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Customer Journey

(Re)defining the enhanced customer experience

07/12/2022

by Christine Farha

The customer experience equation: CX = (PR – E)

Customer experience, also known as CX, is a customer’s holistic perception of their experience with a business or brand. For the mathematicians among us, it can be reduced to a basic equation, Customer Experience = Perceived Reality – Expectations. In other words, if Perceived Reality is greater than Expectations, then the Customer Experience is positive.

In order to deliver an enhanced customer experience, brands must understand the journey they are intentionally or unintentionally creating.

A lifetime of exchanges

The customer experience for businesses and brands is built over different stages of the customer journey and begins the second the customer engages in their first interaction.

This first interaction takes place in the awareness stage when the customer becomes aware of the brand. Next, the customer moves through the stages of consideration, decision, retention, and advocacy. The interactions that take place in these stages can be as short and simple as a customer visiting a website or as long and involved as a customer visiting a store and completing a purchase.

The customer journey encompasses all the touchpoints a customer has with a brand, but it’s how the customer feels or perceives the whole series of interactions that produces their subjective customer experience. The customer journey serves as a roadmap towards a product, service, or offering; and the experience occurs while customers navigate through that roadmap. Take Olive and Rory for example:

Olive and Rory decide to go to a local restaurant for dinner. Although Olive and Rory will experience their own customer journey, they may be influenced by one another as they encounter the following interactions together:

• Being greeted by the hostess
• Eating their food
• Chatting with the chef who came to see how their food was

These interactions produced their customer experience. In this case, both of their customer experiences were positive. Although the hostess was rude, their food was outstanding, and the chef stayed and chatted with them for nearly 20 minutes. Customers do not base their experience and satisfaction on individual interactions but rather on the sum of all those interactions.

CX is recognized as one of the key brand differentiators of the future; so, it’s important to understand your customer’s journey and ultimately their customer experience. When developing and/or refining your customer experience, it’s critical to look at the elements that influence it.

Why an enhanced customer experience matters

CX is strongly linked with a business’ or brand’s level of convenience, responsiveness, friendliness, quality, atmosphere, and setting of expectations. When these factors are considered and properly executed, a payoff is present. Delivering a positive CX is linked to an increase in customer loyalty and customer satisfaction, as well as enhanced word of mouth marketing.

Because all businesses and their customers are equally unique, there isn’t a universal checklist to follow that will guarantee an exceptional customer experience. However, if there were to be a checklist it would likely have a large checkbox next to “listen to your customers.” Whether it is in real time or through survey responses, it’s important that businesses analyze their customers feedback and act on it regularly. Since 1 in 3 customers leave a brand they love after just one negative experience, businesses cannot afford to ignore customer feedback.

How to compete

To keep up with today’s modern consumer, businesses must embrace technology to deliver an unmatched customer experience. According to IDC, 85% of business decision makers say they have a window of two years to make significant progress towards digitally transforming, or they will fall behind their competitors.

Digital transformation is forcing companies to change their business models and adapt to the new market reality. The driving force behind this change is the customer who is no longer willing to settle for the passenger seat. Today’s customers are always connected and expect access to relevant content in relation to what they’re doing anytime, anywhere, and in the format of their choosing – it’s their journey after all.

The champions of CX

In a panel conducted with 2,000 CX professionals, companies discussed their strategies and were categorized into various levels regarding their CX competence:  Ignore, Novice, Competent, and Mature.

42% of those that were identified as “mature,” meaning they have the customer experience in mind with everything they do, and had an annual revenue of over $100M. On the other hand, 49% of “ignore” companies, those that don’t view the customer experience as a critical success factor, made less than $1M a year. The numbers speak for themselves, but the key differentiator here is that CX leaders see themselves as more customer-centric than profit-centric.

The idea behind the famous phrase, “build it and they will come,” remains true. CX leaders believe if you deliver a great customer experience, everything else will follow.

It’s time to level up

A remarkable customer experience is critical to the sustained growth of any business. The data illustrates that when customers have a positive experience with a brand, they are more likely to go beyond brand loyalty to become a brand advocate. What’s the good news? Building the framework for a great customer experience is within your control. By keeping the full customer journey top of mind, listening to feedback, choosing the right technology, and championing CX, you can take the steps needed to level up your customer experience.

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