Customer Success = Sustainable Growth + Profit

Setting Your Customer Experience Strategy

As we move quickly through the end of the year, goals are being set for the next four quarters. Most companies start by setting sales and profitability goals. Driving profitable revenue is the key and the customer experience is at the center of that. 

For over 30 years, I have been creating strategies, taken them through implementation and course corrected with execution. They were always focused on what we considered essential – People, Product & Promotion. Consistently, the customer experience was part of each one of these, then one day, we realized that the customer experience needed its own segment. The first year, we had double digit sales increases and a leap in profit. After three years, the business had grown profitably with a stronger, loyal base of clients, targeted customers moving to long-term clients and extensive prospects. 

According to the Tempkin Group, companies that focus on CX, will grow incrementally 70% in three years. A Walker study found that at the end of 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator, 45.9% of companies have the customer experience as their number one priority. Now that those statistics have your attention, you need to get your organization focused on CX. 

 To build your Customer Experience Strategy, you need to focus on five key elements:

1.    Voice of the Customer (VOC). How are you listening to your customer? More importantly, how is your team listening throughout the organization and what changes take place as a result? Identify the modes through which you will communicate with your customer then determine how that information will be shared through your company.

2.    Set metrics. What metrics are important to your business? There are many measures for customer success including CSAT (customer satisfaction), NPS (net promoter score), CES (customer effort score), CLV (customer lifetime value), churn, acquisition, and retention. Identify how you will acquire this information, what you will do with it along with your standards for success.

3.    Reroute the customer journey map. This needs to be done frequently, especially as we have seen in the last year how quickly things can change. How are you taking your customer from pre-purchase, to purchase to post purchase? 

4.    Identify your goals for Customer Success with the customer experience. As a result of an improved customer experience, determine what is considered success and how long that will take. Look at the segmentation of your customers and who is driving your business as a partner with tangible results. 

5.    Look internally. Review your processes and how they are reflective for customer success. Evaluate your departments, teams, and individuals for their commitment to customer success. 

The goal here is to build profitable revenue streams that gain prospects, grow customers, and retain clients. According to PwC, 86% of customers will pay a premium for better service, nearly 20% more. Conversely, PwC also found that 1/3 will leave a brand after one bad experience while 92% will completely abandon a company after two negative interactions. It costs five times more to acquire clients than it does to retain them. Bottom line – increase revenue and lower expenses to drive profit.