What makes a customer happy?

In my last post I discussed how emotions contribute to the buying decision.  In this post I want to speak about the customer experience.

Once we know who our customer is, what problem or pleasure we are offering, what emotions to address and we have them at the stage where they want to make a buying decision, or even if they have already purchased from you, what will the customer experience that you offer them be? 

Let's start with what the 'customer experience' actually is. 

In commerce, customer experience (CX) is the product of an interaction between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship. This interaction includes a customer's attraction, awareness, discovery, cultivation, advocacy and purchase and use of a service. ~ Wikipedia

It should also be noted that the customer experience is based on the customer's perception of their interactions with you and your business and not always on the facts, as such it can be difficult to satisfy all customers.  As such I always say "the customer is King, but that doesn't always make them right".  I often

• A good experience - only 1 in 26 clients complain, 91% leave - therefore a lack of feedback does not always equal satisfaction.
• Guarantees - 55% of customers are prepared to pay more for a guaranteed good experience
• Up-sold - 86% of customers will pay for an upgraded experience - airlines and the travel industry do this well where selling better experiences provide an incremental increase in revenue.  65% of companies successfully up-sell to existing clients but only 12% are successful in up-selling to new clients - demonstrating the need for trust before being up-sold.
• Knowledge and information - 84% of customers get frustrated when staff don't have answers. When customers are dissatisfied or frustrated - 13% tell 15 or more people if they’re unhappy. Conversely, 72% of consumers will share a positive experience with 6 or more people.
• Service - 66% of customers left because of poor service, of that 85% of this was preventable, with 11% of loss could have been prevented had the company simply reached out to the customer.
• Acknowledgement - 55% of service requests on social media are ignored, resulting in 84% escalating to other channels.

1. Offering a guarantee of your products / services can enable you to increase your prices.
2. Exisiting customers want a better experience and are prepared to pay for it
3. Ensure that you or your staff answer client questions or get back to them with sound answers.
4. Serve customers well, this means listen to what they are asking for, question if you don't understand, get clarity that they have what they want or need and where possible follow up.
5. Have a social media strategy that means you will deal with requests or complaints promptly.

In addition to this clients want to be treated as individuals, not numbers or a wallet.

The entire customer experience starts with knowing your customers and offering them what they most want from you.  An interesting Harvard survey found that 80% of companies felt they were creating a satisfactory customer experience but their customers were only satisfied 8% of the time ... says a lot about how much customers are listened to.  When I complete a Business Workout with my clients it is always interesting to see how much more they get to know about their customers and how to interact with them.