Customer Experience

When you think of your most recent purchase, you don’t think of the experience in silos. You don’t remember how you felt during the awareness phase separate from the consideration phase. You recount your experience based on how you felt about the whole process, from start to finish. This is how we view the end-to-end customer experience. 

What is End-to-End Customer Experience?

End-to-end customer experience refers to all the different experiences a customer has with your organization, and how they feel about those experiences as a whole. For example, in the context of retail customer experience, suppose a customer had a smooth checkout experience, but then experienced a shipping problem. When they contacted the support team, their problem was resolved and they were awarded 20% off of their next order. 

This customer had three experiences for this transaction: shopping, ordering and shipping, and post-transactional. While this customer may have had a bad shipping experience, it was made up for by the support team. So their end-to-end customer experience was a positive one because they felt their issue was resolved. 

End-to-End Customer Experience vs Customer Journey

The difference between end-to-end customer experience and the customer journey is that one of them is business-focused while the other is customer-focused. The customer journey maps out the path a customer takes and focuses on individual touchpoints.

The end-to-end customer experience, however, is how the customer feels about each of those touchpoints. It takes a broader view, emphasizing not just the sequence of interactions but the quality, consistency, and emotional impact of those interactions. It’s about the holistic experience, not just isolated steps.

86% of customers agree that they would switch to a competitor after three or fewer negative experiences with a brand.

Why is the End-to-End Customer Experience Important?

The end-to-end customer experience is important because it can be key to retaining customers. 86% of customers agree that they would switch to a competitor after three or fewer negative experiences with a brand. So, it is important to create a customer experience that ends with the customer being satisfied so that they develop into a lifetime customer, rather than take their business elsewhere. 

Benefits of End-to-End Customer Experience

A memorable end-to-end customer experience will have a tangible impact on your business. It can have an impact on everything from sales to operations. Here are some benefits you may realize from having a positive end-to-end customer experience: 

Increased Customer Loyalty

When customers know they will get a good customer experience from start to finish, they are more likely to return for future purchases. As a matter of fact, customers are willing to pay more for a product or service from a brand with a better end-to-end customer experience than competitors. A positive end-to-end customer experience will help you improve customer loyalty. 

Improved Brand Reputation

Improving the end-to-end customer experience can also improve your brand equity. When your brand delivers a consistently positive experience, customers trust you more and think of your products or services as higher quality. Customers are also more likely to share their positive experiences through online reviews, social media, or by recommending your brand to others. 

Reduced Costs

A good customer experience often results in fewer customer complaints and support tickets. Focusing on the end-to-end customer experience will also help you revamp or retire processes that are causing frequent issues or customer churn. A streamlined customer experience will improve operational efficiencies and reduce overall costs. 

How to Improve the End-to-End Customer Experience

To improve the end-to-end customer experience, you will need to make sure you are doing everything you can to listen to and understand your customers while they interact with your organization. Here are some steps that you can take to improve your end-to-end customer experience:

1. Understand the Customer Journey

Customer journey mapping will give you a visual of all the touch points that a customer has with your brand. Understanding what the customer experience looks like in your organization will help you identify where you may be falling short. Every member of your CX team must understand the customer journey. 

2. Collect Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is useful when improving the end-to-end customer experience because it can give you insights into how customers feel at every stage of the customer journey. For example, an online review might reflect a customer who had a positive purchase experience, while a social media post may reveal a customer who didn’t make it to the purchase phase because of poor customer service. 

3. Ensure Consistency Across Channels

The end-to-end customer experience doesn’t include a set start and end point. Where customers start their experience will depend on the industry and type of organization you run. They might start their journey via social media, a paid ad, a search engine result page, or coming to visit you in person. 

Regardless of where they start, they are going to take multiple steps before they reach the end of their experience. It is up to you to ensure create an omnichannel customer experience so that their experience is consistent across whichever channels are most convenient for them.

4. Personalize the Customer Experience

Personalization is one of the most important things you can do to improve the end-to-end customer experience in today’s market. In fact, 71% of customers expect personalization, and 76% are frustrated when they don’t get it. 

A lack of personalization in your customer experience will hurt your business. To improve the end-to-end customer experience and your bottom line, consider implementing personalization such as product recommendations, unique discounts, or personalized communication. 

5. Measure Customer Experience Metrics 

One of the ways to track the effectiveness of your end-to-end customer experience improvement is by tracking customer experience metrics. As you work to improve your end-to-end customer experience, measuring the performance of your chosen metrics will help you know the success and ROI of your efforts. 

How to Create An End-to-End Customer Experience Strategy

Your end-to-end customer experience strategy can be an extension of your overall customer experience strategy. The most important part of creating an end-to-end customer experience strategy is communication. Communication between different stakeholders and teams will drive the success of your CX initiatives. Here are what you will need to get started: 

1. Define Your CX Goals

Before you get started, you have to know where you’re going. What do you want to achieve with your end-to-end customer experience strategy? Are you aiming to increase customer loyalty, reduce churn, differentiate from competitors, or some other goal? 

Having specific goals will ensure that every CX action that is taken will be taken to improve your goal. It is also important that every stakeholder in your organization, such as executives, is aware of this goal as well. 

2. Empower Employee

Once the key customer experience stakeholders in your organization know and understand the objectives of the end-to-end customer experience strategy, it is time to empower employees to help deliver on those goals. Frontline employees are the most important part of any organization’s customer experience program since they are the group that interacts with the customer the most. 

Consider offering trainings that help define the business goals and what steps can be taken to get there. You may also be able to drive employee engagement by offering incentives once certain metrics are met. Securing the buy-in of employees will drive a successful end-to-end customer experience. 

3. Create a Continous Feedback Loop

Once your goals are created and employees are empowered, you can implement your end-to-end customer experience strategy. Once implemented, it is important to have a customer feedback loop as well as an employee feedback loop. 

A customer feedback loop will help you enact changes requested by customers. On the other hand, an employee feedback loop will help employees make stakeholders aware of what is or is not working in your end-to-end customer experience strategy. Make sure that you have created an environment that supports employee feedback, as it will often have a positive impact on your overall customer experience goals. 

End-to-End Customer Experience Examples

Implementing a seamless end-to-end customer experience can differentiate brands in competitive markets. Below are some real-world examples of companies that excel at delivering exceptional customer experiences from the first interaction to post-purchase support.

Metro Bank 

Metro Bank worked to improve the end-to-end customer experience by restructuring its customer insights program. Before this restructuring, customers had to go to a third-party platform to take a survey. One of the biggest changes made during this restructure was moving the survey within the app. This, as well as other changes, helped Metro Bank was able to realize growth in revenue, customer accounts, and overall operational efficiency. 

Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks has created a positive end-to-end customer experience by making it easy for customers to leave feedback. By leveraging Pearl-Plaza’s platform, they have created short, mobile-friendly surveys that can be sorted by keywords. This allows unstructured data to be analyzed easier and ensures the most important feedback takes priority. These customer-focused features have allowed Juniper Networks to increase customer resolution times by 62%. 

Improve Your End-to-End Customer Experience with Pearl-Plaza

Pearl-Plaza’s platform allows you to view every point in the end-to-end customer experience and gives you the tools to track and measure changes over time. To see how this can be customized for your business, schedule a demo today!

In today’s healthcare landscape, patient expectations are higher than ever. It’s not just about treating ailments anymore—it’s about delivering care that’s seamless, compassionate, and easy to access. So, what does it take to create an exceptional customer experience in healthcare? Discover the most important factors, common challenges, and top trends shaping the future of healthcare customer experience—and how you and your organization can lead the way.

What is Customer Experience in Healthcare?

We’ve all been a sick patient before, and we know that the experience can make or break how we feel about a healthcare provider. Customer experience in healthcare goes far beyond just scheduling appointments. It includes every touchpoint—whether it’s the way you’re greeted at the front desk, how well your concerns are listened to during an exam, or how smooth the follow-up process is. A positive experience doesn’t just create happy patients—it builds trust, fosters loyalty, and can even lead to better health outcomes. To sum it up, it’s about ensuring each step of the patient journey feels seamless, compassionate, and human.

What is Customer Experience Management in Healthcare?

Managing customer experience in healthcare involves actively monitoring and improving every touchpoint patients have with your organization. Think of it as building a feedback loop: you collect patient insights, analyze them, and take action to enhance the patient journey. Healthcare organizations that leverage tools like Pearl-Plaza’s CX solutions can gather feedback in real time, identify problem areas, and streamline operations to make the experience as smooth as possible.

What is the Importance of Customer Experience in Healthcare?

In healthcare, the stakes are high. Patients aren’t just customers—they’re individuals often dealing with stress, illness, or pain. Their experience can have a profound impact not only on how they perceive your care but also on their overall well-being. It’s not just about providing excellent service to retain patients—it’s about being empathetic and making the entire process as easy and comforting as possible. This care extends beyond patients to their loved ones, making the experience smooth for everyone involved.

Most Important Factors in Healthcare Customer Experience 

The patient experience in healthcare hinges on several important ingredients. Here are the top factors that make or break a great healthcare experience:

• Ease of Access: Make it simple for patients to book appointments, access test results, and communicate with your team.
• Wait Times: Long wait times can quickly sour an otherwise good experience. Reducing them shows respect for patients’ time.
• Clear Communication: From appointment reminders to treatment plans, patients need clarity and consistency at every step, such as balancing efficiency with delivering empathetic and thorough responses within healthcare contact centers.
• Staff Empathy: Friendly, compassionate care is key. A simple smile or a comforting word can make a huge difference.
• Personalized Care: Treating each patient as an individual, with tailored care, makes for a more meaningful experience.
• Facility: A clean, safe environment is a top concern for patients, especially for infection control and hygiene, but facility comfort, including ease of navigation and privacy, is also important.

Mastering these areas will set your healthcare practice apart and keep patients coming back.

What are Common CX Challenges in Healthcare?

Of course, healthcare comes with its unique set of challenges. For many organizations, it’s about balancing efficiency with compassion. Here are some of the most common CX hurdles healthcare providers face:

• Long Wait Times: Whether it’s waiting for an appointment or in the waiting room, delays are a top frustration for patients.
• Scheduling Issues: Limited availability or complicated booking processes can drive patients away.
• Bedside Manner: Healthcare professionals who lack empathy can create lasting negative impressions, even if the care is clinically sound.

These challenges vary depending on the type of provider. For example, hospitals may struggle with fragmented care coordination, dental offices often face appointment management issues, and pharmacies might have long lines or delays in prescription fulfillment. Addressing these issues head-on is the first step to improving CX.

How to Improve Customer Experience in Healthcare?

Improving healthcare customer experience doesn’t happen overnight, but there are actionable steps you can take:

• Streamline Scheduling: Use online booking systems to make it easier for patients to secure appointments at their convenience.
• Reduce Wait Times: Improve internal workflows to ensure patients aren’t left waiting unnecessarily.
• Enhance Communication: Keep patients informed with clear, compassionate communication, whether it’s before, during, or after treatment.
• Offer Training for Staff: Ongoing training on empathy and bedside manner ensures your team is offering the best possible patient care.
• Use Technology: Implement CX platforms like Pearl-Plaza to monitor patient feedback, identify pain points, and optimize the patient journey in real time.

How to Create an Omnichannel Customer Experience in Healthcare

In today’s digital world, patients expect seamless experiences across multiple platforms. An omnichannel approach ensures that patients can interact with your organization through their preferred channels—whether it’s in-person, online, or via mobile. This could mean offering online appointment scheduling, a user-friendly mobile app, or telehealth services. Ensuring that patients have consistent, high-quality experiences across all touchpoints makes it easier for them to engage with your services and boosts overall satisfaction

Customer Experience Trends in Healthcare

As the healthcare landscape evolves, so do customer experience trends. Here’s what to expect:

• Telehealth Expansion: Virtual care isn’t going anywhere. As telehealth becomes more mainstream, expect continued improvements in remote care delivery.
• AI and Automation: AI is making its way into everything from appointment scheduling to treatment recommendations. It’s helping reduce wait times and improve efficiency.
• Personalized Healthcare: Data-driven insights allow healthcare providers to offer more personalized care, improving both outcomes and satisfaction.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP): Tools like NLP in healthcare are being used to analyze patient feedback at scale, allowing providers to address concerns faster and more effectively. 

Improve Your Customer Experience in Healthcare with Pearl-Plaza

Delivering a great healthcare customer experience takes more than just good intentions—it requires the right tools and strategies. With Pearl-Plaza, you can capture real-time patient feedback, analyze it, and make data-driven decisions that improve every aspect of the patient journey. From reducing wait times to enhancing patient communication, our solutions are designed to help healthcare providers create the best possible experience for their patients.

Ready to start transforming your healthcare CX? Explore our healthcare reputation management and download our healthcare reputation report for insights on how to take your organization’s customer experience to the next level.

What is Patient Feedback?

Patient feedback is the opinions, reviews, and thoughts that healthcare organizations gather from their patients. From the healthcare contact center to the doctor’s diagnosis, each step of the patient journey presents an opportunity to learn about patient expectations and behavior.

