What is customer experience?
To put it simply, customer experience (also known as CX) is the impression that your customers and prospects are left with after they interact with your brand, across all touchpoints, and at different stages in the buyer’s journey.
The people and product elements of your brand are especially significant in influencing customer experience. Are your customers impressed by the performance and quality of your product? Does it meet their needs? Are they happy with the level of service you provide when helping to solve their queries? These are just some of the factors you need to think about to create a great customer experience.
With a good CRM platform, you can store information about your customers and their interactions with your brand. Having access to this data will allow you to better understand your customers, to be able to provide them with seamless, personalised experiences which lead to increased customer satisfaction, retention, and sales.
Why is customer experience so important?
Now, this might seem obvious but delivering a great customer experience is key to the sustainable growth of your business. If a customer has a positive experience with you, they’ll be more likely to purchase from you again and become an advocate for brand, resulting in increased sales and revenue.
Not only that, but customers today have all the power. Thanks to the internet, consumers now have access to a wide range of options and all the necessary resources to educate themselves and make purchase decisions on their own.
Therefore, trying to compete solely based on product or price is no longer enough in today’s market, and that’s why it’s so crucial to create the best customer experience for your customers and prospects.
Here are 5 ways CRM can enhance customer experience:
1. Improved customer service
A good CRM platform will allow you to gather a whole host of information about your customers; this might come in particularly useful when customers contact you with an issue as you can view every previous interaction that they have had with your brand. With this information, you can quickly and resourcefully communicate a solution to their problem and your efficient response leaves them impressed. No matter the size of the issue they have faced, your high-quality customer service has reassured them of your brand, encouraging them to remain as a loyal customer.
Likewise, you can view customers who spent a significant amount of time on your FAQ page. Perhaps you could implement a plan to send communications with regards to your guides and supporting documents, in the hope that it may pre-emptively answer any more queries that the customer may have, which might also lead to a sale of your product/service.
2. Better understanding of your customers
Following on from the point above, not only does having access to a whole host of data about your customers allow you to deliver fantastic customer service, but it allows you to understand your customers on a more personal level. Learn about who they are, their preferences and engagement behaviours, to target them with relevant communications, at the right time, via their preferred channels. This means you can tailor offers to them that suits their individual needs and purchase history, improving their experience and increasing revenue for your business.
3. Personalised communications
An advanced CRM platform will allow you to segment groups of customers based on different behaviours and characteristics, automate sending them tailored communications based on various triggers and map customer journeys to personalise their experience. Sending your customers communications that are personalised and relevant to them will increase satisfaction and retention, and drive sales.
4. Keeping in touch with your customers
Customers expect to hear from the brands they love on a regular basis. A CRM equipped with marketing automation tools will allow you to communicate with your customers regularly, sending them relevant and timely messages based on their activity across various touchpoints. You can use marketing automation to send communications on birthdays or when they don’t complete an order on your website, which might contain a promo or discount code. Communications like these will provide a positive customer experience with your brand and encourage customer retention.
5. Create a consistent customer experience
Inconsistent interactions with your brand will leave customers feeling confused, making them less likely to purchase from you (or purchase from you again). Therefore, consistency is key in building customer experience and is imperative in driving customer retention. Customers expect to be treated with a level of consistently every time they interact with your brand. CRM can help you to create consistency by automating processes, for example, automating responses to customer requests or an email to thank them and inform them of next steps when they fill out a contact form on your website. This will help to build a strong brand image and stronger customer relationships that drive customer retention.
So, there you have it, 5 ways that CRM can help to enhance customer experience. As you can see, utilising a powerful CRM platform to improve customer experience will allow you to create a competitive advantage, leading to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty and ultimately driving sales.
