How to Become a Customer Experience Leader

How do brands become customer experience leaders in today’s customer-centric economy?

The customer experience is becoming as important as the product or service. In fact, 66 percent of consumers abandon a brand following a bad experience.

Consumers are smarter and more informed than ever and, in today’s era of consumer choice, a complete, consistent, cross-channel experience can easily be the deciding factor in purchase decision. Yet some businesses are falling behind with their service and experience strategies.

Start by cultivating a culture for success

According to Forrester Research, the best customer experience providers have an internal culture of great service. Treating your employees well is an important part of becoming a customer experience leader rather than a laggard. Engaged employees who feel appreciated are more likely to buy into the brand promise and go the extra mile for customers. Additionally, fostering an internal culture that prioritizes delivering an exceptional experience will help lay the framework for building a strong customer experience.

Customer experience is something that comes crosses department boundaries, so no team should be acting in a silo – not even customer service. Every level of the organization and every department should be aware of the customer experience brand promise.

Listen to your customers

Customer experience expert and 1to1 Media Editor-in-Chief Mila D'Antonio of pointed out that customer experience champions are listening to their customers to truly understand their needs and motives. Customer experience leaders do more than just collect feedback from consumers and use it to improve interactions. While feedback is an important part of developing and refining a customer experience strategy, and negative feedback can be even more valuable than positive feedback because it offers an opportunity to learn and improve, taking it a step further to really understand the customer’s purpose and intent can differentiate your brand from the competition.

Know when to do it yourself and when it makes sense to outsource

For organizations that may struggle with the time and resources necessary to keep pace with the rapidly evolving customer experience landscape, taking advantage of business process outsourcing (BPO) can improve the brand’s service and experience. A good customer care BPO partner makes it their business to deliver the best customer experiences on behalf of your brand, while adopting your brand identity completely.

Next steps

Becoming a customer experience leader is an investment that requires commitment, but it is absolutely necessary in today's customer-centric economy. Customers are savvy and resourceful, with high expectations, and they are quick to abandon a brand if they don't receive the experience that they are looking for. Investing now in improving your customer experience is a smart play for brands that want to get ahead of the competition.

How does your company create a great customer experience? Let us know in comments below.