The customer service stats defining 2018

Roxanne Abercrombie

January 8, 2018

220 views

We’re in the ‘experience era’ of marketing. The traditional four Ps (Price, Product, Place, and
Promotion) just don’t cut it anymore when it comes to attracting and keeping customers.

Customers are empowered by contemporary technology, and they can compare offers, products,
delivery options and costs in a click. They won’t stay loyal if they can get a better deal elsewhere,
and the highly competitive market for these criteria is inhospitable to profit margins.

It’s not just consumer habits that are changing. 2018 ushers in AI-powered assistance and
engagement, creating customer experiences that are slicker than ever before possible. Customers
now expect an effortless experience – and they know you have the technology to provide it. So, to
help you prepare for the experience battle ahead, here are some defining customer service stats for
2018.

Customers who had an unpleasant experience on your website are 88% less likely to return

In 2018, websites need to be just as well-organised, just as navigable and just as visually enticing as
physical stores. Your website is your digital showroom, and you need to treat it as such. That doesn’t
just mean adding shiny bells and whistles to your site. You also need to focus on replicating the
stellar service you’d offer in your physical showroom.

After all, you can’t afford not to. The vast majority of consumers are intolerant when it comes to
poor online experiences, and with one quick click of an ‘x’ button they’ll have walked away from
your website forever.

So, if you want repeat traffic and return custom, you need to optimise your website for service.
You’ll help customers no end just by having clean web design coupled with clear navigation. But
that’s no longer enough in the smart age, and you should also consider manning your website with
agents and/or chatbots.

Live chat software has quickly become a necessity for quality customer service, with 52% of
consumers more likely to repurchase from a company who offer live chat support. And, with 67% of
people now expecting to see or use messaging apps when talking to a business, it makes sense to
consider deploying a chatbot for those out of office hours.
75% of consumers expect a consistent experience wherever they engage with your brand

By now, most businesses know that they need an omnichannel strategy in their approach to
customer service. But many still fail when it comes to consistency.

To paraphrase Mark Wheatley in The Conversation Engine, your brand is immersive, and covers
everything from product to design to communication with customers. A customer should be able to
recognise that they’re dealing with your brand whether they send you a tweet, listen to a hold
message, view your product, check out your blog or flick through a brochure.

When done right, this becomes virtually subconscious; the customer can identify your company’s
voice and visuals without having to think about it. This is easier said than done. Many brands
struggle to achieve a consistent approach across every touchpoint, and offer different experiences
based on the channels and teams engaged.

Unfortunately, failing to create consistency is increasingly unforgivable in the eyes of consumers. It’s
now an expectation for three-quarters of consumers, meaning you need to pull your socks up (in
sync) to succeed in 2018.

Mobile users are 5 times more likely to abandon a task if a site isn’t optimized for mobile

Consistency also extends to the mobile platform. With the ongoing decrease in computer use,
customers have long expected a quality mobile experience on par with your desktop website. In
2018, however, their patience is wearing thin.

Last year, 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a
company. This figure will only increase as our addiction to the touchscreen intensifies. Consumer
mobiles are getting smarter and quicker, and they expect the websites they land on from these
devices to be equally smart. As we’ve all experienced, a poor mobile website is jarring. And usually,
it leads to both annoyance and abandonment.

Speed is of the essence in 2018. Customer service is increasingly centred on time, and customers are
accustomed to accessing what they need on the go – without having to labour through archaic sites
or wait days for responses. Real-time channels like chat save time, but they’re no good if they can’t
be suitably accessed via mobile.

It’s really not rocket science: a good mobile experience is convenient, and convenience leads to a
better overall customer experience.

83% of customers go to a company’s website for information

Self service will be a growing trend in customer support for 2018. A recent report found that 70% of
customers expect a company’s website to include a self-service application, and 50% of customers
think it’s important to be able to solve product/service issues themselves.

With telephone calls in decline, customers don’t relish the concept of picking up the phone to make
a simple enquiry or find out further info. Instead, they prefer the low-barrier, low-pressure option of
checking out your website. It’s your job to make it easier for customers to support themselves.

That means readily information categorised clearly in a help area, in FAQs, articles, videos, or on
relevant product / info pages. It means having a customer log-in area for basic account
management. And it also means making help just a click away — be it through chat channel, bot or
forum.

2018: the experience era

2018 looks to be a year of change for technology, and customer service will need to evolve with the
advancements it brings. 86% of customers will pay more for a better customer experience, so there’s
no question around the benefits of using the smart technology that 2018 will offer you.

But it’s not all about tech. Customers should still be able to experience empathetic human
engagement alongside technological efficiency. It is, after all, the ‘experience era’.

https://bitly.com/blog/customer-service-2018/

SOCIAL MEDIA

WHAT’S NEXT FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE IN 2018, ACCORDING TO THE EXPERTS

bitly.is/cs2018

COPY

2017 WAS A BIG YEAR FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE.

It was a year of lessons. From theFyre Festival, we learned the importance of keeping your word.
From the Equifax hack, we were reminded of how putting profits ahead of customers can seriously
hurt your brand.

It was also a year of change. We’ve seen AI and chatbots make big strides. You can now order your
morning cup of Starbucks coffee through Facebook Messenger and get notified when it’s ready for
pickup. The Messenger bot will also generate and play songs for you through Spotify depending on
your mood.

So what’s next for 2018? If stats are any indicator, there’s much more change ahead. By
2020,customer experience will overtake price and product as a brand differentiator.

