Why Every Business Needs to Recognize Customer Experience is a Top Priority

What’s the importance of customer experience? CX is all about creating happy, satisfied customers who continue to engage with a brand and recommend its products or services to others.

No business can afford to ignore the value of long-lasting relationships with customers and the repeat purchases that follow. More than ever, it’s time for everyone in an organization — from the front lines to the board room — to recognize that the key to business success is one thing: Customer experience (CX).

Happy customers stay with a brand for years to come while creating a halo effect attracting other customers, and unhappy or angry customers will choose a competing brand without thinking twice. But without understanding the importance of customer experience, it’s a challenge to realize why CX is a top priority for all of the world’s leading brands.

Customer experience is a measure of how customers feel about a given brand based on all interactions with a brand and across all touchpoints in the customer journey. Using various types of customer feedback and customer signals, you gain insights informing high-impact decisions and fueling innovation. CX is an always-on effort, and yet it’s not an insurmountable challenge to keep up with.

Savvy brands do this seamlessly, with CX being integral to the overarching strategy as an organization.

6 Benefits of Prioritizing Customer Experience

Organizations viewing customer experience as a top priority across the entire business stand to gain in a variety of ways, ranging from improving customer satisfaction (CSAT) to increasing sales revenue. It establishes a customer-centric identity for a brand, and the result is more customers interested and choosing its products or services over the competition.

Here are the top advantages of investing in customer experience and making CX a top priority.

#1. Increased customer satisfaction

Delighting customers is often an intimidating task due to their unique preferences and expectations, but it’s worth the time and resources a business can give.

Ensuring positive experiences is an effort that pays off through increased customer satisfaction. As a result, happy customers are likely to generate referrals by recommending a brand’s products or services to others. It’ll also reduce the burden on the contact center and your agents on the customer service team thanks to fewer negative experiences spiraling into complaints.

Happy customers make a brand’s life much easier — they’re understanding in the rare occurrence something goes wrong, and they promote products and services publicly.

#2. Strengthened loyalty

Customer loyalty is everything to a business, and customers who enjoy their experiences across the customer journey are more likely to purchase from the same brand in the future.

If customers return for repeat purchases, it means a brand has strong retention. It also indicates customer lifetime value is high. Ask any business leader, and they’ll tell you both metrics are incredibly important to keeping a business’ engine running.

You can’t rely solely on new customers. Instead, you need to provide experiences that encourage existing loyal customers to engage with your brand again and again.

#3. Higher sales

Since customers who are satisfied with CX are more likely to both refer new customers and make repeat purchases themselves, brands with strong customer experience are more likely to deliver higher sales and long-term revenue.

In fact, one study found that CX leaders are 26 times more likely than laggards to experience revenue growth of 20% or more over the past fiscal year.

#4. Competitive advantage

What’s one of the biggest differentiators between a brand and its competitors? Customer experience.

Gartner found that 89% of businesses compete mostly on the basis of the experiences they offer. So not only is CX a competitive advantage to prioritize, but it’s the ultimate differentiator. Competing brands may offer similar products or services and near-identical prices, but if one brand outperforms the others with personalization at the center of its experiences, there’s a clear winner in the market.

In order to create a competitive advantage, remember to take into account digital channels including your website and mobile application. Digital experience (DX) and CX are deeply connected, and it’s why a digital customer experience strategy is necessary.

#5. Improved brand reputation

Customers want to share feedback about their experiences after interacting with a brand, and the good news is they’re actually more likely to do so after a positive experience than a negative one.

When customers are vocal about their experiences in public forums, such as on social media and via online reviews, that has a huge impact on brands’ reputations and financial bottom lines.

As many as 93% of consumers say online reviews influence their purchasing decisions, so positive customer experiences not only can enhance a company’s brand reputation but also boost brand equity and market share as well.

#6. Enhanced employee engagement

Employees want to feel heard, and it’s why organizations with best-in-class customer experience invest in employee experience (EX) as well.

Organizations listening to customer feedback want to do the same with employees, leveraging what they say and how they feel to create an engaged workforce. With a focus on employee satisfaction and sentiment, organizations retain employees and empower them to perform at a high level.

In the study of CX leaders referenced earlier, it was found that companies with top-performing CX programs are 2.8 times more likely than laggards to be viewed as a great place to work.

The Importance of Customer Experience: How to Prioritize CX

Customer experience needs to be a top priority throughout an organization. After all, CX impacts the entire company — from sales and marketing to product and people operations.

Businesses that harness customer experience metrics and insights uncovered by a customer experience management (CEM) platform have the power to drive product innovation, improve sales, strengthen loyalty, and accelerate referrals. Improved customer satisfaction and retention also go hand in hand with gains in employee recruitment, retention, and satisfaction. Top brands know this best: Happy customers, happier employees (and vice versa).

Ultimately, companies that understand the importance of customer experience and prioritize CX strategies and outcomes do better work, have happier customers and employees, and unlock a competitive advantage setting them apart from competing brands within their industry.