What do you think happens when 80% of companies believe they offer a superior customer experience design yet customers say only 8% of those experiences are superior?
How about a really big disconnect.
You may have heard of the studies that show that 80% of drivers think they’re in the top 20% of drivers. A simple look at the numbers tells you that’s impossible. But we all like to think we’re better than we are.
And as you can see from above, most companies think they’re better than they are when it comes to customer experience design.
You’ve likely heard how expensive it is to have a high employee turnover rate. How costly is a high customer turnover rate? Do you know how much it costs your business to gain a customer only to lose them?
If you want to have loyal customers you need to treat them like royalty. A lot of companies treat potential customers very well through the sales process. But once the sale is made–who cares? Well, that’s at least what the customer can feel like. They have built a relationship through the sales process but now they’re shuttled off to an account representative with whom they have no relationship.
They invested time to create a relationship with one person and then get transferred to a new person and that relationship doesn’t transfer. In order for that customer to feel valued, you need a plan in place to make that happen.
Customer experience design rocks!
If you want to retain customers and improve the odds that they become long-term loyal customers, you gotta take care of them. Once the sale is closed if you fail to nurture that customer relationship, it’s going to cost you in the long run.
So what’s often missing that causes customers to do business elsewhere? The customer experience design plan. Most companies design the sales process. Many companies design a brand. But what about the total customer experience. Is that being designed?
One reason why the customer experience may not be getting as much attention is that many business leaders rise up through the ranks of sales and marketing. It simply means that customer retention is not something that’s been top of mind for them.
If you want to take care of your customers, create more loyal customers, and benefit from the investment in the sales process, you need to design the customer experience from beginning to end.
Further offsite reading: