Customer experience (CX) guide for 2024

Discover the art of crafting exceptional Customer Experiences in our comprehensive guide. Explore strategies to captivate, satisfy, and retain your audience.

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A great customer experience is simply expected in today's competitive business environment. And the stakes are high. The quality of your customer experience could mean the difference between getting and keeping a client or losing them to competitors. And that affects your bottom line

If you have questions about CX, this guide has got you covered. We’ll cover the basics of customer experience and why it matters and then give you a broad base of information on how to create a truly remarkable customer experience.

What is customer experience(CX)?

Customer experience is a customer’s perception of all direct and indirect interactions with your company. This perception is based on all types of interactions.

In CX, everything matters. Each aspect of a customer’s dealings with you culminates in their perception. Some factors that contribute to CX include the following:

  • Quality of your products or offerings

  • Your company values

  • Marketing materials and campaigns

  • Customer service effectiveness

  • Reviews and word of mouth

  • Your ability to meet customer expectations

  • Website User Experience (UX)

  • The tone of voice in written communications

  • Actions of your employees

  • Speed and pace of service

  • Interactions with AI

Evolution of customer experience

The concept of customer experience has changed over time, and it has changed quite a bit recently in the wake of Covid and other world events that impact business.

Until recently, customer-facing functions such as marketing, sales, and customer service worked under their own customer experience management mandates in their own silos. Today, businesses must develop a whole-of-company CX. There can no longer be barriers between customer service, sales, and marketing. No customer-facing function can afford to work in silos.

The new CX mandate demands a tightly unified ecosystem for managing customer expectations as they move through functions. This way, you always know the context in which your customer’s problems and solutions live.

Elements of a successful customer experience

Understanding customer needs and expectations

In order to delight customers, you must know what delights them! And that means learning who they are. 

Start by studying your existing customer base. Look at metrics like income, location, age, and buying habits. Develop Ideal Customer Personas (ICPs)  based on this data. This gives you a high-level sense of who is buying from you.

Then, you can drill deeper by developing specific buyer personas, which get very specific and outline the aspects of various specific clients. By combining both ICPs and buyer personas, you will learn who you’re working with and what expectations they have. Only then can you create a strategy to meet their needs.

Seamless multichannel interaction

Effective CX is easy on the customer. So, meet them where they are by providing a variety of multichannel interactions. Continuously assess where your customers are and then develop a presence there. When they need you, you’ll only be a click away. This reduces friction, which makes for effortless communication.

So what does that look like? Each business will be different, but there are many common best practices to simplify customer interactions

  • Make the help button very obvious on your website.

  • Show up immediately when they seek help.

  • Provide round-the-clock customer support across a variety of channels.

  • Use AI and chatbots to anticipate and answer quick questions online.

  • Provide self-help options such as a self-service knowledge base.

  • Introduce features like customer forums so your clients can help each other.

Personalization and customization

Your customers are looking forward to interactions that cater to their unique needs and circumstances. They expect tailor-made solutions and enjoy personalized attention. This means going beyond knowing their name.

Make sure your team has a clear view of the client and their history with your company so they can provide personalized customer service. A robust CRM can tell your agents everything they need to know to answer questions and resolve issues. 

You can also use AI and automated tools to create personalized interactions. For example, if you are a retailer, you could create notifications on their preferred channel to let clients know when their favorite product is on sale.

Effective communication

Good communication is central to a good overall customer experience. From your brand messaging to your sales pitch to your onboarding to your customer service, it’s how you and your clients interact at every touchpoint.

But what is effective communication? In the context of CX, it’s easy, accurate, and timely. Here are some ideas to get you started.

  • Be available to your customers on many channels to facilitate customer engagement.

  • Develop company-wide standards.

  • Provide your team with training and feedback.

  • Be honest – even when delivering bad news.

  • Invest in technology that makes effective communication easier.

Timely and efficient service

Time is of the essence in the CX game. Customers want fast and efficient service from first contact and beyond. So, it makes sense to make that happen every step of the way.

Even from the moment of lead generation, you can reduce response time. With tools like automated lead assignment, your agents can get back to prospective clients in record time.

When customers have questions, they want answers immediately. Self-service options are often the fastest way to get them the information they need. Make sure that you have an easy-to-access knowledge base. And use chatbots to answer basic questions. 

Some questions require real-time human interaction. Offer customer support on a variety of channels. Then, give your team the resources they need to provide help fast. A CRM with a complete view of the client and integrated access to the knowledge base and canned response template will reduce the time to resolution.

Mapping the customer journey

Great CX doesn’t happen by accident. It is the result of a CX strategy and careful planning across every customer touchpoint. That can sound daunting. How can you possibly control every single variable of customer interaction? The truth is, you probably can’t. But understanding your customer is the place to start.

