Enhancing customer experience should be the prime focus of businesses who wish to win over their customer loyalty and improve their customer retention score.

Keeping in mind that the global economy is going through a rather ambiguous time, augmenting customer experience and improving customer service should be the prime focus of every business. Since these two are very hot topics that are being discussed widely all over the world we must start implementing strategies to get the best of this before it’s too late. A sudden increase in online shopping was observed after the lockdown was imposed resulting in the closing of shops and businesses, people were forced to observe shelter-in-place and opt for limited options to get their everyday essentials delivered on their doorsteps.

Markets now have changed, delivering personalized services online, meeting customer expectations, on-time deliveries, and maintaining minimum human contact has been a challenge. When many brands were able to smoothly adapt to the transition, small businesses with limited resources have struggled to make ends meet. When we look at the stats and studies conducted by various leading and trustworthy sources, one thing is for sure, today’s consumers are more into a good customer experience, quick resolution of their issues, and faster responses from customer service reps. Calling consumers impatient would be a bit too much since the no. of choices now has increased exponentially, it is easier to switch brands after a single bad experience than to wait for hours or days for your issues to get resolved. Customers now are more loyal to brands that appreciate their time and their choices.

Did you know? "69% of U.S. adults shop more with retailers that offer consistent customer service online and offline", according to Forrester.

It’s a game of choices now, and this doesn’t limit to small brands or businesses even the most popular brands suffer from Customer churn if they fail to provide a great customer experience.

Why companies should focus on augmenting Customer Experience

There are many reasons for businesses to start focusing on augmenting customer experience, let’s talk about the top three reasons:

1. Customer Satisfaction is the key to driving business growth

Understanding and comprehending what your customer needs is important, but delivering as per customer demands and meeting their expectations is the game changes. Satisfied customers turn into loyal customers and the chances of them giving you more business than the new customers are higher. According to Forbes / Arm Treasure Data, “74% of consumers are at least somewhat likely to buy based on experiences alone”

2. Significantly

Lower the customer churn rate, by improving customer experience, you can lower the risk of losing customers. When you deliver what you promise and that too exceeding or at least meeting customer expectations, there are lesser chances of customers leaving your brand for another brand. Unless it’s a choice clash and you don’t have what the customer is looking for, then they will leave no questions asked. You can still leverage the opportunity and request them to provide you feedback on what didn’t work out, it will give you access to information about what’s missing at your end and lower the chances of losing more customers because of limited options. It's not necessary however exit surveys do give a lot of insights about what didn’t work out and how you can reach out to them in the future with a better customer experience.

3. Improve the chances of strengthening relationships with your customer base

By delivering a personalized customer experience you have better chances of strengthening your relationships with your overall customer base. It increases the chances of better ‘word of mouth’ marketing and increases customer loyalty. According to Siegel+Gale, 64% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand to others if it offers simpler experiences and communications. Positive customer experience helps maintain brand image and improve brand success and further creates a strong long-lasting customer relationship.

Providing customers with exceptional customer service, regularly asking them to provide feedback about their experiences, and delivering as promised is key while making each and every customer feel special and unique, and positively contributing towards making a business successful in the long run. At Dropthought we believe that to build a sustainable relationship with a customer, we must value their feedback. We believe in building a situation-based and feedback-centric client engagement plan that will not only help businesses to leverage the data collected abundantly but also if done right can turn into a long-lasting opportunity to keep your customers intact and keep the revenue bar up and running.

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