If you want to drive business revenue and loyalty, you need to understand what a customer experience analysis is and how to act upon the results.
After all, today’s customers demand an easy, friction-free experience when they shop and CX is poised to overtake price and product as the top brand differentiator. A recent report found that 86% of respondents said they were willing to pay more for a better CX, and that number gets even bigger when additional choices become available.
How a CX analysis boosts business
The pressure for top-notch CX is fierce: Research has also shown that in many cases, brands only get one shot to make their CX the best it can be. According to a PwC study, one in three consumers (32%) say they’ll walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience.
In addition, the bottom line is at stake: A Forrester Consulting study of global enterprises found that experience-driven businesses grow revenues 1.4x the rate of other companies.
All of this means that to boost your business, you need to make sure your CX efforts meet your customer’s ever-growing demands for a seamless shopping journey.
One important method is through a customer experience analysis, which measures whether your product or service gets a thumbs up or thumbs down when it comes to CX.
What is a customer experience analysis?
A customer experience analysis is pretty straightforward. If you want to know whether you need to adjust your product mix or tweak your customer service efforts in various channels, you’ll have to analyze what your customers are experiencing right now and gain insights into what your brand can do better when it comes to CX.
With the useful insights you gain from a customer experience analysis, you will, in turn, be able to more fully understand what you customers deal with as they make their way down the path to purchase.
You might discover obstacles customers have to contend with while using your website, things that frustrate them when they call or text, or other clear reasons they aren’t staying loyal. You’ll also see what works and what you can build on.
How can you do a customer experience analysis?
- Get customer feedback. To complete a customer experience analysis and gain the best insights, the right customer data is a must. One important source of data is from customer surveys, which can be created through most CRM tools. A well-formulated and informative survey can help you get to know your customers: You can ask them to fill one out after they have made a purchase; or for periodic and ongoing feedback from loyal customers.
- Gather information from every customer channel. There is valuable data within every touchpoint you connect to your target audience, whether it is your contact center, website chats, Facebook Messenger, or Twitter handle. Make sure you collect information from every channel and that your technology platforms are able to align and combine all of that data so it can be used in analysis.
- Dig into your website. A website analysis is essential for CX insights, since it may well be the first place your customers come to check out your wares. Data visualization tools such as heat maps can help you determine which areas drive the most traffic, how many viewers scroll through each section, which parts are clicked on the most, and more. You can make sure you optimize every potential call-to-action and guide your customers to quickly and easily find what they’re looking for.
Study your customers to keep them satisfied
A customer experience analysis is, at its core, about studying your customers in order to keep them satisfied. By listening, discovering, and digging into data that tells you what customers think about your CX offerings, you can figure out what has gone wrong and figure out a way to fix it (or what has gone great and you shouldn’t change!).
With this kind of proactive, forward-thinking effort, you can boost your business through increased revenue and more loyal customers.
Keep in mind, good CX is not a “one-and-done” effort. It’s an ongoing, 24-7, 365 days a year investment in providing the kind of customer experience today’s consumers expect, and being flexible enough to shift and move in the ways they want to communicate and interact.
The only way to make sure you can keep your CX where it needs to be is to study what you’re doing, and learn from your mistakes. A customer experience analysis can make this your best CX year yet.
