What Makes Good Customer Experience? – Would You Buy From You?

What makes good customer experience? Would you buy from your own business if the tables were turned? What strategies should businesses employ to ensure their customers have a smooth and enjoyable experience when dealing with them?

This article discusses what the customer understands to be a great customer experience. Business owners should focus on improving these areas so that customers feel valued and appreciated.

For businesses, creating a great customer experience is one of the most important elements of success. After all, having happy customers is key to building a strong, loyal customer base.

What Is Good Customer Experience?

Customer experience and customer satisfaction are inter-related but different.

Customer experience defines the customers overall impression of your business from initial contact right through the purchase process and whether the customer felt valued by your business.

For example how easy the customer found it to interact with your business at different touchpoints during their customer journey – easy, difficult, poor service etc.

This impression is what causes the customer to decide whether or not they will do business with your business brand again. A bad experience will drive the customer away!

Customer satisfaction, on the other hand, measures how happy the customer is with your products or services. It is generally dependent on the customer experience.

A good experience translates into increased levels of customer satisfaction. Keep in mind the customers help generate your revenue, but it is the employees that deliver the customer experience!

Customer experience is not dependent on customer satisfaction.

What Makes Good Customer Experience?

So, what makes a good customer experience? What is the customer looking for?

While you will encounter the top 5 customer listed requirements below (Walker Information 2020), there are a host of other things customers are looking for also discussed below

• Speed
• Convenience
• Consistency
• Friendly Employees. 
• Human touch interaction

Friendly and Professional Employees

The first thing that makes a good customer service experience is having friendly and professional staff who are well trained for the job. Customers want to feel welcomed and valued when they interact with your business.

They want to know that their asks and concerns will be addressed and that they are being treated with respect. Friendly and professional staff can make all the difference in building a positive relationship with your customers.

This means, that you must equip your employees with the necessary business tools and training to provide great service and guide the customer in the decision making process.

Of course this will be of no use if you have hired employees who are a poor fit for your business because of poor job descriptions!

Consistency in Customer Service Behavior

Good customer experience should be consistent across all channels. This means that customer service should be the same no matter how customers interact with the company, whether on the phone, in the store, or online.

This ensures that customers are satisfied with their purchases regardless of the platform they use.

Provide Clear and Accurate Information

Another key to a good customer service experience is providing clear and accurate information. Customers want to know they are getting the information they need to make informed decisions. They don’t want to be left in the dark or given false or misleading information.

Personalization and Convenience

With technology advancements, customer more frequently encounter AI and chatbots especially at the initial stages of interaction for inquiries or even general customer service issues. This can never substitute the human touch. 

Businesses need to integrate multiple options of contact for customer convenience such as phone, website, ai, email, etc.

Remembering the previous experience of customers or tailoring recommendations to their needs can be enhanced by using a simple Customer Contact Management (CRM).

Making the Digital Experience Easy

While providing clear and accurate information in-person or over the phone is more easily understood, this should also hold true for your website – if you have one.

There is nothing worse than a customer having difficulty navigating your website because of poor structure only to find outdated information. Such customers end up leaving for “greener pastures”.

If payments can be made online, then simplifying this process and providing the customer with options go a long way in enhancing the customer experience

Quick Response Time

Another important aspect of a good customer service experience is having a quick response time. Customers want to know that their concerns are being addressed quickly. They don’t want to wait hours or days to hear back from your business.

What is Good Customer Experience? – Showing Empathy

Empathy comes naturally to some but not all people. Employees need to be trained to be empathetic even in the most grueling customer interactions.

Customers want to feel like their concerns are being understood and that the business cares about their needs. Empathy can be shown by listening actively to the customers, showing understanding of their concerns, and trying to come up with solutions that cater to their needs.

Follow-up

Customers want to know that any concerns they contacted you about have been addressed and that they are being taken care of. Follow-up can be achieved by checking in with customers after a service call or by sending them a survey to fill out and rate the service.

Prioritise Continuous Improvements

Businesses need to be constantly looking for ways to improve the customer service experience. This can be achieved by tracking customer complaints, providing training to staff, or regularly conducting surveys to gather feedback. Other ways include:

• Acquiring in-depth knowledge of who your customers are and their changing needs
• Creating a consistent customer experience strategy
• Monitoring to address customer pain points
• Keeping track of customer churn for resolution

Conclusion – What is Good Customer Experience

By providing customers with a good customer experience, businesses can ensure that customers remain loyal and keep coming back for more. This can help build a strong customer base and ensure customers are satisfied and remain loyal.

For assistance improving your customer experience, CONTACT US TODAY

References

Experience is Everything. Get it Right – PwC

Walker Information. Customers 2020 – A Progress Report: More Insight For a New Decade

7 Things That Make A Great Customer Experience – AskNicely

What Makes a Great Customer Experience? | Mindful (getmindful.com)