pleasant one-time experience. By being positive or productive in every interaction, a good customer experience creates and sustains customer loyalty.
There is a strong correlation between customer service and loyalty, with positive CX increasing willingness to buy more, reluctance to switch business, and likelihood to recommend by up to 16%, according to a survey conducted by the Temkin Group of 10,000 U.S. and 3,000 UK consumers.

This research strongly suggests that the customer experience is something that cannot be left to chance. You can’t simply give employees general guidelines and hope for the best. Instead you need to plan for and intentionally build a good customer experience from the beginning.
Creating the Good Experience
You can build a great customer experience with strategic planning. Consider the following:

A recent Deloitte survey found that 38% of CMOs understand the increasing importance of the customer experience, but 23% don’t believe their teams are ready to address that expanding role.
A Gallup State of the American Workplace report indicates that “when organizations successfully engage their customers and their employees, they experience a 240% boost in performance.”
According to an Accenture survey of 1,450 executives, companies with the most effective customer experiences “link performance reviews, compensation, and bonuses to customer experience outcomes for their own sales and service workforces.”

To be on the front line, you must educate your team on the importance of a good CX and prepare them to think more broadly. Then you can have a direct impact on the quality of your customers’ experiences by tying the CX to clear metrics at your company. By helping employees understand the role they play in the company’s success and how that contributes to their own success, you create more engaged employees.

The Role of Training in CX and Employee Engagement
Our experience has shown three keys to building employee engagement:

Brand buy-in: Employees must truly believe in the power of your brand. You can support this by making it easy for your employees to experience the brand and the way it impacts consumers’ lives. They also need to understand how they impact the brand and how they’re a part of it.
Confidence and knowledge: Employees need to have a deep knowledge of your brand and products to effectively help customers make informed choices. Providing incentives for employees to learn more about the brand can make them confident brand ambassadors both in and out of the workplace.
Motivation and empowerment: Employees must be properly motivated, and this involves more than monetary incentives. Give them a voice in the company and autonomy over their work. Show them you trust them to represent the brand and help the customers.

The customer experience must be shaped deliberately. If you want lifelong customers and engaged employees, you need to control this interaction from the beginning AllenComm’s history with customer experience training will help you create engaged employees and loyal customers. Let us show you how.