What is customer experience?

Why is customer experience so important?

Great customer experiences are key to success in today’s markets. But customer experience is far more than a customer service function, it’s a core business capability that is focused on improving the end-to-end journey for every customer.

Numerous studies have demonstrated the business benefits of improving customer experiences; it can improve customer retention, convert customers into fans, and help grow the business through referrals.

The TRACX marketing team has produced a customer experience stats infographic that illustrates the importance of customer experience to modern businesses.

How do you measure customer experience?

Measuring the customer experience is essential. As Peter Drucker once said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”. Luckily, there is an accurate and common method used to measure customer experience — the CX survey.

Customer experience surveys shouldn’t overly long or complex (after all, this would be a terrible experience!), instead, there are a number of short, simple questionnaires that have been adopted as best practice.

1. NPS® – Net Promoter Score
2. CSAT – Customer Satisfaction
3. CES- Customer Effort Score
4. PMF – Product Market Fit
5. Smiley Faces
6. Thumbs Up & Down
7. 5-Star (and other star ratings)

The different customer experience surveys can provide insight into customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and the ease of interaction between your customer and your business.

Which survey is right for you will depend on your customer experience strategy, and what you are seeking to learn about the customer experience.

What is a customer experience strategy?

While it is important to measure customer experience, the goal is to learn accurate insights to will improve your business. This means that you must have a clear understanding of what you are measuring, from who, and why. A good strategy for capturing quality data is to ensure that you have the following in place:

1. A well defined profile of the customers you wish to obtain feedback from;
2. A customer journey map that identifies key touchpoints and interactions with your business;
3. A process to capture feedback from customers, safely and efficiently;
4. A platform to quickly analyse the data captured and product business insights.