Begin by mapping your customer journey. A customer journey map is a visual blueprint of every touchpoint you have with a customer. This document gives you and your teams a clear understanding of exactly how people are interacting with your company. 

A robust customer journey map will include both online and in-person interactions as well as both direct and indirect interactions. With this in place, you can begin to engineer satisfaction every step of the way.

Stages of the customer journey

When creating your map, be sure to consider what happens at every stage along the customer journey.

1. Awareness

The customer is learning about the existence of your company and solutions, often in response to a problem or pain point.

2. Consideration

The customer is interested in your company but is still exploring your solution, comparing you to other companies, and doing additional research.

3. Purchase

The customer has made their decision and is ready to make a purchase.

4. Post-Purchase

The customer has made their purchase and reacts to their experiences with your company. 

5. Loyalty and Advocacy

The customer does or does not develop allegiance with your company in response to their experiences following purchase and acts accordingly.

Touchpoints and interactions

A touchpoint is any interaction between the customer and your company, whether direct or indirect. These will vary widely from company to company. Identify all touchpoints and interactions that occur as your customer moves through their customer journey.

Here are some examples of common customer journey touchpoints.

  • Advertising

  • Your website

  • Prospecting emails or calls

  • Quotes and proposals

  • Product returns

  • Accessing help or assistance

  • Live Chat and chatbot communications

  • Renewals

  • Visits to your physical location

  • Referrals

  • Reviews

  • Social media interactions

  • Loyalty programs

Identifying pain points and opportunities

Once you have completed your customer map and outlined touchpoints and interactions, it’s time to identify where your customer journey is working and where it isn’t. Do this by analyzing what happens at each touchpoint. 

Some factors to consider include the following:

  • How seamless is the touchpoint?

  • How much time does it take?

  • How many steps does it involve?

What is the outcome of each touchpoint?

Designing exceptional customer service

User-centric products and service

Products

You can deliver on every other aspect of CX and still lose deals and customers if your product doesn’t work or doesn’t address their pain points. Make sure your product and development processes are top-notch. Test your solutions to identify and fix issues.

It’s best to do this from the start because customers will very likely do business elsewhere if you don’t give them what they’re looking for the first time around. In today’s business environment, second chances are few and far between.

Service

Positive customer experience starts with a focus on the customer. Make this focus central to your company’s activities from day one. A customer-forward philosophy should be in your mission statement and then should be woven through every other aspect of your business.

Deliver value to every customer by focusing on your relationship with them. Once you have an understanding of what works and what doesn’t for your customers, make your way to nurturing this relationship. Customer relationship management (CRM) is your key to building personalized experiences effortlessly.

Ensure that your team members have a full-understanding of how their roles impact CX and provide them with the resources they need to provide customers with excellent service and interactions.

For example, provide them with customer feedback about their performance and offer targeted training for specific areas that need improvement. Use your CRM to share their performance metrics, such as their Time to Resolution (TTR) for customer service agents or their sales numbers for your sales team. And, of course, provide the necessary tools and information they need to do better.

You may also consider offering rewards and incentives for high-performing team members. These could be financial bonuses, public recognition, or other awards.

User interface

Attractive quality products that are easy to use will produce better customer experiences. So make sure your business has this in mind. If your product is SaaS or other virtual product, your UI is critical both in the product and across other channels. If you create a physical product, you still need to keep the UI of your virtual presence in mind.

Good CX also depends on your clients knowing how to use your product. A 2020 Gartner study confirmed that customer service organizations that focus on ‘value enhancement’ - coaching customers to use a product to derive maximum value, proactively anticipating customers' needs during the customer lifecycle, or validating purchase decisions - can increase the probability of customer retention by up to 82%.

Some ways to do this include offering an easy-to-access self-help knowledge base, offering in-app tips triggered by customer behavior, sending email training campaigns to new customers showcasing key features and information and creating forums where clients can gather and share suggestions for using your product. Customer success is a key factor in customer engagement.

Emotional engagement and branding

An emotional attachment to your company helps create positive CX and customer loyalty. So, how do you create emotional engagement? Get started with these ideas.

  • Create unique and engaging branding

  • Share your brand story

  • Display your values and community actions

  • Provide value

  • Develop personal connections

Measuring and analyzing customer experience

Anything that has to do with emotions, sentiments, and opinions is inherently difficult to measure. However, CX is so important that companies have developed ways to measure it so they can make improvements.

Look no further than your CRM to find the data you need to begin measuring CX. KPIs and other data to pay attention to include the following:

  • Time to Resolution (TTR)

  • Wait times for contact centers

  • Customer churn rate

  • Trends in average order values (AORs)

  • Close rates

  • Customer lifetime value (CLV)

  • Sales revenue

  • Conversational analytics

Collect customer feedback

Customer feedback is one of your best indicators of customer satisfaction, which contributes to CX. There are many ways to gather such data. These include surveys, structured and unstructured interviews with key customers, and focus groups to capture feedback related to a touchpoint experience.

