Growth, revenue, and new customer numbers are sexy and relevant to all the stakeholders in the management team, these top-line numbers have thus become the metrics that matter to the CMO. Yet we need to be aware that those are not the metrics that build true business value for the long term.
Businesses should start looking at customer retention more proactively. Currently, most are still looking at new acquisitions; however, with the fierce competition in the digital space, customer retention has never been more important.
Digital experience – transactions and interactions - now lie at the heart of a company’s relationship with its customers. CX is the business and there’s no turning back.
According to the CMO council’s recent study, “73% of frustrated consumers are considering moving on and spending their dollars elsewhere.”. Companies now have a mandate to improve their digital experiences and ensure consistency of interaction at each stage of the sales cycle. To do that effectively they need a systemic approach to building relationships with their customers. Because customer experience is the result of collaboration across the entire organization and how we engage with customers matters.
Recent experience shows that there are a few critical factors driving customer engagement where we need to put more attention to:
📌 PERSISTENCE – according to Conversica with the accelerated shift to digital now it takes 11-15 touches to drive engagement
📌 PROMPTNESS – recent studies show that more than 50% of customers expect an immediate reply and attention to speed is only rising. Our inaction is directly impacting the customer purchase decision - if not us, then somebody else.
📌 PRIVACY-FIRST – trust is paramount, customers are becoming increasingly sensitive to and aware of the dangers of identity theft and account takeovers. There is a big push to establish better protection against hacking and fraud to be considered reliable because that directly affects the life of the customer.
📌 PERSONALIZATION AT SCALE – it can be automated, yet in a large number of businesses remains still to be implemented. Personalized calls to action can achieve up to 202% higher conversion rates.
📌 PERFORMANCE - based on data, marketers need to orchestrate that customers receive highly relevant messages more efficiently and drive engagement by answering, supporting, adding value by solving customer problems:
Digital experience is a core competitive challenge for a business to resolve. Customers are happy to digitally self-serve and appreciate the speed and the convenience of the omnichannel approach But, They get frustrated when their needs aren’t met and when they can’t escalate their challenges to traditional in-person mode. When digital fails, humans should be part of the solution. Because the vast majority of customers want to do business with companies where they matter and those that make the interaction simple, easy and safer, and relevant.