Delivering a great customer experience isn’t just about your customers feeling good and becoming your brand advocates. The link between a better customer experience and increased revenues is undeniable — for most businesses, customer referral is the cheapest form of new business, and one that delivers the highest value customers.
But achieving high levels of customer advocacy doesn’t just deliver in terms of referrals to your business. It enables you to take the focus off price and the pressure to be the cheapest in the market: a competitive platform that is unsustainable in any industry (as even the spectacular failure of the discount chain stores has recently demonstrated).
Gary Tucker, Senior Vice President for J.D. Power and Associates, a global marketing information firm that conducts independent research into customer experience, product quality and buyer behaviour says, “The Data now clearly shows that people will pay more for a better customer experience.”
J.D. Power’s customer experience research has shown a high correlation between customer experience and three vital types of customer behaviour:
- Willingness to buy more
- Reluctance to switch
- Likelihood to recommend
This perspective is supported by the results of a 2014 global study by American Express into Customer Service.
The 2014 Customer Service Barometer found that 74% of consumers said they had spent more with an organisation because they’d received excellent customer service.
How much more? An average of 14%, up from 9% in 2010.
Imagine the impact on your business of being able to charge a 14% premium on your products and services, just through delivering an exceptional customer experience.
Sometimes the value in your business is not in your product or service and in an increasingly competitive landscape, it’s you that’s your you-nique selling proposition – it’s how you deliver on that experience that dictates how your customers view your brand.
Lift your service game and lift your profits.
