And tips on getting started
Some describe customer experience (CX) as the way a customer feels about your brand whenever they do business with you. But a more actionable definition of CX is how you make a customer feel whenever they interact with your brand.
Over the years, digital retailers have amplified the importance of CX. The convenience of online shopping, immediate gratification of next or even same day shipping, and responsiveness to customer requests have raised the bar for consumer expectations. For better or worse, these expectations have transferred to B2B, professional services, and practically every other market. But in order to really understand the importance of CX, you need to see the numbers. These five statistics provide the most compelling reasons for prioritizing CX.
Reason #1
Our digital, connected world provides easy access to multitudes of competitors, regardless of your industry. With this statistic in mind, taking CX for granted can lead to significant customer churn.
Reason #2
Businesses can reduce customer churn by 67% if they provide the right customer experience.2
Positive CX has a nearly identical benefit for customer retention. But what is the “right” customer experience? When a customer’s problem is solved during the first interaction with support, and their expectations are appropriately managed.
Reason #3
42% of consumers will pay more for a superior customer experience.3
In a global marketplace, many businesses find themselves primarily competing on price in a “race to the bottom.” But many people are willing to pay more for a similar product or service if they are confident in receiving exceptional CX.
Reason #4
This number may seem rather high, but considering that ~80% of US adults from 18–64 use social media,5 it may actually be an understatement. CX can provide free promotion that comes with the veracity of a personal recommendation.
Reason #5
80% of businesses believe they provide exceptional customer experience, but only 8% of consumers agree.6
This is called “the experience gap,” the difference between an organization’s opinion of the CX they provide and how their customers actually feel about the CX they receive.
This indicates that for businesses that truly prioritize CX, there is a tremendous competitive advantage.
Tips for Any Organization to Improve Customer Experience
Get the Right Contact Center Technology
The contact center is the heart of an organization’s customer experience. Indeed, 71% of consumers prefer human interaction over automated solutions.7 But 71% still expect companies to offer options for self-service.8 That’s where Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platforms come into play. They enable a business to maximize the effectiveness of their agents while leveraging advanced automation features. Here are some of the key CCaaS benefits for CX:
Omnichannel Inbound and Outbound Communication
Including phone calls, text messages, email, SMS, and even social media platforms.
Intelligent Call Routing
Compares detailed customer data against the contact center agent roster to find the best service match.
End-to-End Business Analytics
All the information you need to understand your business’s CX and the intel to improve it.
Self-Service Options
Including chatbots, service portals, and AI-powered apps for customers who want to help themselves.
That is just the beginning of what CCaaS offers to contact centers. The potential benefits for CX go even deeper, especially in terms of management and facilitating remote work.
Get the Right Technology Partner
There are many options for CX technologies. Even when limiting the scope to CCaaS platforms, Mitel, RingCentral, and Talkdesk all offer comprehensive solutions, and your business may require a mix of technologies, such as specialized reporting like BrightMetrics. This leads many businesses to invest in CX technologies that are incorrectly integrated or may simply be the wrong fit. They’re left with expensive toolboxes that are not of much use.
That’s where your technology partner comes into play. An expert CX consultant helps ensure that you not only choose the most applicable CX technologies but that they are priced to your advantage and integrated effectively. Here’s a brief overview of how we do it at IPC:
Discovery: finding out the drivers of your business
Agnostic Solution Selection: determining which technologies align best with your business drivers
Evaluation Assistance: choosing three different vendors and being there for all the demos to ask the right questions
Pricing and Implementation Support: providing assistance in negotiation along with technical guidance to ensure the most effective integration with business processes
1 https://www.pwc.com/us/en/advisory-services/publications/consumer-intelligence-series/pwc-consumer-intelligence-series-customer-experience.pdf
2 https://www.gravysolutions.io/post/customer-churn-rate-and-retention-top-25-stats-you-need-to-know
3 https://www.zippia.com/advice/customer-experience-statistics/
4 https://www.zippia.com/advice/customer-experience-statistics/
5 https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/04/07/social-media-use-in-2021/
6 https://squaretalk.com/cx-statistics/
7 https://www.pwc.com/us/en/advisory-services/publications/consumer-intelligence-series/pwc-consumer-intelligence-series-customer-experience.pdf
8 https://www.zippia.com/advice/customer-experience-statistics/
Customer experience is a powerful competitive advantage. A positive CX addresses cross-industry customer trends, increases customer retention, adds value to products and services, and is poorly addressed by most businesses. IPC Tech can help you find and implement the best CX solutions for your business.