We’ve enlisted the help of some customer service experts to map out the biggest trends for the
coming year.

1) DATA-CHARGED PERSONALIZATION

“In 2018, we’ll see:

– Emotion-tracking technology:Advances in machine learning have allowed computer software to
analyze customer input and determine customer’s emotions. These programs can listen in on phone
calls, evaluate how a customer is feeling, and feed this information back to the customer service
representative on the line in real-time so that the representative can respond accordingly based on
that intelligence.

– Customer data consolidation:With how extensive technology is today, customer data now arrives
from a wide variety of sources, such as social media, surveys, live chat systems, and phone calls.
Centralized dashboards will increasingly be able to consolidate data from all of these customer touch
points to provide a comprehensive view of the customer that helps businesses determine actionable
steps to improve the customer’s experience.”

Peter Yang, Co-Founder ofResumeGo

Wondering how to up your personalization game? Here arethree examples of personalization done
right to get you started.

2) CLOUD, COMMUNICATION, AND TALENT

“As we look back on 2017 and into 2018 there are some new challenges as a result of new
technology platforms, mainly cloud platforms, and customers demanding more ways to
communicate with organizations. I see three major challenges that need to be addressed: learning to
effectively leverage cloud technologies, managing the growing number of communication channels,
and expanding the workforce.

– Leveraging cloud technologies:Cloud technologies allow organizations to achieve things they

haven’t been able to before due to financial or resource constraints. With the “pay-as-you-go”
model and the elimination of of premise based systems, organizations now have access to a broader
set of technologies. Some of these technologies are as basic as workforce management while some
are more advanced, like speech analytics. Organizations need to determine which technologies to
utilize to improve both the customer and employee experience.

– Managing the ever growing number of communications channels: Customers continue to broaden
the range of communication channels that they use to communicate with organizations. And
organizations are challenged with providing the same level of service across all of these channels.
Organizations must figure out how to address a number of items including: the types of skills agents
need across various channels, key KPIs for each channel, and how to support customers pivoting
across channels.

– Expanding the workforce: As a result of agents needing a more diverse set of skills organizations
must continue to figure out how to expand their workforce. Remote teams are an increasingly
popular way of accomplishing this. To build a successful remote work program, organizations must
address a number of items including: setting up the proper echnical infrastructure and incentivizing
employees to stay engaged.”

CEO, Varun Shoor, Founder ofKayako

Check out how HR teams use Bitlyto recruit and retain the right talent.

3) STILL ABOUT THE HUMANS

“My predictions for 2018: despite all the new industry buzzwords and CRM technology, in the end,
customer relations in 2018 will depend, as it always does, on the customer service representative.

Customer service representatives need to be knowledgeable, courteous, and pleasant when dealing
with the customer. Whether over the phone, on the Internet, or in-store, reps need to know the
answers and deliver exactly what customers are looking for.

So, forget the technology, my 2018 prediction is your front line customer service people will make
the difference.”

Nancy Friedman, President of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training Inc.

4) BALANCING A HUMAN TOUCH WITH AUTOMATED SUPPORT

“There is no end to the number of technologies that make it easy to capture and record individual
customer preferences and purchase history. This allows companies to create tailored solutions for
their customers that (theoretically) enhance the customer’s experience. However, there is a real
desire amongst consumers to have real human interactions. Even though we have the technology to
answer their questions, sometimes customers just want to talk to a person — and chat bots aren’t
cutting it. This is a real issue that I believe will grow in 2018 and beyond as more companies defer
entirely to technology for customer support. We’re mindful of this challenge at Chairish and strive to
provide a balance between offering the human support that consumers crave and automated
support for efficiency.”

Anna Brockway, Co-Founder and CMO of Chairish

Learn how to stay human across every channel as you scale.

SCALING INTO 2018

Whether you’re thinking about chatbots, personalization, or cloud technologies, one thing’s for sure:
2018 is going to be about growth.

$62 billion of business was lost last year to due poor customer service. That’s 50% higher than two
years before. This loss isn’t all because brands are providing bad support. It’s also because
consumers now have a higher standard for customer support.

Consumers want to be able to talk to brands across multiple channels and devices. They expect
brands to know their preferences and to be able to customize experiences based on their needs.

And in 2018, brands will have to find ways to offer that at scale as the digital ecosystem grows more
complex than ever before.
EBOOK

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September 27, 2017

Denise Chan @denisechan26

https://www.clicktale.com/resources/blog/31-customer-experience-stats-and-quotes-for-2018/

How do you plan to kick off your 2018? No doubt you’re in planning mode - whether it’s forecasting
for the coming year, building the strategy for growth and seeking new budget or plotting on how to
evangelize the importance of your specialist area of across departments within your organization.

There is one common goal for those in the know; to center our businesses, objectives, internal
teams and measures of success around delivering for the end customer, and ultimately, the
experience they have with our brands.

Now that we’re in 2018 - firmly in the "experience era" - and digital technology is evolving faster
than organizations can adapt, it’s more vital than ever before to focus on digital experience. In fact,
as my colleague and CMO, Geoff Galat, wrote last year, experience is a point of real differentiation -
it’s the most effective way for businesses to stand out from the competition.

Customers’ experience expectations have changed significantly. Advances in technology and their
adoption by the majority of consumers have opened so many new opportunities, but they have also
added a layer of complexity to what is an already confusing landscape.

So what better time to share some compelling statistics and thought-provoking quotes to add to
presentations, raise at meetings or share with your colleagues to show the true value of
experience. From industry leaders, research houses and brands alike, the following quotes are more
relevant for CX strategies than ever before:

ON CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

1. Customers who had an unpleasant experience on your site are 88% less likely to return to your
website -Adobe

2. 85% of the adult believe that the company’s website should be as good as or better than the
desktop website - visual.ly

3. “Get to know your customers. Humanize them. Humanize yourself. It’s worth it.” - Kristin Smaby

4. Loyal customers are 5x as likely to repurchase, 5x as likely to forgive, 7x as likely to try a new
offering, and 4x as likely to refer - Temkin Group

5. “15 years ago, the average consumer typically used two touch-points when buying an item and
only 7% regularly used more than four. Today consumers use an average of almost six touch points,
with 50% regularly using more than four.” - Marketing Week

6. 50% consumers are likely to switch brands if a company doesn’t anticipate their needs - Salesforce

7. 2018 will be the year of servicing consumer needs before they even arise. Brands leveraging the
right data and analytics to deliver impactful customer experiences will rise to the top - Andy Yost,
CMO, Gannett

8. “Welcome to a new era of marketing and service in which your brand is defined by those who
experience it.” -Brian Solis, Principal Analyst and Futurist, Altimeter

9. “The term ‘customer experience’ won’t exist in the organization of the future. It will be so deeply
entrenched in a company’s product, process, and culture that it will be synonymous with the brand
and represent the only way to do business” - Ann Lewnes, SVP and CMO, Adobe

ON UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN BEHIND THE DATA

10. "In 2018 we’ll see more frank public discussions about what it means to bring humanity back to
business. Customers and employees, alike, are craving more trust, respect, civility, and meaningful
connection" - Megan Burns, CEO, Experience Enterprises


11. "CX of the future should be designed like a Disney or Pixar movie, complete with character and
story development, storyboarding, and integration into a thoughtful and methodical universe where
the experience is consistent, integrated, and enchanting in every moment of truth" - Brian Solis,
Principal Analyst and Futurist, Altimeter
12. "When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures
of emotion." - Dale Carnegie

13. “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you
make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” - Jeff Bezos

14. "Brands that demonstrate “true empathy” in the experiences they deliver will win. These
experiences build powerful memories that can disrupt categories" - Alan B. Hart, Managing Partner
of ATOMCK & Host of Marketing Today podcast

15. "Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before
they realize it themselves." - Steve Jobs

16. “Customers remember the service a lot longer than they remember the price.” - Lauren
Freedman

ON MOBILE AND OMNICHANNEL EXPERIENCE

17. 57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly-designed mobile site - SocPub

18. Google says 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and
40% visit a competitor’s site instead - MicKinsey & Company

19. 69% of digital media time is spent on mobile - comScore

20. Companies with the strongest omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain an average
of 89% of their customers, as compared to 33% for companies with weak omni-channel strategies
- Aberdeen

21. By 2020, the demand for an omnichannel customer experience will be amplified by the need for
nearly perfect execution - PWC

22. 75% consumers expect a consistent experience wherever they engage (e.g., website, social
media, mobile, in person) - Salesforce

23. “The shift to mobile is driven by habit...people are often at home surrounded by devices—
desktops, laptops, smart-TVs—that are all objectively better for content consumption than mobiles.
But people reach for their phones because they’re habitualized to them” - Tom Grinsted, the
Guardian

ON NEW TECHNOLOGIES

24. 80% of marketers predict artificial intelligence will revolutionize marketing in the next few years
- Econsultancy

25. 70% of consumers say technology has made it easier than ever to take their business elsewhere
- Salesforce
 26. “Becoming the default brand choice in a preprogrammed, AI and IoT-enabled world will make or
break businesses" - Constellation research

27. Investment in AI will increase more than 300% this year - Forrester

28. Eight out of 10 businesses have already implemented or are planning to adopt AI as a customer
service solution by 2020 - Oracle

29. 67% of people expect to see/use messaging apps when talking to a business - Chatbots Magazine

30. 40% of adults now use voice search at least once per day - Branded 3

31. Intelligent automation will manage 85% of businesses’ customer relationships by 2020 - Gartner

Make sure to bookmark this page, as I’ll be storing up more gems like these and adding them in
periodically throughout the year.

If this has got your brain whirring about the future of experience, why not hear more from our CMO
Geoff Galat, as he looks at how we need to move past conversion to focus on experience

MENU

Social Media Customer Service Statistics and Trends

[Infographic]
By
Masroor Ahmed

• Jan. 13, 2017

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Now more than ever, customers are channeling their issues through social
media.

Just to show you how high the stakes are, here are some key stats related to
social customer service

 1 in 3 social media users prefer social media customer care services to

telephone or email
 An estimated 67% of consumers now use social media networks like Twitter and
Facebook to seek resolution for issues
 Customers spend 20-40% more with companies engage and respond to
customers via social media
 Nearly 70% of consumers have said that they have used social media for issues
to do with customer service on at least one occasion

To further underline the important of social customer service, this infographic

by GO-Globe highlights some key stats and trends that marketers need to be
aware of.

