Customer experience vs service?

Customer service is central to your strategy but only one aspect of the overall customer experience. Customer experience is a wider term and includes interactions and experiences your customer has with your business throughout the entire customer service and both before the service and after.

For example, During the ‘Eat Out to Help Out Scheme’ I dined out at various restaurants across Hull and while I was in the restaurant not one asked for feedback over and above the usual mid-meal check in of “everything okay?”. Regardless of the quality of the food and service in the establishment, the experience before and after was relatively non-existent. As a business coach, I could instantly see a number of potential avenues for helping their business. develop their customer experience.

86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.

Don’t compete on price, compete on customer experience.

My Top 3 Tips

1. Understand your customers

To really understand customer needs and wants, a business needs to be able to understand and empathise with the challenges that your customers face. Invest in a long-term relationship because when you understand who they they are, their pain points you are able to deliver a unique, more personalised experience for them. Understanding your customers is paramount in deciding how, where and when you will communicate and add value to your customer experience.

2. Reciprocity

Give first and give last. Offer value both before they ever become a customer and follow up after they have.

63% of people don’t go back to a past supplier for reason of “Perceived Indifference” now isn’t that interesting?

Perceived indifference develops when there is a drop in communication. Humans are hard wired to perceive indifference with a negative bias and so indifference towards a business will ultimately result in a subconscious negative view of that business over time. Combat this with positive personalised value offerings after their custom and keep nurturing that relationship.

3. Feedback

Get feedback. Get it from customers and staff alike. Not only will this improve customer experience but actions taken on staff feedback will strengthen your team.

What customers value in customer service:

Service is still a cornerstone of the customer experience.

PwC research puts these as the top 5 things customers value in a service:

  • efficiency
  • convenience
  • friendly service
  • knowledgeable service
  • easy payment

Some of the most common causes for bad customer experiences involve: 

  • Difficult purchasing processes
  • Negative experiences with customer service
  • Lack of communication and follow up
  • Ignoring customer feedback

Conclusion

One sentence:

Happy customers will be loyal long term.

 

If you’d like any more info or just a quick chat you can book a meeting with me via the link below
https://calendly.com/chriswharram/15-minute-assessment-call