The goal of collecting patient feedback is to pinpoint areas for improvement in healthcare operations. For instance, a hospital could have world-class medical staff delivering high-quality care. But, if patients have to endure long wait times to see the doctor, they are still not likely to report a positive experience.

Healthcare centers usually capture this feedback with the help of surveys, reviews, and conversations at different points of the patient journey. Here is an overview of when and why each institution collects feedback.

Hospitals and Clinics

In hospitals and clinics, the medical staff gathers feedback from inpatients and outpatients to see what steps in the patient journey need improvement.

Each type of patient care involves feedback collection at the following points in the patient journey:

• Inpatient care
  • Appointment booking – helps understand if the patient is satisfied with wait times or staff behavior.
  • Medical diagnoses – provides information on the patient’s experience with the accuracy and price of medical tests.
  • Hospital stay – gathers feedback on the patient’s stay in the hospital, including quality of treatment, staff support, and cleanliness.
  • Discharge – captures patient opinions on discharge, such as how long it took and how well the doctor followed up with them.
• Outpatient care
  • Check-in – gathers patient feedback on wait times and quality of staff support during the check-in process.
  • Consultation with the doctor – offers information on the patient’s satisfaction with the doctor’s communication and overall behavior.

Dental Clinic

Dental clinics capture feedback from patients to pinpoint any issues with their oral healthcare service and general operations. They usually collect patient feedback at the following points:

• Appointment scheduling – helps understand the patient’s experience with ease of booking, staff support, and wait times.
• Dental treatment – captures patient feedback on the quality of dental care, dentist’s communication, and treatment plan.
• Billing process – collects feedback on the transparency of costs and availability of various payment options.
• Follow-up – provides information on how well the dentist followed up with the patient post-treatment, including the quality of aftercare instructions.

Aged Care

Aged care facilities rely on feedback loops to make residents feel more comfortable and satisfied. The goal is to check in with them and their family at the following points to see if the center is meeting their unique needs:

• Patient admission – collects information on the ease and convenience of admitting a new resident.
• Medical check-ups – highlight issues, if any, with daily health assessments and if the resident is satisfied with them.
• Daily care – captures resident feedback on the quality of care, support from staff, and general activities.
• Family visits – collects feedback from family members on their satisfaction levels with the facility, including staff, hygiene, environment, and healthcare.
• Discharge – covers any complaints from the resident or their family about the convenience of the discharge process and support from staff.

Pharmacies

Did you know that 58% of Americans view pharmacies as a first step when faced with a non-emergency medical issue? A pharmacy gathers feedback at the following touchpoints to better understand patients:

• Prescription dispensing – helps understand if the medication was safely, correctly, and appropriately dispensed to the patient.
• Consultation – captures patient feedback on consultations offered by the staff, including dosage and general medication advice.
• Purchase and billing – collects information on how smooth it was for the patient to purchase medicine and process payments.

Why is Patient Feedback Important?

Patient feedback is primarily important for enhancing patient satisfaction and helping the healthcare organization with brand reputation management.

Feedback highlights the organization’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to fulfilling a patient’s needs. Hospitals and clinics use this kind of insight to make data-driven decisions to improve their workflow and enhance patient satisfaction. 

For instance, if a hospital receives multiple complaints about wait times during appointment booking, it has an immediate area of concern to address.

Moreover, collecting patient feedback encourages transparency and communication with patients. By becoming proactive listeners and responders to their needs, organizations show that they value their patients’ thoughts and feelings.

As a result, patients are likely to trust these healthcare centers and give them a positive review online. Given that over 70% of patients consult online reviews before visiting a new center, it’s important to focus on practices that boost patient satisfaction ratings.

Benefits of Collecting Patient Feedback

Collecting patient feedback helps organizations make informed decisions on delivering a positive patient experience. Here are a few key benefits of capturing feedback from patients:

Higher Quality of Healthcare

A key component of performance assessment is to look at areas for improvement, especially those suggested by patients. This is where feedback is beneficial as it pinpoints the exact issues to prioritize and fix in order to deliver a higher quality of care. It provides specific answers to important questions about the patient experience.

Enhanced Patient Satisfaction and Retention

A higher quality of health care has a positive impact on patient satisfaction ratings. When patients feel that an organization successfully met their care needs, they are more likely to give it a glowing recommendation online or otherwise. 

Satisfied patients not only provide positive recommendations, but they are also likely to become loyal customers themselves. Therefore, by collecting and acting upon feedback, healthcare providers boost patient retention.

Data-driven Decisions

The last thing healthcare centers want to do is take a guess at what works for their patients. It’s important to have access to actionable data that provides specific insights into improving the customer experience. Collecting patient feedback helps organizations capture and analyze this data to enable continuous improvements in their services.

How to Collect Patient Feedback?

From kiosk surveys at check-in to post-treatment email surveys, patient surveys help organizations collect valuable feedback at each step of the patient journey.

Patient Feedback Survey

Surveys are great options for feedback collection because they let patients reflect on their experience right away. Moreover, surveys allow patients to be more forthright and accurate in their feedback by removing the need for an in-person conversation.

By issuing surveys at key touchpoints during the patient journey, healthcare centers gain targeted insights on improving their operations. Here is an overview of the surveys healthcare centers use throughout the patient journey:

1. Kiosk surveys

A touchscreen display device placed at strategic points in the hospital, like the reception area, is a popular way to collect feedback. 

Kiosks are typically used to survey patients on their experience after check-in, consultation with the doctor, and booking follow-up appointments.

2. Email surveys

According to a 2024 report on email statistics, 88% of respondents said they use email daily, with 39% checking their inboxes 3-5 times a day. Therefore, email remains one of the most reliable channels for organizations to gather customer feedback.

For healthcare centers, sending an email survey right after discharge is a great way to collect insights from the patient. Emails can feature a link to the full survey form or a straightforward one-click survey embedded within the email body itself.

3. Mobile app and website surveys

Healthcare providers can also leverage mobile apps and website widgets to collect patient feedback smoothly. The idea is to integrate always-on surveys within the apps and websites to prompt customers for specific (post-consultation, discharge, etc.) or general feedback.

Feedback from Online Reviews

In addition to surveys, online reviews offer another valuable method for gathering patient feedback and play a crucial role in healthcare reputation management. Beyond providing key insights and actionable data, online reviews can:

1. Authentic Patient Experiences: Reviews often capture unfiltered, real-world patient experiences, providing healthcare providers with genuine insights into what patients appreciate or dislike about their care.
2. Volume and Diversity of Feedback: Healthcare providers can gather a large volume of feedback from a wide range of patients, offering a broader view of service quality across various demographics and healthcare needs.
3. Timeliness: Patients tend to leave reviews soon after their visits, giving providers immediate feedback that can highlight pressing issues or recent successes.
4. Publicly Accessible Insights: Since reviews are public, they not only provide feedback but also shape the provider’s reputation. This transparency encourages healthcare providers to address concerns quickly and improve their services.
5. Building Trust: By engaging with reviews, responding to patient concerns, and showcasing a commitment to improvement, healthcare providers can enhance trust and credibility within the community.
6. Benchmarking: Reviews allow providers to compare their performance against competitors in the same field or location, giving insights into areas where they can improve relative to others.

Regardless of which method is used, healthcare providers will receive both positive and negative feedback:

Examples of Positive Patient Feedback

• “Efficient, friendly, and informed doctor. She carefully checked my medical records and I felt confident in her expertise.”
• “The receptionist was very helpful on the phone. He was polite and took care to answer each of my questions in detail.”
• “I visited the app to book an appointment, thinking it might take a week to get one. However, to my pleasant surprise, I got an appointment the next day!”

Examples of Negative Patient Feedback

• “Avoid going to this doctor’s clinic. He didn’t seem interested in spending time on the patients at all. He just prescribes medication and goes away without any explanation!”
• “I found that I’d been billed for services I never received! I won’t be returning to this dentist as this is unacceptable.”
• “The facility was dirty and outdated, which is not what I expect from a hospital. I didn’t feel comfortable at all.”

How to Manage Patient Feedback?

Be it positive or negative, it’s important to know how to effectively manage patient feedback. The goal is to organize the collected feedback, analyze it to gain valuable insights and focus on high-priority issues before checking in with the patient again.

Here are four key steps to follow after collecting patient feedback:

1. Organize and respond to feedback

The first step to effective feedback management is organizing the patient feedback coming from various channels.

A dedicated feedback portal or a CRM system helps integrate multiple pieces of feedback in one place for easier analysis. It is also useful to categorize feedback in this step by overall sentiment (positive or negative) for a targeted approach.

The next step is to respond to the feedback based on its sentiment. While automated responses save time, it’s good practice to have a dedicated support team to contact the patients as well.

2. Analyze the feedback for useful insights

Analysis of patient feedback reveals the exact issues and opportunities that healthcare providers must focus on. With the help of AI-enhanced customer feedback analysis, organizations can speed up the process of capturing actionable insights.

One popular method here is sentiment analysis, which leverages natural language processing (NLP) to determine if the feedback is positive, negative, or neutral. Similarly, AI is useful for detecting patterns in data, such as recurring issues faced by patients concerning wait times or staff behavior.

The results of this analysis reveal priority areas to fix immediately for an enhanced patient experience.

3. Take immediate action based on the analysis

Healthcare centers should encourage their staff to take instant action on patient feedback. For example, if the analysis shows a recurring issue with wait times, the staff should optimize their workflow or look to hire more people to reduce delays for patients.

A good practice for organizations is to offer a token of apology, regardless of the exact action taken. These tokens could include a free checkup or a discount on medication. The idea is to offer a bonus that further affirms the organization’s commitment to patient satisfaction.

4. Follow up with the patient

In order to create a feedback loop, healthcare providers should follow up with the patient, informing them of the actions taken. This step builds trust as it signals to the patient that the hospital or clinic is willing to hear them out and act on their feedback.

Patient Feedback Software

When choosing the right patient feedback software to collect, organize, and analyze data, there are a few key factors to consider:

1. Multi-channel feedback collection: The software should be able to accept and collect feedback from various sources, including email, kiosk surveys, and SMS.
2. Automated survey and feedback response: The software should feature automated workflows for issuing surveys at key touchpoints in the patient journey, from check-in to discharge. Similar workflows for sending instant replies to patient feedback are also helpful.
3. Customizable surveys: Healthcare providers should invest in software that allows them to represent their brand. Personalized surveys featuring the brand’s colors and style are likely to engage more patients.
4. Analytics: The software should feature analytical tools to provide useful insights from patient feedback. For instance, it should support sentiment analysis to distinguish between positive and negative reviews.
5. Integrations: To ensure smooth patient feedback management, the software should support integration with electronic medical records (EMR) and CRM systems. By providing information like patient demographics and clinical records, these integrations enable more specific analysis.

How Pearl-Plaza Can Help Collect Patient Feedback 

Pearl-Plaza’s feedback management system lets you collect, organize, and analyze patient feedback in one place. Our integrations and award-winning technology will help you capture actionable insights into patient expectations. 

As a result, you get access to all the data you need to deliver the best possible patient experience. Schedule a demo today to see how you can get started!

It’s important to keep track of how many customers leave and why they leave so that you can make the right adjustments for future customers and hopefully improve customer retention. However, it can be difficult to measure these types of factors and produce usable data. That’s why businesses need to keep track of customer churn, which is the metric used to measure how well you are retaining customers. Discover the ins and outs of customer churn and what business owners can do to make the most of their circumstances.

What Is Customer Churn?

Customer churn occurs when someone chooses to discontinue using your products or services—or in other words, they are no longer a customer. Also known as customer attrition, customer churn gives a business owner insight into how well their business is doing over time, which is an essential part of management and growth.

More specifically, customer churn is measured and evaluated using a customer churn rate. This rate reflects the number of customers who stopped using services or products during a set period. This set period could be any relevant time frame your company is analyzing, including a year, a financial quarter, or even a single month. This churn rate is also useful in customer churn analysis. 

Types of Customer Churn

When looking at customer churn, each case can be divided into one of two categories: voluntary churn or involuntary churn. 

• Voluntary Churn: Voluntary churn occurs when a customer actively chooses to stop doing business with you. This decision is driven by dissatisfaction, a change in needs, or moving to a competitor. This may look like a customer buying from a competitor after experiencing long wait times with your organization. 
• Involuntary Churn: Involuntary churn occurs when customers stop doing business with you without intending to. This is often due to avoidable factors such as payment issues or subscription expiration. An example of this is a customer’s credit card expires, and they forget to update their payment information, leading to an unintentional cancellation of their subscription.

It is important to understand these two types of churn and how each of them can be addressed. 

Why is Customer Churn a Problem?

Customer churn is a problem that businesses should seek to solve because it directly affects revenue, reputation, and growth. 

When customers leave, your business loses the immediate sales from those customers and the potential for future revenue. Since acquiring new customers is more expensive than retaining existing customers, you will be forced to spend more to cover the churned customers’ loss. 

Furthermore, a high churn rate can be indicative of dissatisfaction with your products or services. Dissatisfied customers who have churned can harm your brand reputation by leaving a negative review or sharing their bad experiences on social media. 

These results of customer churn will ultimately end with your business struggling to maintain sustainable growth. Long-term customer relationships are important for an organization to be able to grow, and customer churn disrupts this cycle. 

Why Is Customer Churn Important?

Churn rates examine the recurring business and value lost over certain periods. It’s important to look at customer churn to prevent customers from leaving due to problems you could potentially solve, which protects your brand, money, and future. Here are some of the more specific reasons why customer churn is important to measure:

Brand Impact

Dissatisfied customers negatively impact your brand equity, and especially in a market that is driven by the internet and influencers, it can be dangerous to your company if customers leave for a similar reason and discuss it online. 

Not only are you losing their business, but having dissatisfied customers also makes it more difficult to find new customers if the brand receives a bad reputation from dissatisfied customers. This could be news spreading by word of mouth, reviews, or social media.

Costly Consequences

Customer churn costs money, not only because you would be losing someone’s immediate purchases, but because customer loyalty is a huge asset to companies. Returning customers tend to spend more money on a brand once they have made a decision to become loyal customers, and finding and persuading new customers can be very costly and time-consuming. Ultimately, losing customers who spend a lot on your brand can affect the bottom line in the present and over time.

Future Growth

You need the loyalty of your customers to sustain your business, especially when you roll out new products or initiatives. If there aren’t people around to get excited about new products and services, companies can wear themselves thin because they focus on the basics that need to be fixed rather than healthily expanding.

Competitive Advantage

With every industry getting more and more competitive, it’s more important than ever to be at the top of your game. The last thing you want is a new competitor stealing clients or customers, especially if you can offer a solution for those customers. This competition should encourage organizations to focus not only on new business but also on retaining existing customers.

Proactive Business Strategies

Some problems arise seemingly out of nowhere and businesses must adapt as needed. Others, though, can be identified in advance by closely watching customer churn, which means you can put certain procedures in place to prevent serious losses. If you can predict customer churn after measuring it over time, you can do more to prevent it than wait until it is too late.

Why Does Customer Churn Happen?

Customer churn is more than a metric; it’s an indicator of how well your services, products, and sometimes employees are performing. Sometimes all companies go through a higher customer churn period, but it’s always important to know your potential blind spots and look for creative solutions. The most common reasons include the following scenarios.

Poor Customer Service

Whether you offer an immediate service or online resources for purchases, how people feel treated makes a big impact on whether or not they stick around. High customer churn rates may be an indicator that your employees or teams “on the field” directly interacting with customers may need more training or evaluations.

Misalignment with Customer Needs

You may have a great product, but you aren’t going after the right group of customers. Marketing is a key element of any business venture, including gathering research about who needs your products and how. It’s also possible that customers need new or improved features, so you may have the right audience, but you don’t understand their needs. Feedback is critical to understanding the needs of your customer community.

Pricing Concerns

If your prices are lightyears ahead of competitors and you don’t update your services, especially as other competitors join the market, even the most loyal of customers may switch to either a more affordable option or whoever gives them the biggest bang for their buck. 

External Factors

If you’re in a niche industry, you may not get consistent sales—a Christmas lights company isn’t going to have the same customer volumes year-round. You should consider this when calculating your churn rate and also see if there are things you can do during the off-season to bring in more customers. This could be adding products or services to make your offering more appealing outside of your primary season.

Furthermore, economic downturns or personal financial difficulties can cause customers to cut back on spending, resulting in churn. These factors do not affect your business exclusively and need to be taken into consideration when examining churn rates. 

Lack of Engagement

Most businesses need to have an online presence to properly promote and market their company and products. Without it, your brand awareness and loyalty will go down, meaning valuable old customers won’t stick around with a decent competitor actively drawing them away. Similarly, low-quality content and communications are also a turnoff for a lot of customers.

What is Customer Churn Analysis?

Customer churn analysis examines an organization’s customer churn rate to understand what caused customers to churn and how it can be improved in the future. Customer churn analysis is a critical part of improving your organization’s customer churn rate because you will gain the necessary information to create an action plan to reduce churn and improve overall customer satisfaction. 

An example of customer churn analysis is seeing why a specific subset of customers are churning. To do this, you can take the number of customers that churned and filter that data to represent just the demographic you are examining. Then, you can identify what caused these customers to churn and work on making customer experience improvements to prevent it from happening in the future. 

How To Calculate Customer Churn Rate

The customer churn rate is usually expressed using a percentage, and the higher the percentage, the more customers are leaving and the more business you’re losing. At its core, the customer churn rate is calculated by dividing the number of customers lost by the number of total customers in a set period.

Another way to look at it is by using a formula. The customer churn rate equation looks like this:

For example: let’s say a company has 500 customers at the beginning of the quarter, but by the end, it has 450 customers. That means the company lost 50 customers, and when you divide that by the total number of customers for that quarter (500), you get 0.1. Multiply that by 100 to get your percentage and there you have it: the company had a 10% churn rate for that quarter.

Depending on the service or product, it may be challenging to determine what losing a customer looks like. If your service is a monthly subscription to your product, it’s easy to determine when someone unsubscribes. However, if you have a one-time service, it’s more difficult to approximate when you’ve “lost” a customer. 

Some industries go months before services are needed, like home furniture stores or car dealerships. Those sales cycles are much broader and if they don’t see returning clients for even years, it doesn’t mean they’ve lost any value or money—that’s simply the nature of the field. Generally, you can estimate when a customer no longer uses your service by using the frequency of their purchases as a baseline.

Average Churn Rate
Ideally, everyone would have a 0% churn rate, but that’s not a realistic expectation to have. A 5%-8% churn rate is usually considered average, but it depends on the market, the industry, the size of your business, and more.

What is A Good Customer Churn Rate?

A good average churn rate across all industries is 4%, which can generally be used as a good benchmark for your business. However, customer churn rates vary widely by industry. 

For example, the median churn rate for the digital media and entertainment industry is 6.9%, while the median churn rate for the software industry is almost half of that at 3.5%. Knowing these industry-specific metrics will be much more valuable than an umbrella statistic. 

Tips for Customer Churn Rate

To predict customer churn, you need to be able to identify the things that have the biggest impact on your customer experience. This involves a combination of data analysis, customer feedback, and understanding the nuances of your customer journey. Here are some steps you can take to predict customer churn:

Know Your Key Drivers

In order to identify customer churn indicators, you need to identify the key drivers behind your customer experience. If you know that sales promotions have the biggest impact on your customer experience metrics, then a lack of sales promotions could be an early sign of churn. Other factors include a drop in engagement, lower transaction volumes, or an increase in negative feedback.

Once you know your biggest CX drivers, you can continuously monitor them to keep customers from churning. 

Identify and Address Early Warning Signs

Depending on your business, there can be many early warning signs that a customer is about to churn. For example, if they become inactive or are using your product less frequently, cancel or downgrade a subscription, or start making late payments, these are all early signs of churn. 

When customers exhibit these behaviors, it is important that they become a top priority and are re-engaged as soon as possible. 

How can Customer Churn be Prevented?

Preventing customer churn is essential to your business strategy. It starts with measuring customer churn and finding the root of the problem. Then, you work on solutions. Here is a list of ideas and tips on how to tackle customer churn.

Focus on Your Best Customers

Pay special attention to your most loyal customers and make sure they feel appreciated. Loyal customers will share your content and be a promoter for your brand without being paid if they feel appreciated.

Analyze Churn in Real-Time

Analyze churn as it occurs instead of waiting to fix the issue. The more preventative maintenance you can do, the better. In order to prevent customer churn, you need customer experience software that can accurately predict customer sentiment. Being able to detect customer sentiment will allow you to predict what actions a customer is likely to take based on their feedback. 

For example, a customer might leave an online review expressing their negative feelings about their most recent purchase. With the right tools, you can recognize the importance and flag this review as a high-priority case so that it is resolved quickly, which will result in a saved customer.

Conduct Competitive Analysis

Do a competitive analysis to see what your competitors are offering that may persuade customers to abandon your brand.  Understanding their strengths can help you address gaps in your own offerings that might be driving customers away.

Lower Customer Churn with Pearl-Plaza

Pearl-Plaza’s customer experience platform gives you all the tools you need to analyze, track, and reduce customer churn. With the ability to view customer interactions from every source in one place, measure unstructured feedback, and more, it is the perfect tool to help you connect more with your customers. To see how it can help your business, schedule a demo today!

What is Customer Experience Consulting?

Customer experience consulting is a specialized service that helps businesses enhance the experiences they provide to their customers across every touchpoint—from the initial awareness stage to post-purchase support.

But what does that really mean for your business? Essentially, a customer experience consultant dives deep into your customer interactions, analyzes data, and helps you craft strategies that not only meet but exceed customer expectations. It’s about making sure every interaction adds value and strengthens the customer relationship. By partnering with a customer experience consulting firm, businesses gain insights and strategies tailored to their unique challenges and opportunities, ensuring they stand out in a crowded marketplace.

What are the Benefits of having a Customer Experience Consultant?

Why should you invest in a customer experience consultant? Can’t your in-house team handle it? The truth is, while your team knows your business inside and out, a customer experience consultant brings a fresh perspective and specialized expertise that can make all the difference.

A customer experience consultant dives deep into your customer data, identifies pain points, and develops strategies that are proven to improve customer satisfaction and retention. But it’s not just about solving problems—it’s about driving growth. Customer experience consultants, like the experts at Pearl-Plaza, can help you craft experiences that turn customers into brand advocates, increasing their lifetime value and positively impacting your bottom line. By leveraging their expertise, you can avoid common pitfalls and fast-track your way to a more loyal and satisfied customer base.

What to Look for in a Customer Experience Consultant?

With so many options out there, it can be overwhelming to select a customer experience vendor with the right consulting services but asking the right questions can help you find the perfect fit.

Experience and credentials are key. Look for consultants who have years of experience and a track record of success across various industries. Questions you should ask when meeting with a CX consultant should include:

• How many clients have they worked with?
• Can they share examples of businesses they’ve worked with that are similar to yours (in terms of industry, size, or challenges)?
• What is their specific expertise within customer experience (e.g., journey mapping, voice of customer programs, etc.)?
• How do they stay updated on the latest CX trends and technologies?
• What is their process for assessing and improving customer experience?
• How do they tailor their approach to the unique needs of different businesses?
• What frameworks or tools do they use to measure customer satisfaction and other CX metrics?
• How do they leverage data and analytics to improve customer experience?
• Can they help integrate customer feedback systems with your existing platforms?
• What kind of results have they delivered? 
• What is the average customer experience ROI have their clients seen?
• Do they have experience in your industry? 

In addition to the questions, a reputable customer experience consulting firm should offer proof of their success—whether through CX case studies, testimonials, or data showcasing improved customer satisfaction and ROI.

Additionally, consider their approach to consulting customer experience. Are they focused on understanding your unique needs and challenges, or do they offer one-size-fits-all solutions? The best consultants take the time to understand your business and tailor their strategies accordingly.

What Services Should be Included in Customer Experience Consulting?

It’s not just about receiving advice—it’s about a comprehensive partnership that equips your business to succeed. A comprehensive service package should include the following:

• Onboarding and Training: Your consultant should provide a thorough onboarding process, ensuring that your team understands the tools, strategies, and processes involved in the new CX approach.
• Journey Mapping: One of the first steps in consulting customer experience is creating detailed customer journey maps. These visual representations of the customer experience help identify pain points and opportunities for improvement.
• Regular Meetings and Reporting: Ongoing communication is key. Expect regular check-ins and detailed reports that track progress, analyze data, and adjust strategies as needed.
• Tool Integration: Whether it’s a CRM system, customer feedback tools, or analytics software, your consultant should help integrate the necessary technology to support your CX strategy.

This is where Pearl-Plaza’s CX services shine. Our customer experience consultants are dedicated to setting you up for long-term success, offering a personalized approach that aligns with your business goals.

Working with Pearl-Plaza’s CX Experts 

At Pearl-Plaza, we believe that exceptional customer experiences are integral to business success. Our mission is to help you drive business value by being bold in the moments that matter. Our CX experts bring years of experience across diverse industries, offering best-in-class technology and comprehensive consulting to ensure you achieve outstanding results.

We don’t just provide consulting services—we become an extension of your team. Our approach is hands-on and collaborative, ensuring that we understand your unique challenges and goals. From the initial consultation to ongoing support, our customer experience consultants work closely with you to design and implement strategies that resonate with your customers, improve customer experience KPIs, and drive measurable outcomes.

Whether you’re looking to enhance your current customer experience efforts or need a complete overhaul, Pearl-Plaza’s CX experts are here to guide you every step of the way. With our support, you’ll be equipped to deliver experiences that not only meet but exceed your customers’ expectations, fostering loyalty and driving sustained growth. 

Pearl-Plaza’s integrated CX approach has proven to boost customer lifetime value and accelerate bottom-line performance in just 12 months—well ahead of the industry average of 25 months. Get more insights and details with our ROI calculator. 

Final Thoughts

In today’s market, customer experience is no longer a “nice-to-have” but a critical component of business success. By investing in customer experience consulting services, you’re not just improving customer satisfaction—you’re building a foundation for long-term growth. Whether you’re looking to enhance existing strategies or start from scratch, a skilled customer experience consultant can guide you every step of the way. And when you choose Pearl-Plaza, you’re choosing a partner committed to your success. Schedule a CX demo to get started on transforming your business.

Did you know that over 70% of consumers expect personalized communications and tailored products/services from companies they buy from? Of those customers, 76% get frustrated when they do not receive any level of personalization. When companies do offer personalized experiences, 78% of those customers who receive that level of personalization are likely to make repeat purchases.

With these statistics in mind, it is clear that delivering consistent, memorable experiences is a must for any organization looking to build and sustain a loyal customer base. The only way to do this is by listening to what your customers are saying, which is referred to as the Voice of the Customer.

What is Voice of the Customer?

Voice of the Customer (VoC) is the process of gathering information regarding what customers think and feel about their experiences with a business. The goal is to learn about their expectations regarding the business’ products or services. 

Often applied as a market research technique by firms looking to achieve a better and more complete understanding of the customer, Voice of the Customer can also help companies measure and understand the experiences that they deliver to customers. Armed with this knowledge, companies can build stronger brands, function as more efficient organizations, and deliver a better customer experience.

A Voice of the Customer program helps your business reap the benefits of listening, acting, and responding to what customers say about your brand, product, service, or business location. This can help you deliver improved experiences, offer better products and services, and create more value for customers.

Why Voice of the Customer Is Important

Voice of the Customer data is important for several reasons in business and product development. Primarily, Voice of the Customer programs help organizations become more customer-centric by understanding customer needs, preferences, and expectations. This customer-centric focus is crucial for developing products, services, and experiences that align with what customers truly want.

VoC data is also a valuable source of insights for innovation. Understanding customer pain points and desires can guide the development of new products or features that address unmet needs, giving companies a competitive advantage.

Essentially, once fortified with this extensive and comprehensive data, CX leaders can: 

• Discover why feedback scores, such as net promoter scores are not up to par. 
• Comprehend customer desires, needs, and criticisms. 
• List the above data in order of importance for improving performance. 
• Fully grasp customers’ perception of the value of a company’s product(s) and/or service(s) offer. 
• Learn if and where the company is fulfilling its promises and areas where it fails to do so. 
• Utilize all the data to inform improvements in the way products and services are created and offered to a now better-understood customer demographic.
• Solicit customer feedback to evaluate new ways of gaining a competitive advantage.
• Generate advanced marketing insights and opportunities.

Benefits of a Voice of the Customer Program

Businesses without a Voice of Customer program observe which of their products or services are being sold most frequently, and assume that is what customers want more of. However, this approach leaves out key qualitative details such as which areas of the buying experience customers would change. 

Voice of the Customer programs allows organizations to gain a deeper understanding of their customers and the decisions they make. These benefits can range from operational improvements to changes in product development. Here are some common benefits of effective voice of the customer programs: 

Improve Customer Retention

It is no secret that your existing customers are easier to sell to and will spend more than first-time customers. By implementing a Voice of the Customer program, you can open a direct line of communication for customers to address their concerns and frustrations so that the company can act on those frustrations to improve the overall experience. This will allow you to decrease customer churn and improve customer retention. 

Improve Brand Reputation

A Voice of the Customer program enhances brand reputation by ensuring timely and thoughtful responses to customer feedback. By staying connected to the platforms where customers share their experiences, your business can quickly address online reviews, demonstrate attentiveness, and show a commitment to customer satisfaction. This responsiveness not only resolves individual concerns but also builds trust and reinforces a positive brand image across your customer base.

Reduce Customer Complaints and Faster Resolutions

By systematically gathering customer opinions and experiences, businesses can identify issues early on, even before customers actively complain. Early detection allows for proactive problem-solving.

Moreover, Voice of the Customer programs help businesses understand the severity and impact of different issues. This allows for the prioritization of problems based on their urgency and potential impact on customer satisfaction. Addressing high-priority issues first contributes to faster resolution.

Drive Product Innovations

Voice of the Customer data helps companies stay aligned with market trends and shifts. This knowledge is crucial for driving product and service innovation, adapting strategies, staying relevant, and ensuring that your offerings remain in tune with evolving customer expectations. 

Boost Your Revenue

A natural consequence of expanding the customer base and retaining customers is an increase in revenue. As companies monitor customer feedback and trends, they have a clear picture of what products and services customers want and are willing to pay for, which means that the company can provide those with greater accuracy.

If you want to see how much revenue Pearl-Plaza can deliver for you with Voice of Customer surveys, check out our ROI calculator!

Improve Customer Experience 

All of these benefits work together to create a more cohesive and satisfying customer experience. By actively listening to customer feedback, addressing their needs, and continuously improving products and services, businesses can deliver a personalized and seamless experience at every touchpoint. This holistic approach not only meets but often exceeds customer expectations, fostering loyalty, encouraging positive word-of-mouth, and ultimately driving long-term success.

3 Questions to Consider Before Building a Voice of the Customer Program

These three questions can guide companies’ efforts to implement an effective Voice of the Customer program to improve the customer experience, retain customers, and boost revenue.

1. What Is the Goal of the Voice of the Customer Program?

Without a clear goal, it is difficult to start a Voice of the Customer program since the strategies used should reflect the business objective. Before companies start building a program, they should first examine potential objectives and determine which will be the most beneficial for their specific needs. 

The objectives of a voice of the customer program can be divided into two main categories: benchmarking and continuous improvement. 

Benchmarking

Programs that focus on benchmarking as an objective tend to be more comparative. This means that the surveys used to gather customer feedback will use the same set of questions for every respondent, typically in a rating format, and then compare those ratings to each other to find areas for improvement. Often, the focus is on the scores themselves instead of the reason for those ratings, so companies that use this objective will get more general feedback and causality. 

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement objectives, on the other hand, can be more personalized based on certain aspects of the customer and their interaction with the company. While the accompanying surveys can include rating questions, there will also be some open-ended questions that allow respondents to clarify their reasons for the scores they gave. This method can give more detailed insight into the causes of dissatisfaction.

Companies should choose one of these objectives based on the information that they wish to gather to work towards certain goals. Some of the possible goals are:

• Customer research: For this, companies gather the information that helps them better understand the needs and wants of their target customers.
• Customer retention: Learning how to best keep existing customers satisfied with the products and services offered is crucial for customer retention.
• Acquiring new customers: Just as important as retaining customers is acquiring new ones. With this goal in mind, companies should learn how to increase interest in their brand to attract new customers.
• Improving brand image: This goal focuses on finding out how customers view a company’s brand and what can be done to improve that image.
• Cost reduction: Focusing on cost-effectiveness by recognizing where you can reduce spending will help you increase profitability and prove ROI. 
• Increasing customer lifetime value: Customer lifetime value is the revenue earned from a single customer over time. Increasing that will cause your customers to promote your brand for you.

