Standing out from the competition can make or break your business. Generally speaking, there are two critical ways in which a company can differentiate itself from competitors: offering the lowest prices and providing the best customer experience.
This article will discuss the latter. You’ll learn how customer experience plays a significant role in any business, overtaking price and product, and how to utilize customer experience to make your business one of a kind.
What is Customer Experience?
Simply put, customer experience is a person’s overall impression of your business throughout their journey, from first discovering your brand to using a purchased product or service.
Businesses invest in various strategies to create the best possible experience for their customers — from proactive customer engagement to relationship management once the customer is on board.
Providing an excellent customer experience will increase your retention and, consequently, your profits. In fact, companies that focus on providing a satisfying service are 60% more profitable than those that do not pay attention to their customers’ needs.
This raises a big question: why do customers value their experience with a company more than price?
Why Has Customer Experience Become a Key Differentiator for Customers?
In today’s world, purchasing decisions don’t just depend on price. Companies are expected to engage with their customers and connect with them to set themselves apart from the competition.
Additionally, a happy client is more likely to recommend a business to friends or family if they had a pleasant experience.
With the rise of online reviews, social media, and easy access to information through Google, most potential customers now use the customer experience to adequately assess how a company treats its clients before engaging in business with them.
What Kind of Benefits Can Your Business Get from Focusing on Customer Experience?
A recent study has found that companies that focus on building strong customer relationships have an average revenue of 4-8% higher than their competitors. That’s pretty impressive. But what makes customer experience so powerful? And why should you care?
As a business owner, investing in improving your customer’s experience with your company can help you save on some of your resources. A happy customer is much more likely to stay with your company over time, and this gives you the option to reduce the costs you spend on marketing to acquire new clients.
Additionally, if you’re a retailer, a satisfied customer is more likely to purchase more from you, recommend your products to more people, and leave positive reviews about your business. And the more satisfied customers are with your products or services, the less likely they will seek alternatives – meaning you get to keep a higher proportion of the market share.
How to Differentiate Your Customer Experience from Competitors?
While changing how you run your business can be challenging, the quickest way to alter your customer experience is by listening to existing customer feedback.
Doing so will allow you to understand what they think of your business and where you can make improvements. You can use this information to develop a plan of action for a better customer experience and implement it with the help of cutting-edge technologies and customer management tools.
You can also look at reviews on popular sites like Yelp to see how you compare with competitors in terms of price, product quality, or service quality.
Another way to differentiate is by improving your unique selling proposition using data-driven insights from automated customer feedback platforms like Retention360. This can help you identify your most valuable customers and their pain points, allowing you to create campaigns that will seamlessly encourage them to buy more while improving their opinion of your business.
In particular, Retention360 provides you with real-time features for collecting, tracking, and analyzing customer feedback so that you can respond directly to any issues raised by your customers.
Conclusion: Customer Experience as a Key Brand Differentiating Factor
Customer experience is crucial for increasing brand trustworthiness. In today’s business world, a satisfied customer is possibly the best marketing that you can do for your business. Leaving a customer unhappy or feeling like they can’t get an answer to their requirements in time can do your business a lot of harm. Think about the number of times you haven’t visited a restaurant or a store because you read a bad review.
All businesses should aim to acquire as many customers as possible and keep them satisfied to increase the probability of them coming back. Investing in a better customer experience creates value for both customers and businesses alike. By doing so, you will become unique in their eyes, building brand loyalty and differentiating your business.
