Customer Experience Vs. Product: What’s More Important?

- What makes customer experience so important? Is CX’s link to customer loyalty, profits and satisfaction true?
- How to create CX strategy at your store: A 5-step plan you can start implementing right now.
- Who’s the real winner? The battle between the product and CX.

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Studies predict that by 2020, customer experience will become more important than not only price but also the product itself.

This doesn’t mean that companies should stop concentrating on high-quality products. Rather, they should pay more attention to this new battleground and start combining high-quality products with equally high-quality customer experiences.

While earlier, companies were creating competitive advantage with lower price points and higher product qualities, today it is not enough.

The real power of growing your store is in the hands of your customer. If you’re only profit-oriented and completely neglect customers, you’re just asking to have your profit-seeking butt whopped!

“The customer experience is the next competitive battleground” Jerry Gregoire

Customer experience is how your clients perceive their interactions with your company. A concept that is easily defined but not as easily implemented.

If you are reading this article, it means that you understand the importance of customer experience and want to improve it. You should feel proud!

The main problem with companies today is that they have false assumptions about the customer experience they provide. When asked, 80% of companies thought they provided superior customer experience, however, only 8% of customers agreed with it.

Something that is worse than not having good customer experience tactics is not having a good customer experience tactics and ignoring it like 80% of the companies.

What makes CX so important?

Today, shopping transformed into something new. It is not a need-based activity anymore, but rather a chance for some new experiences. In fact, experiences are one of the main reasons why clients keep visiting physical stores instead of shopping online.

If that reason is not enough for you to start investing in customer experience then let us show you additional benefits that it brings to your store!

Customer loyalty

CX plays an important role when it comes to customer loyalty. 89% of US consumers are willing to move to a competitor due to bad customer experience.

One of the main reasons behind losing customers is not price nor quality of the product, but poor customer service. If you’ve been ignoring your customer service department, it’s about time you change your mind.

For this, you should organize your business in a way that focuses on the needs of your customers. As we already mentioned, one of the main motivators for visiting stores is the experience itself.

This means you should analyze every touchpoint and look for ways to make this experience more enjoyable.

Increased profit

Another reason why organizations focus on customer experience is the profitability. Yes, customer experience costs money, in the forms of additional staff, technological innovation, time dedication, etc. but the outcome not only pays off but gives businesses extra value.

This is not an old legend, this is a proven fact. Clients confess themselves that for having better experiences they are willing to pay more!

According to 15 000 international respondent survey, 42 % of customer’s said they would pay extra for pleasant and friendly experience, while 52% would pay more for a faster service and efficient customer experience.

The choice is all yours, use this trend in your favor or let your competitors take advantage and steal your customers!

Improved brand image

Statistics above show how important experiences are for customers. Hence, improving the customer experience at your store will guarantee a positive promotion from your customers that cost you nothing!

A customer that is satisfied after getting their problem resolved will promote their positive experience to 4-6 other people. With the help of customer experience, your business will gain positive word-of-mouth as well as valuable feedback on social media.

67% of people make a purchase with a business after being recommended on social media like Facebook or Twitter. But do not forget that the true value of customer satisfaction lies beyond monetary incentives. It gives you and helps you retain loyal customers.

Customers that will be your ambassadors and supporters!

How to improve CX at your store

1. Understand the real value of CX

Customer experience needs full dedication and investment. It is not something you do quickly once without future revision.

On the contrary, it is something that needs constant supervision and improvement. Since customer experience is all about the customer, you should be always following your new customer preferences and trends. Using your visitor’s insights for understanding the true value of your store and drawbacks that need improvement.

This is not an easy task and that is why you need to understand the true value of customer experience and realize its benefits to keep yourself always motivated and eager for improvements.

2. Identify your customers

Every improvement in CX should be done with your customer in mind. The true protagonists of your business are your clients. You need to understand who they are and what their preferences are to optimize your services and offers accordingly.

Qminder helps your store to identify who your customers are and what they are looking for when interacting with your business. With these insights, you will be able to personalize your services for buyers and achieve high customer satisfaction.

3. Create a customer journey map

To understand and better visualize the processes that your customer goes through when visiting your store, consider creating a customer journey map.

This will help you:

• Determine customer touchpoints with your business.
• Reveal the experiences that they value the most.
• Show you whether your business goals are aligned with customer needs.
• Assist you in improving and enhancing customer experience.

4. Interact with customers

Emotions are the building block of positive experiences. To build and strengthen emotions, you need to interact with your customers. A simple hello or goodbye, while a nice though, are simply not enough anymore.

Be willing to go the extra mile to build an emotional bond between your business and your customers. Emotionally engaged customers are more loyal, have higher lifetime value and are more willing to continue with the new purchase.

That is to say, people appreciate being valued. You can achieve this with a positive mindset, willingness to assist, and taking active interest in what your customers are thinking.

One of the stronger ways of creating an emotional bond is referring to your customer by their personal name. This makes them feel appreciated and sets you apart from other companies that treat their customers like a nameless mob.

5. Constant improvement

Trust us, you will always have room for improvement. Make sure to keep an eye on your customer feedback, be it online or in real-life interactions.

Always try to identify the aspects that your customers like the most and the ones they don’t. This way, you will be able to focus on your strengths while minimizing the impact of your weaknesses.

Customer experience should always be a work in progress. The ideas of what is and isn’t a good experience changes rapidly, and the quicker you adjust to these changes, the better the outcome you will yield.

Product vs. customer experience: And the winner is…

You can scream “Copout!” all you like, but the idea behind this article wasn’t to figure out a clear winner. To focus only on one ingredient of your store’s success is to spoil the entire dish.

Only by integrating all the main aspects of your business and focusing on their improvement as a whole will you be able to achieve success.