Have you ever caught yourself wondering ‘why’ something is important? What are the reasons that underpin your opinion? Yes, I like ice cream, but ‘why’ do I like it so much?
Okay, so maybe understanding why you like ice cream isn’t that important. But, when it comes to customer experience, knowing the reasons that you should care about it can help you affirm your position and also garner more support.
Here are three reasons why companies should actually care about customer experience.
#1 Caring about Customer Experience is backed-up by research
There is a now lot of research available (from the likes of Forrester) that proves the impact caring about customer experience has on the bottom line. Companies that have lived and breathed customer experience for the past five or ten years are now reaping the rewards.
It's not a short-term improvement. It takes time to implement and it takes time before you see the impact. As well, it one of those where right from the top, from the CEO down, everybody needs to believe and support a complete focus on the customer. If they truly believe and if they stick to this approach, regardless of short term pressures, they will deliver results off the back of it.
#2 Established principles are changing fast and you need to keep on top of changes
You only have to look around you to see a lot of industries being disrupted, sometimes from new entrants. At company level, there are organisations like Uber and Airbnb, who are rewriting the rulebook. But, as well, there are changes coming at a legislative and compliance level. As a result, you see that more and more decision making powers are shifting towards the consumer, in an attempt to liberate the markets. This is happening in both regulated and unregulated industries.
If you’re an organisation trying to keep up with this pace of change, you need to work out how to remain relevant and make sure that your business model is adaptable enough to be a significant player in the market. To better understand the situation, the single most important source of information is with your customers.
This calls for a real time pulse checks. Any slower and you risk missing out on vital information that your customers are trying to share with you. By taking real-time feedback, at a transactional level, it means you can start to build up a picture of what is happening early on. Then create an agile organisation that is really sensitive to what its customers are saying on a day-by-day basis.
#3 If you have to ask the question, maybe you shouldn’t care...
This one is a contrarian view. But if, as an organisation, you’re struggling to decide whether or not to prioritise customer experience, then, arguably, you’re not an organisation that should focus on customer experience. From the leadership team, right down through the whole organisation, you have to absolutely believe it's the right thing to do.
Otherwise, it's going to be very hard to get the resource and support you need to make it work. And, it’s going to make it almost impossible to make it genuine in the eyes of your customers.
If you're an organisation who understands the importance of customer experience, take it to the next level in our eBook:
