Content Marketing
How to Create a Powerful Customer Experience Strategy

How to Create a Powerful Customer Experience Strategy

March 20, 2018
3 min read

The adage “the customer knows best” has remained with good reason. In today’s highly competitive marketing environment where your potential customers have endless options, you must cater to the idea that customers (and potential customers) are king with a superior customer experience (CX) across your entire marketing strategy.

CX, often confused with user experience (UX), is the summation of all the interactions a customer has with your brand—from quick, precise transactions, to long-term communications. As much as the CX can appear to pertain strictly to B2C interactions, setting forth a superior CX is becoming an increasingly critical factor for successful B2B companies as well.

Achieving a superior CX may seem as simple as delivering good customer service, and in some ways, it is. But modern CX really does dive deeper than traditional customer service tactics; with social media and online spaces set to remain among the main avenues of research and communication for your prospects and customers, digital CX is more important than ever. If your business hasn’t sketched out a comprehensive CX blueprint to date, have no fear. Here are 3 ways to craft a successful CX strategy.

Get Everyone on Board with Your CX Strategy

First and foremost, make sure everyone in your organization is aware of and onboard with your brand’s CX strategy. It doesn’t matter how major or minor a player he or she may be, everyone in your organization needs to understand the tactics associated with your CX and how it reflects on your brand.

Discrepancies in your CX strategy amongst staff can lead to brand disasters, internally and externally. Internally, not having your entire staff up to snuff on CX policies can lead to disputes in how your brand approaches customer interactions, which translates to external problems. Customers aren’t going to trust your brand if you deliver an inconsistent or inconvenient CX—and with other options at their fingertips, it unfortunately just takes one discrepancy to turn an active lead into a memory.

Deliver Timely and Personalized Communication

Communication is the most important aspect of CX in today’s marketing climate; there are more channels than ever where customers can voice their satisfaction or frustration with your CX experience, subsequently broadcasting it to millions of viable leads. Customers are able to communicate with your brand and tell others about their experiences through:

  • Social Media
  • Review Websites and Platforms
  • Blog Comment Sections
  • Email

Social media is a double-edged sword; customer’s actions on social media can be largely beneficial or detrimental to a brand. Customers that have a satisfactory CX can be a crucial conduit to garnering further business for your brand. In fact, 71% of consumers that have a satisfactory experience with a company on social media are likely to recommend that company, resulting in more positive impressions of your brand for potential clients and customers1.

It’s tantamount that you respond to inquiries, reviews and shoutouts on social media in a timely manner. Address bad reviews by reaching out to affected customers and finding out what went wrong, and how (or if) your brand can mend that customer’s experience. If they’re willing to engage you, take the conversation to a private message or medium where you can hash out the details. Shoutouts and positive reviews should also be acknowledged in a timely manner; by recognizing individuals who are interacting with your brand, you’re building their relationship with your company.

The same principal follows for review websites ranging from Yelp to your Google search engine results page (SERP) reviews. 85% of consumers value online reviews just as much as personal recommendations2; if your brand is absent from responding to positive and negative reviews alike, customers will interpret your brand as not valuing their opinion, and in effect, their patronage.

Customers that raise concerns or offer praise through direct emails to your company should be treated with equal value; direct responses from your brand addressing their communication will build their trust in your company, and show them the human element in your organization. Email can also be a viable option to address communications from other channels—like social media—to really build trust in your brand. By reaching out directly to a customer by email after they leave a grievance on a review site can show that CX matters to you and reestablish trust.

Evolve Your CX With Customer Needs

It’s crucial to remember that your CX strategy is a constantly evolving part of your brand; what’s set in stone one day could easily change overnight. The catalyst of change for your CX strategy is your customers; as their wants, needs and desires change, your brand’s CX strategy has to change accordingly in order to maintain engagement and relatability.

Allowing your CX strategy a level of viscosity when it comes to rolling with the never-ending change of your customer’s perceptions of your brand is critical. That’s why it’s so important to have a data-driven marketing strategy in place. Your brand is constantly on display on every channel it exists on, and therefore, being able to actively engage on a changing stage with individual customers shows you care and provides a serious leg up on the competition.

Want to couple your CX strategy with smart, ROI driven marketing? Reach out to Sagefrog Marketing Group today for a consultation.

Sources:

  1. Social Customer Service Infographic, Ambassador
  2. Local Consumer Review Survey 2017, Bright Local

4 thoughts on “How to Create a Powerful Customer Experience Strategy

  1. Drew Mercer

    Hey Mark, Great read as always! This one hit close to home for me. As you mentioned there are many things that impact CX. For a CX strategy to be truly comprehensive, the company should not overlook what callers hear when placed on hold or are navigating the phone system! Callers on-hold are interested, listening, and about to speak to someone… why not share helpful information that can grow business?

  2. Mark Schmukler

    Thanks, Drew! Great point! An on-hold message can touch on a variety of topics that the caller might be interested in (events, new service, etc.). It’s a perfect time to provide a prospect with valuable information that they might find helpful while waiting. Thanks for the insight.

  3. Ticklast-Emediong

    Very impressive article. You are really on point. When you understand your customers needs. You win the sales and your customers win the value.

  4. Mark Schmukler

    That’s right. Thank you for your comment.

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Mark Schmukler

Mark Schmukler, CEO and Co-founder of Sagefrog Marketing Group, brings more than 30 years of global marketing and consulting experience to the agency, leveraging his B2B background to lead brand strategy and business development. Headquartered in Doylestown, PA with offices in Philadelphia, Princeton, Boston and Washington, DC, Sagefrog is a top-ranked B2B marketing agency with specialties in healthcare, technology, industrial, and business services. Founded in 2002, Sagefrog’s mission is to accelerate client success through branding and strategy, websites and digital, content and inbound, and traditional marketing services. Visit Sagefrog.com or call 215.230.9024.

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