Customer Experience Strategy and Approach
Next, we wanted to see exactly how invested these businesses were in promoting growth through delighting customers and how they’re doing it. It turns out that 92% are either “highly” or “extremely” committed to providing a superior CX. In addition, higher performing brands are more likely to indicate that they are extremely committed to providing a superior customer experience.
Despite 92% stating that they are “highly” or “extremely” committed to providing a superior CX, only 62% are confident that they have a customer-centric culture.
A customer-centric culture correlates with being extremely committed to providing a superior CX, as well as higher performance (as measured by brand NPS and Google star rating).
That being said, only 58% of non-customers say that they have a formal CX strategy. Very surprisingly, 40% reported having no established CX strategy whatsoever. This marks a massive gap between the 92% reporting a commitment to a superior CX and those who are actually taking steps towards it.
Of those who do have a CX strategy in place, NPS is the most common method for collecting insights, followed by unsolicited feedback and other forms of email surveys.
Regardless of the method, the importance of gathering intelligence from customers can’t be denied. A whopping 83% indicated that customer feedback is crucial to their businesses. This reinforces the trend towards increasing feedback and CX efforts in 2019 and 2020.
With such an emphasis on the importance of customer feedback, it’s not surprising that more than half of the respondents say customer feedback is “highly” or “extremely” influential in their decision making.
One in four say customer feedback is ‘extremely’ influential in strategic decision-making at their company.
While the vast majority of companies are collecting feedback from current customers, an impressive 59% are gathering feedback from former customers as well. There is something to be said for breaking up customer feedback into different segments to examine the customer journey.
Customer-facing employees are a source of insight on the customer experience for 46% of companies.
Surveying at different points in the customer journey allows businesses to identify:
Practices to avoid or improve before, during, or after a service
Customers often have strong opinions about things such as parking, scheduling, waiting times, employee behavior, billing, and other nuances of your service. Tweaking practices based on these responses can mean the difference between a loyal or a lost customer.
Why former customers left and if there is a chance to win them back
Potential to win future business from past customers or prospects who aren’t quite ready to buy yet.
Consider doing targeted marketing or sending special offers to this happy group.