10 customer experience trends to watch out for in

2018
Each year there are predictions that CX will make the purchase decision easier
and further improve the customer-business relationship.Updated: January 01, 2018, 11:14
IST
By Sameet Gupte, Servion Global Solutions

Customer experience (CX) has become the quintessential scale to choose

between brands, and poor experience is a way of falling short in the buyer’s
journey to seamless interaction. However, over time businesses have begun
to adopt and understand that a key component to building their CX strategies
is around the customer.

With rising expectations, the climb to the top is getting steeper in this rapidly
evolving space. Each year there are predictions that CX will make the
purchase decision easier and further improve the customer-business
relationship. It has been rightly doing so with the increasing number of
communication channels, CX metrics, and tools to support the point of
contact.

According to Forrester, 72% of businesses say that improving customer

experience is their top priority, while only 63% prioritize on implementing
technology investments to reach their goal.
So, here’s how you can make every interaction count. Be relevant, and stay
ahead of the competition with these top 10 customer experience trends to
follow in 2018.

Trend #1: Shortened customer journeys

The journey mapping from pre-purchase to post-purchase is what businesses

are focusing on currently with each step having several sub-steps, for
instance, the self-service customer service desk. Over time, with CX
technologies it has become easier to understand buying behavior and patterns
through the historical data that is received.

But, brands are now looking to shorten each step of the journey and improve
the experience by redefining the expectations in the process.

Trend #2: Machines are becoming partners rather than tools

According to Gartner, 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a

human, by 2020. This has reflected in organizations adopting artificial
intelligence technologies to reduce costs and increase productivity. As a part
of the automation generation, it is critical to remain a competitive player in the
market.

Keeping this in mind, many enterprises continue to reduce the cost burden by
moving away from physical environments (eg; the contact center and agents)
and employing bots and relying on them to perform repetitive tasks that
otherwise a human being would take longer to complete.

Trend #3: Making experiences speak personalization

Whether it is a restaurant or an online retailer, personalization can be a part of

any channel. Often, it is regarded as a benchmark for customers, when
choosing between brands and staying loyal to them. This ability to personalize
across channels is what will help enterprises succeed.

As customers come face-to-face with it, their expectations will also begin to
increase, paving the way for organizations to track and monitor data and
preferences to create more intelligent mechanisms of personalization using
emerging technologies. For example, it will be about customized experiences
during visits to hotels with individualistic entertainment or dining preferences.
Trend #4: Maintaining frictionless and consistent omnichannel
communication

CX needs to be as uniform as possible, across any device or platform that

your customers use to interact with you. In order to prevent any conflicts that
may arise, enterprises are beginning to eliminate unlikely experiences, for
instance, waiting in long billing queues and Amazon Go (a grocery store)
chose to eliminate this challenge. Using a smartphone app along with
sensors, items are tracked when they are removed or replaced on shelves,
while the retailer knows exactly what is in the customer’s cart and upon exit
are instantly charged to their account.

Trend #5: Higher-powered and Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVA)

Right now, artificial virtual assistants are being used in many industries for a
variety of processes. And with consumers growing comfortable speaking with
bots, companies can maximize value from it, provided it creates a positive
experience, making it a win-win situation.
The IVAs will be powered by artificial intelligence to match the level of human
interaction and intelligence. They will be able to perform specialized tasks that
are essential to provide superior CX.

Trend #6: Creating new challenges and opportunities with IoT

For a few years, Internet of Things has been trending and continues to be an
area that is being heavily invested in. With IoT, the more the number of
devices connected to a channel, the more possibilities to collect data and
improve brand interactions.

IoT, for instance, allows contact centers to analyze data from millions of
transactions and this can help accelerate proactive customer experience. IoT
can also accelerate research and development.

With the help of user interaction data, companies can see how customers are
using their products, and adjust future models to be more aligned to customer
desires and behaviors.

Trend #7: Going mobile first

According to Smart Insights, apps constitute for 89% of mobile media time
while the other 11% is spent on websites. As access to information is easier
and quicker on smartphones, customers are all about interacting and making
purchases using this medium. But one bad experience is all it takes for them
to look for alternatives, but most importantly, lower a brand’s reputation.

Therefore, enterprises, over the last 5 years have taken a step towards being
mobile friendly, so much so that some enterprises are choosing to have only a
mobile strategy and focus only on that one medium.

Trend #8: Speech-enabled voice recognition

There will be a greater impact on voice recognition in 2018. Technological

improvements have led to an increase in the number of voice-controlled home
assistants and personal assistants like Siri or the Amazon Echo.
Subsequently, businesses are also using speech-enabled service to deliver
superior CX. Using Natural Language Processing and Understanding,
customers will be able to have full-fledged conversations with bots while
allowing businesses expand their capability to answer customer service issues
with each interaction.

Trend #9: Location-based mobile communication

Beacon technology is said to change how CX will be received. A mix of GPS

and Bluetooth, the wireless beacon technology will enable your mobile
devices to alert applications when you move to specified areas, for instance,
to track customers in real-time and push timely personalized messages.

While this has already emerged in the retail sector, there is potential for it to
spread to other industries too to drive engagement and create more targeted
campaigns.

Trend #10: Emotional Detection

Emotion in conversation is an essential part of the relationship between

human and machine and technologies such as emotion-engines will help
analyze input. It will be able to detect the customer’s exact feeling and prompt
an immediate response. For example, during a chatbot conversation, using
voice signals, the engine will able to sense elevated voice pitches and transfer
the call to an agent.
 The year 2017 has been a great year for customer experience – with mobile
and artificial intelligence being the frontrunners across industries. Only a thin
line separates a good experience from the bad, and one interaction - big or
small - is all it takes. But, with 2018 just a few days away, if you haven’t
entered the game of experiences yet, it’s not too late. The environment and
the prize is always changing.

(The author is CEO of Servion Global Solutions. Views expressed above are
his own)

Tags : People, mobile, IoT, Customer Experience, 2018 trends

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Blake Morgan, CONTRIBUTOR

Apr 20, 2017 3:34 PM 8,015
Shutterstock

We often hear and toss around the term “customer experience,” but what exactly does it
mean? Customer experience can include a lot of elements, but it really boils down to the
perception the customer has of your brand. Even if you think your brand and customer
experience is one thing, if the customer perceives it as something different, that is what
the actual customer experience is. You may think you have high-quality products and a
strong customer experience, but if a customer gets a broken product that isn’t fixed, their
perception of your company as lower quality then becomes the reality.

What that in mind, managing customer perception is one of the most important things
brands should be doing. Everything a company does contributes to how customers
 perceive it, and therefore to the overall customer experience, including the messaging
you use, the products you sell, the sales process, and what happens after the sale, plus
other internal factors like the interworking of the company, its leadership, and the
engineering of the product or service.

A company could be good in one area but struggle in others, which could lead to an
overall poor experience. Consider what would happen if a company hired employees for
its stores and call centers that were apathetic about the service and didn’t really want to
be there. They would likely have poor interactions with customers, which would lead
customers to perceive that the brand is lazy and doesn’t care about their business. On
the other hand, a company that hires passionate people and trains them to love the
product will shine and likely help customers have a great experience and strong
perception of the brand. Many other things can contribute to the overall perception,
including the quality of the product, the cleanliness of the store, or the ease of navigating
the website. Taking the time to make sure every step of a customer’s journey is strong
will create good perceptions and make it more likely customers will come back and tell
their friends about your company. Customer perception is fragile and can change with
each interaction, so constantly maintaining a strong customer experience is of utmost
importance.

Customer perception is one of the most valuable aspects of a company. Managing that
perception in all its forms should be a top priority and is the responsibility of every single
person in the organization

7 Ways to Create a Great

Customer Experience
Strategy
Posted by Steven MacDonald on 20 December, 2017 - 53 Comments

Post summary:
  What is customer experience (CX)?
 How is CX different from customer service?
 7 ways to create a customer experience strategy

The Digital Marketing Trends Report by Econsultancy and Adobe asked

companies to indicate the single most exciting opportunity for their organization
in the upcoming year – and once again, the same answer came out on top.

Can you guess what the most exciting opportunity for a business is?

If you guessed ‘customer experience’ (or CX), you guessed right.

It’s no surprise that customer experience is a high.
In fact, companies who successfully implement a customer experience strategy
achieve higher customer satisfaction rates, reduced customer churn and
increased revenues.

Furthermore, research by American Express found that 60% of customers are

willing to pay more for a better experience.

What is customer experience?

Customer experience (CX) is defined by interactions between a customer and an
organization throughout their business relationship. An interaction can include
awareness, discovery, cultivation, advocacy, purchases and service.

Customer experience is an integral part of Customer Relationship Management

(CRM)and the reason why it’s important is because a customer who has a positive
experience with a business is more likely to become a repeat and loyal customer.

In fact, a study by Oracle found that 74% of senior executives believe that
customer experience impacts the willingness of a customer to be a loyal advocate.
And the customer experience statistics don’t stop there. If you want your
customers to stay loyal, you have to invest in their experience!
Simply put, happy customers remain loyal.

It makes sense, right?

The happier you are with a brand, the longer you stay with them. And so if you
treat your customers poorly and ignore their customer service emails, then they
are more likely to leave. This is why companies that deliver a superior customer
service and experience outperform their competition.
How is customer experience different
from customer service?
In most cases, a customer’s first point of contact with a company is usually
through interacting with an employee (either by visiting a store or by speaking on
the phone). This gives your business an opportunity to deliver excellent customer
service.

However, customer service is only one aspect of the entire customer experience.

For example, if you book a vacation on the phone and the person you are
speaking with is friendly and helpful, that’s good customer service. Yet, if your
tickets arrive early and the hotel upgrades your room, then that’s a good customer
experience.

That’s how the two are different!

Like most things in today’s market place, customer experience has changed – it’s
more than person-to-person service and thanks to technology, companies can
connect with their customers in new and exciting ways.

For example, using CRM software, you can view customer purchase history and
to predict future needs even before the customer knows they need it. Having the
ability to predict a future need will let you be proactive and attentive and, it means
you can do things like;

 Provide related products based on purchase history

 Create and deliver targeted email marketing campaigns
 Understand the 360 degree view of the customer

Customer service is still as important as ever, it’s no longer the sole focus of
customer experience. Now, the customer experience brings new ways to
strengthen customer relationships through technological breakthroughs.

How important is customer experience?

A business cannot exist without its customers, and this is why companies are
focusing on how to win new customers and perhaps more importantly, retain
existing customers.
A survey by Bloomberg Businessweek found that “delivering a great customer
experience” has become a top strategic objective. And a recent Customer
Management IQ surveyfound that 75% of customer management executives and
leaders rated customer experience a ‘5’ on a scale of 1-5 (5 being of the highest
importance).
The challenge here is that even though it’s a high priority, many companies are
failing.

