"CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE" OR "CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE".

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Customer experience

The customer experience refers to the set of interactions and perceptions that a customer has during their relationship with a company or brand. In other words, it includes all the stages of the process of buying or consuming a product or service, from the search for information to the after-sale. The goal of customer experience is to create a satisfying and memorable customer experience that makes them feel valued and builds brand loyalty. To achieve this, factors such as the quality of the product or service, customer service, the usability of the purchase or consumption platform, among others, must be taken into account. In short, the customer experience, is a key factor in a company's success, as a satisfied customer not only returns, but may also recommend the brand to other potential customers.

Steps to apply customer experience in a new company

To implement a good customer experience strategy in a new company, the following steps can be taken:

1. Identify the needs and wishes of the client: it is important to know your target audience, their needs, preferences and desires in depth in order to offer them a personalised and satisfactory user experience.
2. Analysing customer contact points: identify customer touch points (before, during and after the purchase) in order to improve the customer experience at each of them.
3. Design a customer service strategy: have a specialised customer service team that is able to solve problems and meet customers' needs efficiently and quickly.
4. Offer a quality product or service: the product or service offered must meet the customer's expectations and needs, offering quality and satisfaction.
5. Personalise the experience: it is important to create a personalised and differentiated experience for each customer, to make them feel special and unique.
6. Get feedback and measure results: it is essential to listen to the opinions and suggestions of customers in order to improve the experience and adapt it to their needs. In addition, it is important to measure the results and analyse the metrics to know the effectiveness of the customer experience strategy.
7. Continue to improve: the process of continuous improvement is fundamental in a customer experience strategy, as the market and customer needs are constantly changing. Therefore, it is necessary to always be updated and willing to improve and adapt to new market and customer demands.

Tools to apply the customer experience

Some tools to apply the customer experience in a new company are:

1. Empathy map (+): helps to understand customers' needs, wants, behaviours and feelings.
2. Satisfaction surveys: allow us to find out what customers think about the products or services offered and to detect opportunities for improvement.
3. Customer experience analysis: customer behaviour is tracked during their interaction with the company to identify potential problems and opportunities for improvement.
4. Journey mapping: consists of mapping the whole process that the customer goes through from the moment he/she has a need until it is satisfied.
5. Net Promoter Score (NPS): is used to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty.
6. Customer service: it is important to have a customer service team that can resolve customer queries and problems in an efficient and friendly manner.
7. Benchmarking (+): consists of comparing the customer experience with that of similar companies in order to identify opportunities for improvement.

Success stories using customer experience

There are numerous success stories in the application of customer experience in various companies. The following are some examples:

1. Zappos: online shoe company Zappos is known for its focus on the customer experience. From the beginning, the company focused on providing exceptional service, ensuring that its customers felt cared for and satisfied at all times. This included everything from ease of navigation on their website to personalised customer service and a hassle-free returns policy.
2. Disney: entertainment company Disney is another example of a company that prioritises the customer experience. From the moment customers arrive at its theme parks, they are immersed in a magical and memorable experience that extends through all interactions with the brand. The company also focuses on listening to the needs and desires of its customers and tailoring its offerings accordingly.
3. Amazon: e-commerce giant Amazon is known for its exceptional customer service. From its easy returns policy to fast and free delivery for Prime members, the company has built a reputation for offering a hassle-free shopping experience. In addition, Amazon also collects and uses customer feedback to constantly improve its services.
4. Starbucks: the Starbucks coffee shop chain focuses on providing a welcoming and personalised experience for its customers. This includes everything from the decoration of its shops to personalised service and the use of customer names on orders. The company also focuses on social responsibility and sustainability, which has been well received by its customers.
5. Airbnb: accommodation rental platform Airbnb is focused on providing a unique and authentic experience for its customers. Through its focus on hospitality and personalisation, the company has created a community of travellers and hosts who value the human experience and interaction.

In all these cases, the application of the customer experience has been key to differentiate from the competition and build a loyal base of satisfied customers.

Why is Customer Experience important for a new company?

Customer Experience is important for a new company for several reasons:

1. Customer loyalty: If customers have a positive experience with the company, they are more likely to buy again and become loyal customers.
2. Differentiation from the competition: A good customer experience can differentiate a company from its competitors, which can be a competitive advantage.
3. Recommendations: If customers have a positive experience with the company, they are more likely to recommend it to friends and family, which can increase the company's customer base.
4. Return on investment: A good customer experience can generate a positive return on investment, as customers may be willing to pay more for a good service or product.

In short, Customer Experience is important for a start-up because it can help increase customer loyalty, differentiate from competitors, generate referrals and increase ROI. We have become accustomed to considering satisfaction and quality of service our customers as the key elements on which to build our loyalty and customer satisfaction rating systems. "engagement This places us today in the great nothingness of mediocrity (and it doesn't matter whether we are talking about a company, public administration, hospital or university, we all have "customers").

A few (quite a few!) years ago, when product defect rates were high, when a high level of quality was the exception and aspects such as support services or service level agreements (SLAs) were highly improvable, efforts were focused on improving quality. Approaches such as continuous improvement, kaizen, ISO 9001 etc. were designed to focus organisational processes on producing products or services of the highest possible quality... all with the aim of improving customer satisfaction.e, i.e, the customer's objective view of the services or products received (cost-benefit ratio). Without going any further...

...most organisations devised a variety of methods, including the famous "customer satisfaction questionnaires". in order to know the opinion that the customer had on qualitative or quantitative aspects of their relationship with the organisation, such as:

• Ease of use of the product.
• Correct packaging.
• Adequate telephone support.
• Value for money.

All these aspects made up a picture of how the customer rationally viewed the relationship with the company and where the company needed to improve further.

This approach, as logical as it may seem, I think there is only one word to describe it today:

NOT ENOUGH!!!!

In the "good old days" still it was possible to differentiate ourselves through the quality of our products or services, but this attribute is becoming more homogenised in the market, and most organisations start from a very high level of quality in their value proposition. Except in very specific cases, it is difficult to put two products side by side and differentiate which is significantly better than the other. The effect of this homogenisation is that the customer considers the attributes of product/service quality and attention as a commodity, so we have to go further... and, when the options in a "cerebral" decision are not substantially different, people make decisions based on emotions. 80% of switching customers consider themselves satisfied (but lacking "something").

Customer experience is about emotions, about how the customer feels when interacting with our organisation (and the process is a long one, starting long before it leads to the purchase of our products or services). The aim of our company is no longer to provide a product or service to our customers, but to facilitate an experience thanks to it, making it memorable. I think the example given by Tom Peters in Re-Imagine! illustrates this perfectly:

"We don't sell motorbikes. We sell the possibility for a 43-year-old accountant to dress up in black leather, drive around small towns and make people afraid.

Richard Teerlink (President, Harley Davidson)

Focusing on improving the customer experience generates emotional customer loyalty, which significantly increases the creation of fansumers, the basis of word-of-mouth (the most effective level of marketing!). A bad experience can weigh down our perception of a company for a long time.The "traditional" approach to advertising, for example, leaves us indifferent, making us not remember the brands we see. Although many organisations claim to care for the customer relationship, this is usually more a matter of individual, piecemeal efforts than a real change in organisational culture. Customer experience is deliberate, which must be analysed, planned and designed by the organisation according to the right parameters and aligned with its values and offer.

In very brief, we must first of all analysing the points of interaction between the customer and our organisation (web, customer services, commercial documentation, personnel...) and the phases of these interactions in the customer relationship cycle (commercial/capture, sales/service, support...etc.). In each of these interactions, it is necessary to know the relative importance that the customer attaches to their experience (usually low in previous phases, increasing as they grow in the relationship cycle with the company - from prospecting to sales, for example) and how they feel that our organisation satisfies them... This gap will enable us to quickly understand the areas we need to improve in order for our customers to have better experiences.

Fred Reichheld created in 2003 a metric, the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which allows to measure customer experience in a very simple way, as it is based on the answer to the following question:

"On a scale of 0 to 10, would you recommend (our brand) to a family member or friend? a close friend?

THIS METRIC ALLOWS US TO IDENTIFY AT AN EARLY STAGE A:

• Detractors: scores of 1 a 6.
• Liabilities: scores of 7 a 8.
• Promoters: scores of 9 a 10.