Why implement a good customer experience?
Providing a customer experience is the role of all good companies that want to build customer loyalty. Remember your last good experience as a customer, and do the same with your last bad experience in mind.
Rarely will you return to a company that has exposed you to major shortcomings in terms of professionalism. However, if you have experienced something very attractive and everything has gone according to plan, you will certainly return to this company again.
Now, you recognize that, as a customer, it's essential that the whole process of your purchase goes smoothly. So you need to translate this desire to do the right thing into your business.
This article will help you understand what customer experience is, and how you can use this concept to build customer loyalty.
Definition of customer experience / CX
Customer experience is how your customers feel about your brand. It concerns the entire buyer's journey, from the front office to the back office. In other words, a company's online customer experience begins with the first click on your website and ends with the receipt of the service or product purchased.
Why is customer experience important to your business?
The better the experience your customers have during their purchasing journey, the more likely they are not only to come back to you, but also to give positive, personalized feedback. On the other hand, you'll also considerably reduce sources of dissatisfaction from less satisfied or more demanding customers.
Whatever your business, whether BtoB or BtoC, whether you sell products or provide services, the customer experience concerns you.
So, whatever your business, you have the opportunity toimprove your customer experience. A marketplace can help you personalize your products and reduce returns.
A subscription business can reduce churn or increase retention.
Finally, service companies can increase their testimonials and recommendations, and then reduce any complaints some customers may have had.
What are the results of a good customer experience?
- Increased customer satisfaction
- Increased customer loyalty
- Positive recommendations and testimonials , and improved word-of-mouth.
Today, it's the customers who have the power. Sometimes, all it takes is one bad review to lose dozens of conversions. So it's up to every company to optimize the customer journey as much as possible.
Which parts of the purchasing cycle can be improved to enhance the customer experience?
The end-to-end customer buying cycle begins when a marketing campaign is created to reach potential leads. It ends when the salesperson sees the customer's payment.
The customer experience cycle is divided into three parts. The front office, the CPQ and then the back office.
What is the front office?
The front office represents all types of customer contact. Customer service, advice and sales staff are all part of the front office.
It's the front office that will be able to generate the most revenue for the company through direct contact with customers.
The different stages of the front office.
Identify your potential customers
- Marketing creates a campaign for a new offer.
- The customer signs up, registers, gives consent and consults the information.
Turn it into a lead
- The interaction is captured and noted, and a marketing lead is created.
- Marketing targets the customer again to remind them of the offer.
- Marketing transfers the lead to sales. The lead is qualified and converted into an opportunity.
What is the link between CPQ solutions, the front office and the back office?
When a lead is created, it doesn't yet mean that a purchase is guaranteed. New services come into play to ensure that the customer's order is generated.
CPQ: configure, price and quote, is a set of standardized solutions forproducing a company's quotations. Its role is to generate quotations quickly, reduce approval times, and enable customers to move more quickly from quotation to payment.
The various stages linking the front and back office to the CPQ.
The opportunity to create a quote
- Thanks to the opportunity created, a salesperson is assigned
- The customer visits the website and is guided to create a shopping basket
- The customer requests a quote
From quotation to order
- The salesperson creates a quote with prices and delivery times, and obtains recommendations for up-sell and/or cross-sell sales, followed by discounts.
- The quotation is presented to the customer, then negotiated
- The customer accepts the quote and signs it. The sales order is generated.
What is the back office?
Once the order has been generated, there's still a whole process to ensure that the customer experience is perfect. The back office is the part of the company least in contact with the customer. In fact, it represents all the functions that aim to manage regulations, accounting, authorizations and record-keeping.
The different stages of the back office
- The customer's order includes products, services and/or subscriptions, and is then dispatched to the procurement and fulfillment systems.
- The service request is scheduled and the customer sees the status in real time
- The customer confirms that the product has been delivered and is informed that provisioning is complete and that the subscription lifecycle has begun.
- Technician installs products, customer confirms installation and uses service
- Subscription billing fees for recurring and usage charges
- The customer receives a combined invoice and tracks customer usage and views. He pays the combined bill.
- The seller sees the payment. Sales are recorded and sent to finance.
