Nadia Pace has worked with several companies seeking to elevate their customer touchpoints to offer an all-round better Customer Experience. She also has worked with one of Malta’s Customer Service providers as their business developer and later CEO. Here she discusses the importance of offering an outstanding Customer experience and explains why this is beneficial to have clients coming back for more.

With obligatory industry standards and the ability to avail of any service from practically anywhere in the world, brands’ only hope of competing is through the experience they offer their customers – how easy and seamlessly clients can utilize a service/product as well as the aftertaste they are left with.

This is both true for B2B as well as B2C environments.

As mentioned by hubspot.com “A positive customer experience is crucial to the success of your business because a happy customer is one who is likely to become a loyal customer who can help you boost revenue.”

In fact, the best marketing money can buy is when a happy customer spreads a good word for your brand or service.

Smiling, happy customer, A positive customer experience is crucial to the success of your business.

Stats show how overall, 44% of companies have a greater focus on acquisition vs. 16% that focus on retention yet investing in client retention is paramount for your business. Here’s why:

  • It costs 7x more to acquire a new customer than to retain a new one.
  • Increasing customer retention by 5% increases profits by 25-95%.
  • Loyal customers spend 67% more than new ones.
  • Existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products and spend 31% more than new customers.

Source: Markinblog.com

1. Creating longevity is beneficial for your every day

We are all accustomed to the exciting yet daunting feeling of approaching a new client, be it in a B2B or B2C environment: “What will his/her expectations be like? Am I approaching them correctly? Have I done enough? Will they come back for further services?” Yet, when you’ve secured and fulfilled a service to a happy customer once, approaching the client a second time, is just so much easier on the service provider. We know the parameters in which to operate in, and we know what good service looks like to this customer – very much like muscle memory, the more we interact with this client, the more natural it becomes.

So, whilst we underline the benefits of repeat business on our bottom line, it is also easier and more satisfying to us as human beings to interact and offer services to someone we know is happy with what we are providing him/her with. When we wake up to work every day and have to face Monday mornings more than we would like to, knowing our customers is also very rewarding to our work lives.

2. Happy customers spread the word

Whilst taking the time for product development and service extensions is crucial to our business, when a customer is happy with the service we offer him/her, he/she is more likely to sing our praises and draw further leads for the business, through word of mouth.

Besides this, they are all also more likely to utilize your services for other areas of their business, example: A brand-driven company engaging a marketing agency for more than one communication campaign.

3. COVID-19 shows us just the importance of human interaction

Through the isolation and lack of human contact brought on by COVID-19, we realise more than ever the social nature of our being. During the pandemic, after the initial novelty of working from home wore off, even the most introvert of us all, craved walking into a bubbling office to meet colleagues and interact with others.

COVID-19 was a pivotal time for businesses, particularly service-oriented companies such as retail, banks, hospitality and catering, to identify different ways of getting to their customers without the traditional face-to-face interaction the industry was so accustomed to.

COVID-19 was a pivotal time for businesses, particularly service-oriented companies such as retail, banks, hospitality and catering, to identify different ways of getting to their customers without the traditional face-to-face interaction the industry was so accustomed to. The internet was pivotal for this, as companies quickly scurried up their resources to launch online stores, delivery services, communication meetings etc.

More than ever, COVID-19 pushed businesses to identify the journey customers have to embark on to get to their service. It was therefore high time that all customer touch points were put under scrutiny, to discover different and better ways to get to customers.

4. Customer touchpoints as equally as important as your product

Whilst it is important to fine tune the product and service as well as update it to satisfy current needs, of equal importance are the customer’s touchpoints to your services – be it an efficient website, or a friendly front of desk representatives in your offices. Therefore, whilst it’s important to have a top-notch product, it won’t stand a chance of thriving unless its access points provide a pleasant experience for customers.

Measuring Customer Experience

Nowadays, there a myriad of different platforms available for companies to analyse consumer behaviour and enhance engagement, be it in the form of online behaviour reports, as well as platforms to carry out surveys to assess customer’s opinion of your product and their future aspirations. Some examples of doing so are:

  • The Net Promoter Score® or NPS is a structured way to measure customer experience. On a scale from 0-10 it provides a measure of customer loyalty and satisfaction. 
  • Another great way is analying customer support ticket trends to understand pitfalls and to pin down areas which could improve customer experience.
  • Understand buyers’ personas, their needs and work backwards. By understanding what segments deem important and vital in a service is important to tailor your products to ensure maximum satisfaction on their behalf.

READ. WATCH. LISTEN. MEET

WATCH

Watch what Nadia has to say about the importance of Customer Experience.

LISTEN

Listen to Nadia speak to international podcast library, Libsyn about gaining CX success.

Interviewed by international operations business mentor, Marianne Rutz, in her podcast series of 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 – 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, Nadia touches on the importance of resilience and how the role of the Business Leader has changed over the last couple of months.

MEET

Remember, a positive customer experience promotes loyalty, helps you retain customers, and encourages brand advocacy. Is it time for you assess your customers’ experience of your service and fine-tune it towards achieving further success for your brand or business. Get in touch, let us get talking and find ways of improving or fine-tuning your customers’ journey.