5 Reasons Why You Need To Improve Customer Experience

Face the truth: your customers know you and your product/service better than you do. So, if you still rely just on price or big budgets to earn their trust, you will always leave out one key factor: the customer experience. And this trend will only accelerate. If you try to swim against the tide, you will find out - probably too late - that the world around you has evolved and you’ve been left behind. Ready for a change? There are at least 5 reasons why you need to improve customer experience.

In our world, shaped by mobile technologies, customers ... they don’t necessarily need 'you'. When they search for a specific product, they can now choose from a potentially infinite set of suppliers from all over the world. Why should they pick you out? Product quality standards are higher than ever, and price is not the main brand differentiator anymore. Plus, they could probably find a better deal somewhere else. So what's the essence of success in a landscape so uncertain? Experience is the keyword you're looking for.

Technology disruption has empowered people, with the result that the market balance has tilted in favor of the customer. A customer-centric strategy becomes mandatory, provided that it does not translates just into discounts/coupons but an overall renovation of the way you think and act. There are multiple steps that guide this process and enable the outcomes your customers demand. While by no means an all-inclusive list, here are 5 reasons why you should improve customer experience, starting right now.

1. Your competitor is already doing it: the fact that you’re not investing in customer experience doesn’t mean that your competitor is not either. A recent research by consulting firm MarketsAndMarkets states that ‘customers experience management' will be worth 8.39 billion dollars by 2019. Odd if you think that, no later than 10 years ago, this Google keyword search string didn’t even existed.

2. Physical and digital blend in: today, brands are well-aware that client life cycle can’t be reduced just to the physical environment they’re submerged in. The emergence of game-changing devices - from smartphones to wearables to virtual reality headsets - is merging digital and physical, shaping a new reality where the customer is able to experience both at the same time.

3. Experience is the real deal: since experience replaces price as the key factor to stay top of mind, strategic focus will increasingly be on the design of that bridge that connects clients and brands. The customer journey map becomes a necessary tool to understand how people interact with your product, in-store and online. This will function as a qualitative and quantitative filter for your decisioning process, guiding you to make better decisions in a proactive approach to customer engagement.

4. Customers want personalization: when dealing with smart, connected customers, personalization is not just an option. It is the very future of the shopping experience. Combining the knowledge supplied by big data mining with proximity marketing technologies (iBeacon, push notifications, geo-fencing), companies are now able to truly know their customers, and tailor-make contents and offers to better meet their individual needs and wants.

5. Emotions become critical: in an age shaped by technologies, where objects communicate without human intervention (Internet of Things), customers ask for a deeper and meaningful relationship with brands. Neuromarketing studies confirm the emotional connection you build with your client and employee is the key driver of engagement and loyalty. This is true for any industry, but most of all for luxury & fashion firms investing in their sense of exclusivity.

Empowered customers demand a compelling connection with your brand, a seamless journey across all channels and touch points, an easy and fast conversion path: in one word, an amazing digital customer experience. This is the answer to understand why customer experience managament has become so critical to head out on the long path of digital transformation.

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To help you ensure a strategic advantage to your organization, learn about the DCX 7-Steps Checklist crafted by Neosperience, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation.