The market of today is immensely competitive, and the modern consumer has more options than before when it comes to deciding which business to invest their trust into. This results in businesses constantly battling with their competitors to retain customer attention and stay ahead in their industry. As a business owner, it may be extremely difficult to overcome this challenge and secure your place in the market, but the solution is quite simple – leverage the power of customer experience (CX)
Customer experience refers to the overall impression that a customer has of a business. From the moment a customer first discovers a business, until a purchase is made, customer experience includes every touchpoint and every interaction made between the customer and the business throughout the entire customer journey. Additionally, it involves any future customer engagement after purchase as well as any customer service or support interactions. In conclusion, CX revolves around how a customer feels throughout all stages of a customer's relationship with a brand.
It is safe to say that great customer experiences are the heart of successful businesses as business owners will increase customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty by providing positive experiences, which will ultimately lead to happy customers wanting to engage in brand advocacy. In contrast, when customers experience disappointing services from a business, 58% of them will completely abandon future engagement and seek products or services elsewhere. Once a brand delivers disappointing experiences it will end up with a damaging reputation in the public eye and suffer implications on its revenue. Consumer-centric businesses are found to be more profitable than those that fail to meet customer expectations, this is due to the lower customer support costs and higher conversion rates that successful brands benefit from.
It is significant for business owners to understand the importance of brand differentiators and a brand differentiation strategy to remain successful in a competitive market. The means by which a brand sets itself apart by providing a superior or unique selling point is known as brand differentiation. Businesses can achieve this by identifying their competitive advantage and making use of it to attract customers. Differentiating your brand is crucial as it allows a business to be successful in gaining new customers by creating room for them to communicate the unique benefits of their product or services to potential customers. It also ensures that a business stands out from the competition through the reinforcement of its brand identity, and it can be a key driver of customer loyalty which contributed to the overall growth of the business. Using customer experience as a brand differentiator can be challenging if you don’t know where to start, these tips should help you along the way.
5 tips on how to make customer experience a competitive differentiator
- Build a distinctive brand identity
- Offer a unique purchasing experience
- Provide superior customer service
- Leverage the power of personalization
- Capitalize on convenience
By establishing a compelling and recognizable brand identity a business will stand out from the crowd whilst humanizing the brand to make it easy for customers to emotionally connect with the business. One of the most successful methods to establish a brand identity is to understand what resonates with your target audience and use this information to create a brand that they can relate to. Despite contrary beliefs, an effective tactic in terms of differentiation is to create a brand persona that is atypical of the industry as the sense of uniqueness will ensure that customers remember you. Including your brand identity in your marketing strategy and ensuring that it is mirrored on your website can lead to additional benefits.
A unique purchasing experience entices customers by providing additional benefits that will be gained from purchasing, this is a highly effective way to differentiate your brand by creating a memorable customer experience and it ultimately increases the demand for your products.
Customer experience is known as an integral component of the overall customer experience because a disappointing customer experience can taint a customer’s entire experience and their relationship with your brand. Fantastic customer service is essential for retaining customers, keeping them loyal, and contributing to your brand differentiation strategy. The key is to differentiate yourself by delivering excellent customer support that goes beyond your competitors.
Due to the fact that 80% of customers are more likely to purchase your goods or services when offered personalized experiences, the importance of personalization cannot be understated. Using algorithms to offer content, landing pages, and recommendations that are specifically tailored to individual customers make customers feel valued and appreciated. Furthermore, personalization is a great way to proactively solve customer challenges.
Position your brand as a business that offers a level of convenience and simplicity as customers are attracted to products and services that make life easier for them. A business can instantly make itself more sought after than competitors by leveraging a convenient customer experience as its bran differentiator.
As the market becomes increasingly saturated, customer experience will continue to act as a brand differentiator for competing businesses, and those who develop and maintain an effective differentiator strategy will stay ahead of the game and top of mind for consumers.
Contact the trusted advisors in Customer Communication Management.
Credit: Customer Experience: The Key Brand Differentiator In Business
