Digital Marketing Basics

Customer experience is the collective perceptions, emotions and interactions that a customer has of a brand through the entire customer journey.

It includes every touchpoint, from initial awareness and consideration, to the actual purchase, post purchase support and even advocacy and repeat business.

A positive customer experience is crucial for building brand loyalty, increasing customer retention, and fostering positive word-of-mouth recommendations. It involves understanding and meeting customer needs, delivering exceptional service, and creating memorable moments that leave a lasting impression. High-quality customer experiences can differentiate a brand in a competitive market and lead to long-term success.

Understanding and improving customer experience (CX) should guide today’s marketing strategies. Why? Because a delightful customer experience fosters loyal customers, advocates for your brand and is a surefire way to differentiate your business in a marketplace that’s becoming increasingly crowded. Starting a business is easier than ever, and as more people are looking for a better work-life balance, consumers have a lot of choice.

Benefits of Customer Experience

We all remember the bad customer experiences. They stand out – for all the wrong reasons. As business owners, we want to create a memorable experience – for all the right reasons. Weaving an excellent customer experience through the entire journey brings countless benefits:

Enhances Brand Loyalty

Customer experience is the emotional connection your customer has with your brand. A pleasant experience at any point during their journey can create a loyal customer who is not only more likely to return but also to recommend your brand to others. This emotional bond is what sets your brand apart and helps your business thrive.

Increases Customer Retention

Investing in the customer doesn’t just create a one time buyer. It cultivates a long term relationship. Satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat customers, and given the chance, they may even become lifelong clients.

Drives Business Growth

Word of mouth advertising, which stems from exceptional customer experience, is one of the most powerful drivers of growth. If you’ve ever seen a construction firm with no branding on their van, yet they are booked up months in advance for work, that’s word of mouth marketing. You’ll find that delighted customers don’t just come back, they also bring others with them.

Create a First Class Customer Experience

It’s not enough creating one off customer experiences, they must be consistent, through the entire journey. CX begins far before a purchase is made and extends much farther than a ‘thank you’ email post-sale.

At the Awareness Stage

This is the start of the journey, where your potential customer becomes aware of your brand. Your goal here is to stand out and leave a lasting, positive impression.

Clear Brand Messaging

Your messaging must be compelling, consistent, and easy to understand. Can you explain exactly how you can help your customers in a simple sentence? Answer the questions your customer may have and clearly indicate what makes your brand unique.

Engaging Content

Create content that provides value to your audience. But this isn’t information you find valuable. It’s what your customers will benefit from. Solve little problems and give them small wins to move them along in their journey. It builds trust and gives them confidence in what you say is true. Whether it’s through informative blogs, social media engagement, or entertaining videos, your content should aim to connect and build relationships.

During the Consideration Stage

As customers move into considering your product, they’ll be looking for validation and personal connection with your brand.

Personalised Interactions

Use customer data to personalise your interactions. Tailored recommendations and personal touches go a long way to making a customer feel understood and valued.

Seamless Omnichannel Experience

Ensure a consistent and frictionless experience across all channels – your website, social media, apps and physical locations if you have them. A customer should feel that they’re dealing with one unified entity.

At the Decision Stage

When customers are ready to make a decision, the last thing you want to do is introduce any hurdles. Keep it simple and smooth. Offer multiple ways for them to reach out to you if they have questions – chat, email and social media. Meet the customer where they are at.

Easy Checkout Process

Simplify the buying process as much as possible. Minimise the number of clicks to purchase, and offer multiple secure payment options to suit your customer’s preference. If you can, create a one step checkout process. Keep the information you collect to a minimum and deliver a website experience that’s fast and secure.  

Prompt Customer Support

Make sure help is readily available. Use tools such as a chatbot or offer phone and email support to provide a quick and helpful response. This could be the deciding factor between a sale and a bounce (to a competitor).

In the Post-Purchase Stage

The journey doesn’t end when a customer makes a purchase; in a way, it’s just begun. Continue to nurture your relationship with your customer.

Onboarding Process

If you sell a service, deliver a seamless onboarding experience. Send a prompt email to thank them for their purchase and send a welcome pack (for service businesses) which sets out what they should expect and who to contact if they have any queries. Include frequently asked questions and direct them to relevant resources on your website to help them make the most of their journey with you.

Seamless Order Fulfilment

Alternatively, if you sell products, make sure the order fulfilment process is seamless. Order emails sent promptly, dispatch notifications distributed and a surprising and unexpected unboxing experience for the customer are all little touches that go a long way.

Feedback Collection

Ask your customers to feedback regularly. It’s a priceless source of information that can be fed back into the customer journey to improve their experience. It’s also a way to make improvements and show that your customers opinions matter.  If you add feedback loops into the customer journey, keep them brief. No one likes a 50 question survey. Limit your questions to between 5 and 10, and offer multiple choice to make the experience more effective, with optional text boxes to add additional information if the customer wants to.

Continuous Engagement

Keep in touch through post-sale communications, encourage loyalty programs or provide exclusive special offers. Incentivise referrals and repeat business. These continual touchpoints demonstrate that the customer relationship is important to you.

Creating a first-class customer experience is not a one-time project—it’s an ongoing philosophy and practice. It should be embedded in everything you do, from the content you post to the interactions you have with prospects through to the service you deliver to customers. Always be on the lookout for areas to improve and innovate. Every interaction is an opportunity to delight, and in doing so, you solidify the foundation for a thriving and growing customer base.

Tools and Resources to Manage Customer Experience

With an increasing reliance on technology to deliver products and services to customers, you can use the latest online tools to improve Customer Experience too. To refine the customer experience, you can make the most of digital tools available to make the process easier and more efficient:

Customer Feedback Surveys – For direct insights into customer satisfaction. Tools such as Google Forms and SurveyMonkey can help you construct and distribute surveys at different points in the customer journey.

Online and Offline Customer Reviews – These are windows into your customers thoughts. Encourage the process of leaving reviews on products and services, whether this is through email, social media or third party platforms such as TrustPilot.

Customer Journey Mapping – Visualising the customers touchpoints with your brand can shed light on areas that need improvement. There are many customer journey mapping tools available such as Smaply and Canvaniser.

If you incorporate these tools and strategies into your marketing and sales approach, you’ll be well on your way to providing a first-class customer experience that sets your brand above the rest.

Customers don’t just buy products or services; they buy experiences—and those experiences will define the success of your business.