Experience is everything: Why CX must sit at the heart of your strategy

In today’s market, customers hold the power. With ever-growing choice, lower switching costs and amplified voices through online platforms, a single bad experience can have huge consequences for your business. 

According to research by PwC, up to 32 % of customers would stop doing business with a brand they love, after just one bad experience, and over half will walk away after several bad experiences.

What do we mean by CX?

From the website, to the store, to the product unboxing experience. Apple are CX leaders.

At its simplest, Customer Experience (CX) is the aggregated perception customers form of your brand, based on all the interactions they have with your organisation, across any channel. This includes the earliest moment of awareness, throughout their time as your customer, and post completing a purchase or exiting their relationship with your organisation.

It’s not just about the product or service. It’s about how you make the customer feel, how seamless or clunky the journey is, and how well you meet their needs and expectations.

Why CX matters

Happy and impressed customers will quickly share their positive experience with others

• Outcomes that grow revenue: When customers feel appreciated and experiences go well, companies may realise a price premium and higher loyalty.

• Retention and cost-efficiency: Loyal customers cost less to serve over time, and the cost of customer churn is enormous. In fact, neglecting customer-centricity costs companies $160 billion a year in churn.

• Competitive differentiation: As products and services become more commoditised, and competition ever quicker to hit the market, experience increasingly becomes the differentiator.

• Reputation and advocacy: A great experience turns customers into advocates; a poor one into detractors that will be vocal about their experiences.

• Employee experience and alignment: Excellent customer experience begins with excellent employee experience. If they are motivated, empowered and supported by the right culture and systems, employees will deliver the same positive experience to your customers.

  
  

The risk of ignoring CX

• Customers won’t wait: One bad experience can trigger customers to abandon your brand.

• Poor investment decisions: Without understanding the fundamentals of customer and employee needs, investment in more technology, new products and marketing campaigns will not pay off.

• Internal misalignment: Non-existing or poorly communicated strategy, data and department silos will reflect in an experience that is inconsistent and frustrating for customers which will erode trust.

Key takeaway

A focus on customer experience or investing in CX Design is not just a 'nice to have' or a department level issue to tackle. CX and customer-centricity must be embedded into your organisation’s culture, strategy, systems, products, and services.

Your organisation will gain a sense of clear purpose and achieve higher performance by creating inclusive services, taking a human centred and systems thinking approach, and applying the CX lens.

When customers are more than a transaction and the organisation is aligned in supporting them, you not only unlock better outcomes and loyalty from customers, but also sustainable growth and resilience for your business.