When Bain & Company asked organizations to rate their quality of customer
experience, 80% believe they are delivering a superior experience. This is
compared to only 8% of customers who believe they are receiving a great
customer experience.

So how many brands are truly delivering an excellent customer experience?

Surprisingly, not too many.

But, its importance is growing.

The Temkin Group’s recent 2017 Customer Experience Rating studyshowed a

severe decline in customer experience from 2015 to 2016. However, the good
news is that in 2017, the number of companies that scored ‘good’ or ‘excellent’
rating increased from 18% in 2016 to to 38% in 2017 – it’s highest rating
since records began.
Customer expectations are rising, and faster than the speed that companies can
improve their customer experience. Customers expect every interaction as the
best experience they have with any company, so the question is remains, how can
your organization create a great customer experience?

7 ways to create a customer experience

strategy
Let’s take a look at seven ways to create a great customer experience strategy to
help you improve customer satisfaction, reduce churn and increase revenues.

1. Create a clear customer experience vision

The first step in your customer experience strategy is to have a clear customer-
focused vision that you can communicate with your organization. The easiest way
to define this vision is to create a set of statements that act as guiding principles.

For example, Zappos use their Zappos core family values and these values are
embedded into their culture; which includes delivering wow through service, be
humble and embracing change.

Once these principles are in place, they will drive the behavior of your
organization. Every member of your team should know these principles by heart
and they should be embedded into all areas of training and development.

2. Understand who your customers are

The next step in building upon these customer experience principles is to bring to
life the different type of customers who deal with your customer support teams. If
your organization is going to really understand customer needs and wants, then
they need to be able to connect and empathize with the situations that your
customers face.

One way to do this is to create customer personas and give each persona a name
and personality. For example, Anne is 35 years old; she likes new technology and
is tech savvy enough to follow a video tutorial on her own, whereas John (42
years old) needs to be able to follow clear instructions on a web page.
By creating personas, your customer support team can recognize who they are
and understand them better. It’s also an important step in becoming truly
customer centric.

3. Create an emotional connection with your customers

You’ve heard the phrase “it’s not what you say; it’s how you say it”?

Well, the best customer experiences are achieved when a member of your team
creates an emotional connection with a customer.

One of the best examples of creating an emotional connection comes from

Zappos, when a customer was late on returning a pair of shoes due to her mother
passing away. When Zappos found out what happened, they took care of the
return shipping and had a courier pick up the shoes without cost. But, Zappos
didn’t stop there. The next day, the customer arrived home to a bouquet of flowers
with a note from the Zappos customer service team who sent their condolences.

Research by the Journal of Consumer Research has found that more than 50% of
an experience is based on an emotion as emotions shape the attitudes that drive
decisions.

Customers become loyal because they are emotionally attached and they
remember how they feel when they use a product or service. A business that
optimizes for an emotional connection outperforms competitors by 85% in sales
growth.

And, according to a recent Harvard Business Review study titled “The New
Science of Customer Emotions“, emotionally engaged customers are:

 At least three times more likely to recommend your product or service

 Three times more likely to re-purchase
 Less likely to shop around (44% said they rarely or never shop around)
 Much less price sensitive (33% said they would need a discount of over
20% before they would defect).

4. Capture customer feedback in real time

How can you tell if you are delivering a wow customer experience?
You need to ask – And ideally you do this by capturing feedback in real time.
Post-interaction surveys can be delivered using a variety of automated tools
through email and calls.

And of course, it’s even possible to make outbound calls to customers in order to
gain more insightful feedback.

It’s important to tie customer feedback to a specific customer support agent, which
shows every team member the difference they are making to the business.

5. Use a quality framework for development of your team

By following the steps above, you now know what customers think about the
quality of your service compared to the customer experience principles you have
defined. The next step is to identify the training needs for each individual member
of your customer support team.

Many organizations assess the quality of phone and email communication,

however, a quality framework takes this assessment one step further by
scheduling and tracking your teams development through coaching, eLearning
and group training.

6. Act upon regular employee feedback

Most organizations have an annual survey process where they capture the overall
feedback of your team; how engaged they are and the businesses ability to deliver
an exceptional service.

But, what happens in the 11 months between these survey periods?

Usually, nothing happens. And this is where continuous employee feedback can
play a role using tools that allow staff to share ideas on how to improve the
customer experience and for managers to see how staff is feeling towards the
business.

For example, using project management software or social media tools, you can
create a closed environment where your organization can leave continuous
feedback.
7. Measure the ROI from delivering great customer
experience
And finally, how do you know if all this investment in your teams, process and
technology are working and paying off?

The answer is in the business results.

Measuring customer experience is one of the biggest challenges faced by

organizations, which is why many companies use the “Net Promoter Score” or
NPS, which collects valuable information by asking a single straightforward
question:

“Would you recommend this company to a friend or relative?”

NPS, which was created by Rob Markey and Fred Reichheld at Bain and
Company, is a highly suitable benchmark for a customer experience metric
because a lot of companies use it as the standard customer experience
measurement. And the fact that it’s simple to implement and measure makes the
NPS a favorite with company boards and executive committees.

Conclusion
Customer expectations are higher than ever and word of mouth travels fast!
And as the customer becomes even more empowered, it increases the
importance of the customer experience.

Customer experience is an area that needs constant nurturing and care and with a
greater focus on customer experience strategy, companies will realize a positive
impact on customer loyalty, higher retention and increased revenues.

P.S. Start improving your customer experience strategy right now by downloading
seven free customer service email templates.

Related Posts:

Voice of Customer: How to 10x Your Business With VOC

DataCompanies that act on Voice of Customer (VOC) data increase…

32 Customer Experience Statistics You Need to Know for 20182015 was

a great year for customer experience and adoption…

Customer Service

About Steven MacDonald

 Steven Macdonald is an online marketer based in Tallinn, Estonia. His first blog
post was published in 2010 and Steven has been a featured writer for Content
Marketing Institute, Marketing Profs and Smart Insights. Since working with
SuperOffice, he has led the growth of the blog from 0 to 2 million visitors. You can
connect with Steven on LinkedInand Twitter.

View all articles by Steven MacDonald

53 Comments

Marika@RadiumCRM
about 3 years ago
Great post! I wanted to add that technology and particularly mobile are making
measuring customer experience just a little bit simpler. There are a few Social
Media Monitoring tools out there that can let you measure sentiment. And
because of mobile you can get feedback very quickly if you have the right
incentives in store or online. -Marika www.RadiumCRM.com
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 3 years ago
Thanks for the comment, Marika! Glad you liked the post.
REPLY

Sarah Garcia
about 2 years ago
Very well said. There needs to be a good customer experience strategy in order to
adhere to a satisfied and happy customer which is surely going to benefit you in
future. Thanks for sharing this.
 REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 2 years ago
Thanks Sarah, that's right!
REPLY

Vibha Gaonkar
about 2 years ago
Great read. I would also like to add another point to the customer experience
strategy. Businesses can provide customers with personalized proximity
experiences depending on their location at the store or restaurant. These types of
experiences can be created using beacon technology and proximity technology
platform. For example, when a customer walks into a store, he will receive a
welcome message from the store and suggest him to buy things based on his last
recorded purchase. The store can also send customer's messages based on the
customer's immediate surrounding. This technology will also give the business a
competitive edge along with brand loyalty as customers will return to the store for
the great experience.
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 2 years ago
I like that idea, Vibha! Thanks for the comment.
REPLY
 Riyaz
about 2 years ago
Hey Steven, This is probably the best ever article I read over the internet. Yes,
you are roght that if you want to win the race, you have to first win the heart of the
customers. If you have served 10 customers very good and unfortunately provide
poor service to 1 customer. This single bad experience can ruin your reputation.
So one have very conscious when it comes to customer satisfaction.
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 2 years ago
Riyaz, I am humbled by your comment. Thank you so much! And you nailed it, a
single bad experience can really ruin a customer experience strategy, so it's
important to make sure every customer has a great experience.
REPLY

Kate McCready
about 2 years ago
Great article Steven. The stats in here were really useful.
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 2 years ago
Thanks, Kate! Really appreciate your comment and I'm glad you found the stats
useful.
REPLY
 Gloria John
about 2 years ago
Excellent post! Some great points you mentioned to improve customer experience
and for running a business it is a must. However if you are running an online
business then the importance of customer experience becomes more. You can
also add Single Sign-on solution to the list if you want to reduce the hurdles that
users are facing while registering to the websites. It simply allows customers to
login to multiple websites of the same organization by using single ID credential,
thus, it saves time and improves customer experience too.
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 2 years ago
Great comment, Gloria! Thank you.
REPLY

Mirian Shade
about 1 year ago
Great article Steven! You covered almost everything in order to maximize the
smooth customer experience. what comes first in the list is how you make your
customers able to understand what you offer. This depends upon how much clear
you are at your key skills and offering. Be transparent and don't confuse your
visitors.
REPLY
 Steven MacDonald
about 1 year ago
Well said, Mirian!
REPLY

Rachell D'silva
about 1 year ago
Very well said! One of the way, according to me, that can help quantify what your
customers feel about your product/service is: Ask your customers - not just how
much they like your product/service, but also what they didn't like. The best way to
achieve this is to conduct online survey which is most effective and time-saving
technique to work closely with your customers. In my opinion, survey tools are not
just to gather feedback but also generate a variety of reports for analysis. These
real-time reports can lend a great helping hand towards improving your product
and providing a greater customer experience!
REPLY

Trent
about 1 year ago
Thanks Steven for some insightful points on customer experience!
REPLY

Joana Smith
about 12 months ago
Amazing post! Some best ways you’ve stated are to capture feedback in real time
and act upon feedback regularly. Focusing on these points will certainly help to
improve your customer's lifetime value. In my belief, feedback conducted via an
 online survey tools certainly assist in achieving consistency and increased
customer satisfaction. They help to monitor and measure customer experience
data and insights as well as improve customer acquisition and retention.
REPLY

Mimi Daud
about 11 months ago
Very good insight! and thanks for sharing those stats, its really helps to convince
our top management on the way moving forward in terms of giving the best
customer experience to our customers. One thing I would like to share is that we
also have to take into account our customers' culture. Most of our customers still
prefer the human touch compare to handling machine. Such as they prefer to talk
to our call centre agents rather than talking to IVR or paying to our counters
compare to online payment or kiosk. So having said these, it only shows that our
customers service/experience have to be at the top level at all time. Your post
indeed help me re-energize my team further towards reaching our division's vision
- for our Organization to be the benchmark of others.
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 11 months ago
Glad you enjoyed the post, Mimi. Thanks for your contribution.
REPLY

