Providing an exceptional customer experience (CX) is a cornerstone of business success, and there are strategies you can consider for customer experience management on any budget. So, there’s no reason not to put a strategic CX plan into place in your business.
However, there can be many elements to coordinate and consider. Even determining where to start and which areas to focus on can seem overwhelming
That’s okay. We’re here to help.
Customer Experience Management (CXM) is the practice of creating and managing a positive and impactful customer experience across all the various touchpoints of a business — online and/or in person, by phone, email, text, chat, etc.
An exceptional CXM plan involves understanding your customers’ needs and designing processes and systems that meet those needs. It also includes consistent CX monitoring, evaluation and adjustment, and measuring of results.
The goal is to not only improve customer satisfaction, but also build relationships and loyalty, and ultimately increase the lifetime value of your customers.
Basics of Customer Experience Management for Any Budget
Here are some of the basic elements of any customer experience management plan:
Understand Your Customers’ Needs
The first step in creating a positive customer experience is to understand your customers’ needs and wants. For example, this can be achieved by customer surveys, focus groups, and social media monitoring.
By gathering Customer Intelligence and feedback from your customers, you also can identify — and then minimize — pain points as well as find areas for improvement in your products and customer experience services.
Map the Customer Journey
You also need to map the customer’s journey. This involves identifying all the ways your customers interact with your business, from the initial contact to post-engagement follow-up.
Once you’ve mapped the customer journey, you’ll know where to focus your CX efforts. You’ll also be able to identify areas where you can make your customer experience even better, such as reducing wait times or simplifying the process.
Train Your Employees
Your employees are an essential part of the customer experience, and it’s crucial to train them in how to provide excellent customer service. This includes teaching them how to handle customer complaints and how to go above and beyond to exceed customer expectations.
By investing in quality coaching and training programs — including Call Coaching, Sales Effectiveness Training, and Quality Manager Leadership Training — you can create a culture of exceptional customer service that leads to loyal customers.
Monitor and Measure Customer Experience
Monitoring and measuring customer experience is essential to identify areas for improvement and track your progress over time. Some of the metrics businesses use to measure customer experience by implementing Omnichannel Quality Monitoring include:
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Customer Effort Score (CES)
- Customer Retention Rate
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Average Resolution Time
- First Response Time
- And many more
By tracking these metrics regularly, businesses can identify trends and take action to improve the customer experience.
Implement Low-Cost Solutions
There are low-cost solutions you can implement to help improve your customer experience without breaking the bank.
For example, providing self-service options, such as FAQ pages or chatbots, can reduce wait times and provide quick answers to common customer questions. Another low-cost solution is to implement customer feedback surveys to gather feedback on the customer experience.
Leverage Technology
Technology can be a powerful tool in CXM, and there are tools available at different price points that you can use to improve your customer experience.
For example, speech analytics provides the ability to review 100% of the calls they receive for any combination of words and phrases, while Human Verified AI Quality Assurance provides the added ability to monitor for tone, inflection, cadence and emotional intelligence.
Contact Center Analytics Tools also can be helpful to turn customer insights into action.
Implementing Customer Experience Management for Any Budget
Creating and managing a positive customer experience is essential if you want to retain loyal customers and stand out from the competition. While implementing CXM strategies can seem daunting, there are low-cost solutions you can start with and then grow as you go.
Make the entire process faster and easier by working with an experienced third-party vendor like ARC. For more than 25 years, we’ve been helping companies empower and transform their CX teams. In fact, elevating your CX score is our key performance metric.
We invite you to get in touch with us to discuss your company’s goals and needs. Contact us by using this form to book a call or by calling 1-800-397-3515. If you prefer email, you can contact us at info@arcqs.com.
Whatever your budget, by investing in CXM, you can create a culture of exceptional customer service that leads to loyal customers and long-term success.
In the meantime, you may also find our Customer Experience Optimization FAQ helpful.