Surveys are one of the most popular and effective ways of collecting customer feedback. Luckily, surveys can be easily deployed using a holistic customer service platform like Freshworks Customer Service Suite. However, take care not to over-survey customers, which itself creates a bad customer experience.

Keep these three key customer experience metrics in mind and analyze data around them.

Net Promoter Score™ (NPS)

Your Net Promoter Score™ (NPS) is the measure of the likelihood of a customer to recommend your brand, product, or service.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

The Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a measure of a customer’s satisfaction with the quality of service. This score is often collected after a specific interaction, such as a customer service issue.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

The Customer Effort Score (CES) is a measure of the amount of effort required by the customer to achieve a goal at a touchpoint. This takes into account the ease with which a customer is able to access a specific resource or service from a brand.

Customer journey analytics

Keep track of how your customer journey is going. Key analytics will reveal where you need to focus.

Customer data can also give you deeper insights into the customer experience. Stay on top of key metrics so you can improve them over time. Your CRM should have robust reporting capabilities to facilitate this.

In addition, avail yourself of A/B testing tools such as those offered by Freshworks. These features give you actionable information about what’s working and what’s not.

Steps to revamp your customer experience

Is your CX lagging behind? If so, you’re leaving money every day, and it’s time to take action. Here are some tips to help you provide better customer experiences.

Audit your current customer experience

Start by figuring out where you are by auditing your current customer experience.

You have a treasure trove of information about the building blocks of customer experience at your fingertips. Your CRM should record every interaction with your clients. Use the dashboards, reports, and analytics to detect problems. For example, a survey of your customer service requests can identify where clients are getting stuck or where they have trouble. 

AI tools are also helpful in picking up patterns of customer behavior that can impact CX. A CRM like Freshsales gives you the power through features like deal insights to pick up on red flags during the lead management process.

Set clear experience goals

Once you’ve completed your audit and identified the factors that are resulting in poor CX, it’s time to fix those issues, and that starts with goal-setting.

You probably can’t do it all in one day. CX goals should include meeting key benchmarks over time. While the length of time depends on your industry, the source of poor CX, and where you’re starting from. If you have a critical product flaw, it’s going to take a while to fix the issue. Be reasonable about your timeline.

If a change is going to take a long time but is causing customers immediate problems, an intermediate step might be required. One suggestion is to communicate with them about what you are doing to solve the problem and give them an estimate as to when the issue will be resolved.

Design and implement changes

With clear goals in mind, create a plan and make the necessary changes.

For example, if your customers are repeatedly asking questions about initiating returns, you could take the following actions:

  • Add additional information to your knowledge base in the form of help documents.

  • Add “Return My Item” to FAQs and automated chatbots.

  • Include a template or canned response for your customer service providers to use in live chat sessions.

  • If your return process is complicated, work to simplify it.

  • Add return information to sales pages.

  • Provide easy in-store returns of online purchases if you have a brick-and-mortar store.

Monitor and iterate the new experience

The pursuit of CX doesn’t end. It’s a continuously evolving and – hopefully – improving process. Consistently evaluate how you’re doing and how you can improve and do even better. 

This means regularly tracking those important CX metrics like NPS, CSAT and CES and routinely following up with your clients after key interactions. For example, live chat sessions can end with an opportunity for the customer to rate the interaction. Phone interactions can end with an opportunity to review or an email in the next day.

Make it easy for clients to provide feedback. And then listen to that feedback. It should be very simple to submit a review, rate a product, or reach customer service. Track everything and act on the information you receive. If a client posts a bad review, post a response and follow up with that client to try to make it right.

Because CX is so important, many companies and businesses are appointing dedicated Customer Experience Managers (CXMs) or Customer Experience Officers (CXOs). That person improves CX by analyzing and improving every aspect of CX. It’s critical that they have insight into all customer-facing departments as well as into other key departments such as product development IT.

Frequently asked questions on customer experience

What does customer experience mean?

Customer experience is a customer’s perception of their interactions with your company.

What are the benefits of a good customer experience?

The benefits of good CX include:

  • Higher revenue

  • Increased competitive advantage

  • Better brand reputation

  • Increased customer retention and loyalty

  • Decreased customer churn

How can we measure customer experience?

Customer experience can be measured by tracking the following key metrics:

  • Net Promoter Score™ (NPS)

  • Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

  • Customer Effort Score (CES)

How can we improve customer experience?

There are many ways to improve CX, such as:

  • Building a customer-centric team

  • Meeting or exceeding customer expectations

  • Making improvements based on feedback

  • Choosing a feature-rich CRM like Freshsales to help you deliver frictionless, personalized conversations and interactions

  • Leverage data to identify and address weak spots

  • Appoint a qualified CXM or CXO

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