A Discussion on Customer Experience
What should you take note of in a discussion regarding customer experience?
- Customer service
- Customer perceptions
- Customer experience
Everything revolves around the customer. Nowadays, businesses make use of many different tools and strategies to make sure that their customers enjoy every minute of their time on their websites. Survey tools for them are irreplaceable because it’s one of their primary tools in collecting information regarding the customer. And of course, the more you know about the customer, the better you can improve your services in order to cater to them!
Customer experience is different from customer service and customer opinions. Customer experience has many elements; however, it can be summarized through this definition by Forrester Research: customer experience is “How customers perceive their interactions with your company.”
Every interaction that your customer has with your company will bring about a customer experience. Their perception of your services will then eventually have an effect on both their experience and opinions. Keep in mind that although different, these concepts: customer experience, service, opinions, and perception—are related to one another. They influence each other in many ways, depending on the customer.
In order to have a full grasp of the essence of customer experience, you must first understand the three other concepts and how they relate to one another. With that being said, here is a short discussion on customer experience!
Customer Service
This encapsulates everything that you do for your customers. Every kind of support that you offer your customers before and after they buy your product or service. Most of the time these are the basis of the other three.
Customer service consists of all kinds of interactions that you have with your customers. The way you sell your products, the way you promote it to the public, the way you try to convince your customers to buy your products, even the way you talk or act around your customers are considered part of customer service.
Of course, every company will try their best and provide the best service that they can offer. But most of the time, it’s not enough. You have to understand your target market, the more you know about them, the better you can alter your service to suit their needs! take a look at some customer satisfaction surveys that show the best survey questions to learn more about your customers. It might come in handy!
Customer Perceptions
The way customers perceive your company is almost never constant. It coincides well with your reputation. There will always be the chance that their perception will change. With that being said, customer perception can be the result of a single or multiple interactions with your company. This can be through simply looking up information about your company or through customer service interactions.
Keep in mind that one interaction doesn’t necessarily solidify a perception right away. It would usually take a lot of touchpoints. Every exchange and situation wherein your brand and a customer meets will build up their perception of your company.
This implies that you should not only focus on creating a positive company image and flawless customer service, you should also make sure that every kind of information out there about your company can also bring about a positive light!
Look at company reviews and social media posts that talk about your product or service. Politely acknowledge the fact that they’re being reviewed and ensure that any kind of issues and suggestions that they have will be taken note of for future reference!
Of course, customer perception plays a big role in customer experience. It serves as the baseline on what to expect from you. when they have a slightly negative perception, they’ll be looking for times where you prove them wrong, and when they have a positive perception, they’ll be looking for reasons why.
Customer Experience
Unlike customer service that focuses on the interactions that you have with your customer, customer experience encapsulates their journey. Enhancing customer experience means building a long-term relationship with the customers, ultimately leading to an enjoyable, stress-free and convenient buying journey for them!
This is a holistic approach to making a customer feel happy and satisfied. Keep in mind that it’s the responsibility of everyone in your organization. Creating a great customer experience should be the end goal of all your efforts in dealing with your customer.
Take note of this: great customer experience results from good customer service and positive customer perception. Great customer service always results in positive customer experiences and positive customer perception. Understand that seamless customer service that is delivered consistently over a period of time will impact their perception of your brand.
Key Takeaway
That being said, make sure that you do everything you can to improve the three things mentioned above! You can use survey tools for your websites to gather more information about your market, as long as they ask the best survey questions available.
The better your customers’ experiences are, the better their perception of your brand will be. Pair that with consistent and seamless customer service, and you’ll end up boosting customer loyalty in the long run!