Alina Dayton
about 11 months ago
It’s amazing to know the strategies of customer experience. It is essential for all
the agencies to know their customer’s thought about their services and products.
This can be done feedback and surveys and hence know users experience.
 REPLY

Jay patel
about 11 months ago
Fantastic post about customer experience strategy! Thank you so much for this
valuable post.
REPLY

Amy Elliot
about 11 months ago
Thanks, guys! Great article on customer experience strategy. Some good tips
shared here to try out with our customers to improve their experience :)
REPLY

Kaminska Zakrzewska
about 10 months ago
Personalization is the new marketing. It is important to address the needs one by
one. People have problems but the problems are different from each other.
REPLY

Kevin Dunthorpe
about 9 months ago
Through using project management software or social media tools, you can create
a closed environment where your organization can leave continuous feedback.
This is very informative article.
REPLY

Mattia Orsi
about 9 months ago
I think the best way to create a great customr experience is to give them best
services possible. Best customer service ultimately leads to best customer
experience.
REPLY

Richard
about 9 months ago
Steven, thanks for sharing these awesome CX tips with us!
REPLY

Albert Brooks
about 7 months ago
Whoa, that's what I call the useful CX article! Thanks for sharing!
REPLY
 Mark Sten
about 6 months ago
Excellent article Steven. I would like authorization to use some of the content and
images on my PPT presentations used for educational purposes only. I am an
instructor at UCLA Extension and teach marketing and ethic courses. Customer
Experience is a new part of my syllabus and your article(s) would be excellent to
include.
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 6 months ago
Hi Mark, that sounds great. Let me know if you need anything else from me.
REPLY

David Wang
about 5 months ago
I love the point on getting immediate feedback from customers. I think it's
extremely crucial to get that real-time feedback while the memory of the
experience is still fresh in the customer's head. However, I think emails and calls
are less effective as people may not check their emails often or don't like to talk on
the phone. This is where texting is extremely helpful.
REPLY

Tionge Angella
about 5 months ago
Wow! I'm glad I found this article. Thank you, I will use your information in my
exam tomorrow. This article has helped me understand better why the customer
experience is important. And in the process, I can now differentiate between
customer service and customer experience!
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 5 months ago
Thank you, Tionge! And good luck in the exam.
REPLY

Kenny
about 5 months ago
Thanks for sharing this article on customer experience. I found it quite useful.
Great job.
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 5 months ago
Thanks, Kenny!
REPLY

Verdad Chabibullah
about 4 months ago
Great article Steven! very useful for reference on my current project related with
Customer Experience.
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 4 months ago
Thank you, Verdad!
REPLY

Jordan Champ
about 4 months ago
The CX stats that you have been shown here to help grow a business are really
helpful. Thank you!
REPLY

Sahib Singh
about 4 months ago
A truly refreshing article about customer experience. Being from the customer
service sector, I am always looking for great content about this subject.
REPLY

Serena Way
about 3 months ago
Great write-up. Very useful! Creating a unique customer experience is one of the
best ways to achieve sustainable growth, particularly in industries that are
stagnating. If a telco, a utility, or an insurance company can create a highly
differentiated customer experience that turns dissatisfaction or indifference into
delight, it will recruit an army of vocal advocates online and offline, gain market
share, and generate revenue growth. The best companies deliver these value
propositions by focusing the entire company on delivering them. An emphasis is
put on cross-functional collaboration.
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 3 months ago
That's a great comment, Serena. You absolutely nailed it!
REPLY

Jessie Ferris
about 3 months ago
This is an awesome strategy for customer experience! Thanks for these tips.
REPLY

Michael
about 3 months ago
Very nice strategy steven, for providing a great customer experience and we will
definitely look to adapt these tips for our customer support team. Thanks for the
guidance.
REPLY
 Steven MacDonald
about 3 months ago
Thanks, Michael!
REPLY

Claire Suaverdez
about 2 months ago
Great tips!
REPLY

Clayton Cross
about 2 months ago
Thanks for this post! I haven't heard of half of these. Get Satisfaction is one I
would also recommend!
REPLY

Beth Fluto
about 2 months ago
Great post Steven! I'm just a little confused if this was written this fall or 3 years
ago looking at all the comments. Thanks!
REPLY
 Steven MacDonald
about 2 months ago
Hi Beth, thanks for the comment! The article was published 3 years ago, but I
continue to update it each time Temkin publish their annual Customer Experience
Ratings study.
REPLY

Clarence Hopper
about 2 months ago
Good explanation on how customer experience differs from customer service.
Great job and keep doing it.
REPLY

Grace Olu-Majek
about 1 month ago
Thank you so much! This article has really assisted me in creating a good
strategic plan for my customer experience team. I very much appreciate it and
look forward to more articles on this topic.
REPLY

Sheela
about 2 weeks ago
Thanks for sharing helpful information on customer experience!
 REPLY

William A. Adu
about 2 weeks ago
Brilliant piece. Straight to the point and it is a time tested piece of information.
Have practiced most of the CX strategies before and they work perfectly provided
one gets the implementation and the monitoring and evaluation of same right. I
love it . Thumps up. Cheers!!
REPLY

Jessica Cing
about 2 weeks ago
Mr.Steven, I don't know how to address you but I was wondering if I can also use
some of the information and pics for a project of mine. I found these tips highly
helpful.
REPLY

Steven MacDonald
about 2 weeks ago
Hi Jessica, of course. Just remember to link to the source material.
REPLY
Leave a Comment

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