Customer Experience (CX): Key to Your Business’s Success

By: María Rosa Puras, Insight Marketing Touch, LLC Customer Experience (CX) is the new standard to grow your business. Companies that are leaders in customer experience implementation report 65% or higher growth in revenue, profitability, and employee retention while business with average or lower performing customer experience report approximately 40% in the same metrics, according to the 2020 Qualtrics XM Institute Insight Report. Your company can also benefit from these best practices. The customer is at the core of your business. You don’t have to own a large company to implement better customer experiences. You just need to take your customers into consideration in all your business’s decisions and processes. What is customer experience? “People will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” —Maya Angelou The Customer Experience (CX) is the practice of designing and aligning processes, business decisions, and services that address consumers’ needs and expectations. The goal is not only to meet but to exceed customers’ expectations. Companies like the Walt Disney Company, Starbucks, Amazon, Apple, Uber, and Netflix are leaders in creating experiences that have transformed their industries as well as their customers. Now customers expect those same experiences in other categories of products and services. The three most important terms in customer experience are:

• Touchpoint: Each customer's interaction with your business or organization is known as a touchpoint. Every time a client communicates with, visits, or receives something from your business, that is a point of contact. Some  examples are: your communications (letters, emails, invoices, receipts), customer service, facilities, website, app, social media, salespeople, installers, receptionists, cashiers, and many more. By measuring the customer experience at each touchpoint, you can identify opportunities to grow customer loyalty.
• Customer Journey: All interactions between a customer and your business are known as a customer journey. It consists of a flowchart showing the steps your client goes through to obtain products and services, including those before and after a purchase. The customer journey map visually summarizes the customer’s path throughout the touchpoints. At each one, it summarizes how the customer feels, their actions, their expectations, and how the business exceeds or fails to meet them. This map helps businesses identify opportunities and design better experiences at each touchpoint.

• Pain Point: The customer’s frustration and dissatisfaction when their expectations are not met is a pain point. For example, a long waiting time or a mistake in a customer’s order. Identifying pain points at each touchpoint in your business can help you bridge the gap between your customer’s expectations and their experience.

How to implement the customer experience practice in your business No matter the size of your business, knowing the customer experience is vital to retain and acquire more customers. A simple way to integrate the customer experience practice is to:

• Know your client
• Identify all customer touchpoints
• Examine the client’s expectations and pain points
• Visualize the path —the customer journey— that a client follows
• Optimize the experience per touchpoint
• Keep measuring

The goal is to design valuable positive experiences that turn your customers into promoters of your business. Companies that surprise consumers with positive experiences earn more income and loyal customers. It is a winning formula for your business and your clients. How do you measure the consumer experience and what are the metrics? Click on this link to learn more. María Rosa Puras, MBA, is the founder and Chief Insights Strategist at Insight Marketing Touch, a marketing consulting and market research firm. Her company specializes in uncovering consumer insights, identifying new opportunities for brands, and optimizing marketing strategies to reach target groups at all touchpoints. She has more than 25 years’ experience working in marketing and in research studies in United States, Latin America, and Puerto Rico for leading companies including Fortune 500, multinational, international, and local firms. She has worked on Consumer Experience (CX) projects with clients in Puerto Rico as well as overseas. For more information, go to http://insightmarketingtouch.com/ This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement or guarantee of accuracy or applicability for any particular purpose. Neither Popular, Inc. (“Popular”) nor any of its affiliates, subsidiaries or related companies shall be liable for, any special, direct, indirect, or incidental damages including but not limited to loss of profits, that may arise from of be related to information or advice provided in this article, which was created by a third party. Popular provides financial services and is not dedicated (directly or indirectly) to providing any type of service related to the contents of this article. Should you require any service related to this content, you should seek the advice of a competent professional of your choice. Popular expressly denies all liability for any such advice.