Four Ways a Strong Customer Experience (CX) Strategy Can Benefit Your Entire Business

Cultivating a positive customer experience (CX) is typically an important part of a company’s product strategy, but many people don’t realize the far-reaching impact of CX on the overall business. PWC found that customers are more likely to try additional services or products from brands that provide superior CX (and more likely to pay a price premium). Conversely, even when people love a company or product, 59% will walk away after several bad experiences and 17% after just one bad experience, contributing to lost revenue over time. In this article, we’ll delve into elements of a strong CX and how they can benefit your entire business.

CX Increases Loyalty

Having brand loyalty is something that every B2B and B2C company strives for. After all, it means that you’ve successfully edged out your competition, which isn’t an easy feat. Achieving brand loyalty involves numerous aspects including customers having an emotional connection to the brand, spreading positive word of mouth and having tolerance for price changes.

Apple has long been known for having an extremely loyal customer base and that didn’t just happen by chance. Steve Jobs, often regarded as a visionary in the field of customer experience, once said that Apple’s focus was to create “insanely great” experiences for its customers. Their theory was that it would lead to return visits, positive word of mouth and loyalty over time. And it did. In 2012, there were about 44.5 million iPhone users in the United States; that number has since jumped to 124.7 million as of 2022. Apple also has a 92% retention rate among iPhone users, according to Morgan Stanley. A strong CX can increase loyalty (and therefore increase revenue). While this example is B2C, it’s an important takeaway for B2B companies, too.

CX Also Improves Another Experience (User Experience)

User experience (UX) and CX go hand in hand, but just like CX, people sometimes get tunnel vision when they go about creating their UX. They’ll think about what’s the best “thing” they can build but really, you also have to think about so many ancillary efforts including the client support system, client-specific flows and touchpoints, the brand voice on the company’s website; all of these things are building blocks for good CX.

One of the core tenants of CX is understanding what your customer is looking for in a company with which they’re working. There are huge differences between ‘ideal’ B2B and B2C experiences. Recognizing these and adjusting your strategy accordingly is important. In a B2C experience, customers want to feel that your company is working alongside them. They want to feel unique. Things like a welcoming tone of voice or an open UI design help the customer feel more connected to you.

In a B2B experience, your customer wants to feel that you’re working for them and providing them the strongest service available. They’re often looking for security, stability and speed of service. Understanding and crafting your overall CX towards these different needs directly impacts the experience of using your applications. Improve your CX and better UX will flow directly from those efforts.

CX Makes You Smarter About Your Internal Processes

Understanding how to provide the best CX often involves assessing your internal processes and improving them to improve your CX as well. Consider the Domino’s Tracker, an app that gives customers real-time info on the status of their pizza, including when it’s being prepped, when it’s in the oven and when it’s ready. This app was created because Domino’s learned that customers wanted direct insight into the status of their pizza. Their solution was this app, which gives much more advanced clarity in an easy to understand format. Domino’s Tracker uses their proprietary Pulse point-of-sale and back-office-management system in order to function. A former Domino’s executive said after loading on consumers’ systems, the app periodically communicates with the chain’s public web servers, which in turn talk with Pulse over a secure virtual private network. Consider the many internal processes involved with getting the Pulse app to communicate with this customer-facing technology. This is a perfect example of a company improving their CX and thereby having the chance to improve numerous other processes at the same time.

CX Helps Establish a Strong Brand Identity

Having good CX plays a huge role in creating brand differentiation and identity. American Express, for example, is a company that’s always had a strong brand identity, from both a B2B and B2C perspective: trustworthy, aspirational, easy to do business with. One way they’ve cultivated this identity is by putting a major emphasis on CX. American Express’s customer care team is highly trained to meet the needs of their customers. In fact, they’re actually taught to adapt their interactions based on customers’ personality types for better connection. They’re also not pressured to reduce call times, they’re simply empowered to do whatever it takes to solve the customer’s problem. This has led to a 400% increase in customer retention and four consecutive years of being ranked number one for customer service among credit card companies by J.D. Power. American Express’s emphasis on CX has played a major role in creating the brand identity it’s so well known for.

Based on these examples, it’s easy to see that the true impact of good CX goes way beyond product strategy and actually encompasses your entire organization. Having such a pivotal role in shaping customer loyalty and sustaining revenue demonstrates how vital it is for businesses to prioritize and enhance their CX strategies.

About the Authors:

Joe Dallacqua is a Senior Principal Consultant and has over 20 years of UX/design experience. He’s worked with Fortune 500 companies, startups and everything in between. Joe is passionate about using storytelling and UX design to solve complex problems.

Ryan Finco is a Principal Product Strategist with Sparq. He’s been working in the product space for 20+ years, and has assisted over 80 organizations, ranging from startups to fortune 100 companies, in crafting their product-centric delivery and operations.