Customer Experience: The Definition
Friendly customer service, good support and a solid product—while important, they're not enough to create an outstanding customer experience. Customer Experience (or CX for short) encompasses every interaction a person has with a brand or company. That includes everything a customer hears, sees, and experiences in connection with a business.
The customer experience is the overall impression of a customer forms about a company based on these interactions. It begins with the very first point of contact—whether that's a blog post, a conversation, an advertisement, or a recommendation. Each of these touchpoints influences how someone feels when engaging with a company.
So, as we can see, customer experience isn't a one-time event—it's an ongoing relationship between a brand and its customers. Put simply, it reflects the company's reputation in the eyes of its audience.
5 Reasons Why a Great Customer Experience Matters
1. Retain customers: The customer experience has a direct impact on customer loyalty off. The more positive the experience, the more long-term a customer ties to a company.
2. Securing competitive advantages: No matter which product or service is involved — someone in the world is guaranteed to have a similar offer. An outstanding customer experience is a way to set yourself apart from the competition. An advantage that can be used to undermine the competition.
3. Increase sales: Companies that strive to provide the best customer experience typically see higher revenue growth. Why Like the third Customer experience study According to KPMG, satisfied customers not only buy more often and more often, but also reduce customer service costs (which can be complex and expensive if things don't run smoothly in this regard).
4. Strengthen brand loyalty: If customers feel emotionally attached to a company, they can become brand advocates and recommend products or services. A positive image and a high level of customer loyalty can only be created with a positive customer experience.
5. Increase willingness to pay: When customers have a positive experience, they're willing to pay higher prices for products and services. This is proven by a study by PWC: 16% of consumers surveyed accepted a price premium for a better customer experience
To attract and retain customers, a good customer experience is essential. Those who focus on their customers are more successful and strengthen their position in the market. That proves the Customer Experience Excellence (CEE) Study 2023. The auditing firm KPMG surveyed 7,000 people in Germany and included 215 companies from eleven industries. The result of the study: In terms of customer experience, the top performers were able to show a 20 times higher revenue increase in the last five years than the weakest 10. What did the top performers consider when designing their customer experiences? They have focused on improving the factors of empathy, integrity, personalization, expectations, problem-solving skills, and time and effort as part of their customer experiences. They were also able to use AI technologies to create tailor-made customer experiences and optimize existing processes.
What makes for a great customer experience?
In order to create the most positive customer experience possible, it is important to adapt your own offering to the individual needs and expectations of your customers. Companies can make adjustments to a good customer experience:
- Personalization: It has proven effective to address customers individually. Present them with relevant content and experiences tailored to their interests and wishes.
- Convenience: Customers love simple, uncomplicated processes. Both when buying and using websites or apps. The more efficient, accessible and user-friendly the contact with a company is, the better.
- Responsiveness: Does the customer have a problem? Companies should react quickly and answer customer inquiries promptly. Automation, self-service options, or helpful customer service can be very useful for this.
- Friendliness & competence: Friendly service and the necessary empathy to empathize with the needs and emotions of customers have never hurt any company. Meet customers with understanding and empathy. In addition to competent advice, this contributes significantly to a positive customer experience.
- Trustworthiness: Customers buy from companies they trust. Work proactively to build that trust. Protecting personal data is essential in this context.
Creating a customer experience is teamwork
The crux of creating a positive customer experience: Many departments are involved. Close, cross-departmental cooperation and good coordination between different areas of the company are essential when designing a Customer experience strategy fundamental.
Who does what?
Sales → The sales team is responsible for providing personal advice to new and existing customers. Smooth purchasing processes are crucial to keeping the customer promise.
marketing → The marketing department should clearly communicate what their products or services do and don't do. Consistent brand messages help to manage expectations in a targeted manner and ensure that they can be met.
Service → One good customer service enables the customer to successfully use the purchased product. Supporting customers quickly and in a solution-oriented manner sustainably improves their experience and contributes to customer loyalty.
Product → Products and services should deliver what the customer has paid for. They must be intuitive, functional and tailored to the needs of customers. The task of the product team is to continuously improve the offering — based on the customer's product experience and corresponding analyses.
How chatbots improve customer experience
AI chatbots are a very useful tool for improving your customer experiences. They are available around the clock, provide quick answers and personalized recommendations — almost automatically in addition to ongoing business. Especially in e-commerce or customer service, they can reduce waiting times and make processes more efficient. AI chatbots quickly and efficiently capture the specific preferences and needs of their users without having to draw on data that has already been collected. With the help of dynamically collected information, they can, for example, make individual product or action recommendations — just-in-time, 24/7 and without the involvement of employees in a company. In doing so, they offer a flexible and privacy-compliant solution for a positive customer experience.
Best practice examples: Ideal customer experience in practice
There are many companies that rely on chatbots to offer their customers an ideal customer experience. In the following, we'll look at three practical examples that show how it works.
Fressnapf uses AI chatbot in highly frequented customer service
Fressnapf shows how an AI chatbot can be successfully used in customer service. In 2021, the pet supplies provider was faced with an enormously high volume of service requests as a result of a product launch. The new, technically complex GPS tracker for dogs was popular — but due to the Corona crisis, there were numerous restrictions, which is why too few employees were available to provide product advice. The introduction of an AI chatbot, which could provide high-quality answers to any number of customer questions at the same time, resolved this problem quickly and efficiently. At the same time, Fressnapf was able to collect valuable feedback about the product and systematically evaluate this data. Sounds exciting? Click here for detailed case study by Fressnapf.
Product recommendations in the e-commerce shop ensure sales are completed
Petromax sells equipment for outdoor kitchens in its online shop, among other things. Here is an interactive chatbot used to make it easier for customers to choose a Dutch oven. Step by step, the chatbot guides prospective buyers to the ideal product (Guided Selling). For example, the AI chatbot asks how many people they want to cook for or whether Dutch oven feet already exist. The answers from the potential buyer are processed in real time by the AI chatbot to guide them to a product that best suits their individual requirements.
Top customer service even in times of high workload at Velux OSO
Velux OSO is responsible for the B2C online sale of Velux brand shading solutions via various websites and marketplaces. As is often the case in e-commerce, the team had to deal with many recurring questions. At certain times of the year, there were strong peaks in the volume of inquiries that were difficult to manage. An AI chatbot is used to ensure competent advice even at weddings. Velux OSO was able to reduce manual work in live chat by around 75%, which relieved employees in particular. Since customers were now able to access the company's support services around the clock and even on weekends and find quick help with their problems, their experience also had a positive impact. The result was an optimized customer journey and an improved conversion rate of 50%! For complex product ranges, such as the one from Velux, the chatbot provides valuable advice that quickly pays off. Learn more about how Velux OSO a moinAI chatbot successfully implemented.
Conclusion: The best customer experience wins
Companies can make their products and services irresistible — if they create the best possible customer experience and shine with every customer contact. The smooth interaction of many departments plays an important role in this. The use of AI, for example in the form of chatbots, can be a valuable help in this context. The use cases for this are numerous. Along the customer journey, bots can improve the customer experience at various points and provide companies — almost incidentally — with valuable information about their customers. Those who take their customer's experience seriously also gain a competitive advantage. By integrating innovative technologies, such as AI chatbots, companies can Customer journey Make it more customer-friendly. A sustainable investment that pays off in the long term.