2. What Metrics Should Be Measured Throughout the VoC Program?

Once a company has chosen a goal to drive its VoC program, it should define which metrics will be measured to demonstrate progress and focus the efforts for more improvements. Some common metrics in a Voice of the Customer program include customer experience KPIs such as Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score, and Customer Satisfaction Score.

When selecting metrics, consider the holistic picture they paint and how they align with your business goals. Combining quantitative metrics with qualitative insights from customer feedback ensures a comprehensive understanding of the Voice of the Customer. Regularly review and adjust your chosen metrics to stay responsive to changing customer needs and business objectives.

3. How Should the Success of the VoC Program Be Measured?

A Voice of the Customer program is only effective if it drives action. To determine whether the feedback being gathered is useful, it is important to look at what has changed since the program was implemented. Measuring success is dependent on setting a clear goal and choosing specific metrics that align with that goal. Because of this, companies should consider whether the metrics being measured are improving over time. The changes made to improve the metrics should help the company work towards its main objective.

Building a Voice of the Customer Program: Best Practices

Before you jump in and begin building your Voice of the Customer program, you’ll need to earnestly attempt to see through your customers’ eyes and link their experience to your business outcomes. Here are some areas of focus and best practices to follow:

Identify Customer Touchpoints 

Customers form their impression of a product or service through multiple interactions with an organization. For instance, folks may find a business by doing an online search or via an ad. They might be introduced through blogs or site reviews, then shop on the company’s website, stop by at a brick-and-mortar retail location, and later on, get in touch with the customer service department. 

A Voice of the Customer program often starts with customer journey mapping and identifying the various touchpoints that will add up to the full customer experience with the company. Keep in mind that combining insights from multiple touchpoints provides a comprehensive view of customer experiences and helps drive informed decision-making.

Collect and Connect Feedback Across Data Channels

Successful Voice of the Customer programs are founded on a company’s ability to listen to customers. To do that successfully, your Voice of the Customer program needs to work as part of your omnichannel customer experience so that you can monitor what customers are saying across all different platforms.  

Analyze Customer Data

After gathering a sufficient amount of data, it’s time to make sense of it. Whether you’re working alone or as a part of a team, you will need to come up with a standard way to understand the Voice of the Customer. 

Analytical methods like natural language processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis can help your business pin down customer sentiment data, emotions, and feelings, helping you see more clearly than ever what customers like and dislike about your brand. 

By translating information into vision, you can achieve a better understanding of the needs, wants, feelings, sentiments, and expectations of your customers. The insights you gather from the Voice of the Customer data will help your entire organization more accurately measure — and more efficiently improve — customer experience.

Collaborate with Teams Across the Entire Organization

Collaboration with other teams within your organization is crucial when managing Voice of the Customer data. This enhances the effectiveness of your efforts and ensures a more comprehensive and integrated approach to customer-centric strategies.

Cross-functional insights are also made possible with greater collaboration. This is why it is important to understand what CX teams in an organization work for your business. When you understand what time is heading the Voice of the Customer program, they can facilitate collaboration across the business. By working with other teams, you gain insights into the end-to-end customer journey, enabling a more comprehensive analysis of customer interactions and pain points.

Take Action and Deliver Insights to the Right People

With all the data and analysis done, you’re ready to create a custom, on-brand Voice of the Customer plan that spurs your team to action in ways that meet the needs of your customers. But it’s not enough to just create a plan and execute it. You’ll also need to monitor its effects regularly. Integrated customer experience platforms allow you to create custom reports that inform company leadership of the effects of Voice of the Customer data on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. 

Don’t forget to share your Voice of Customer insights with key stakeholders and decision-makers. This will unite your company around the goal of meeting customer needs, and to guide and empower everyone to foster improvements in customer experience.

Monitor and Act on Customer Experience Trends

Ongoing monitoring assists in tracking a company’s progress as time goes on. Companies can get stuck debating what metrics they should target. What is more important is to stick to a metric, build a system that lets feedback flow in effortlessly, and watch the metric improve over time, as employees act on this valuable feedback.

How to Collect VoC Data

There are multiple ways to gather or capture Voice of the Customer data. Each of these has benefits and drawbacks, which is why a company may choose to use a combination of these sources and techniques instead of a singular method of collecting data.

As you collect Voice of Customer data, it’s good practice to select the right touchpoints and consider the variety of channels that customers use to interact with your brand throughout their journey. With customer data fragmented across different systems and departments, it may be challenging to identify or prioritize opportunities for improvement without a holistic or integrated approach to managing Voice of the Customer and the customer experience.

Customer Interviews

The traditional technique of gathering data through a customer interview has stuck around for so long because it is a direct way of gathering feedback. Interviews can be done in person, over the phone, or through email depending on the preferences and needs of a company. This technique allows companies to better understand the point of view that a customer or group of customers shares in their interaction with the company.

Surveys

Different types of surveys can be useful when collecting customer feedback. Online, email and SMS customer surveys can include different types of questions to help your team gather meaningful insights into issues that customers face. Some of the different survey questions include multiple-choice questions, drop-down questions, and open-ended questions. The key is to ask the right questions at the right time to gain a better understanding of customers and their expectations at any given point in the customer journey.

Live Chat

A live chat feature on the website is becoming increasingly popular due to the ability to collect real-time customer feedback. Live chats can gather more than customer complaints; they can also provide companies with the opportunity to schedule a follow-up survey to learn about the customer experience on the site. Another great feature is the ability for companies to respond quickly to an issue, which reduces the risk of customers leaving the site feeling unsatisfied with the services or products.

Online Reviews and Social Media

Another way for companies to interact with customers and gather VoC data in real time is through online reviews and social media. Companies can engage in two-way communication with their client base to learn more about what customers are looking for, predict future trends, and gather feedback directly from the source. 

A large part of retaining customers is a positive brand reputation, and responding to online reviews can demonstrate that a company is aware of how customers view their products or services. A good review management strategy also allows companies to learn more about the frustrations that customers face so that they can implement measures to resolve these frustrations and issues.

Website Behavior

Along with these other techniques for collecting data, a company can analyze the behavior of customers on their website by using tools like heat maps. The company can track these behavior patterns and test potential changes to see what works and what doesn’t, all to create a smoother user experience.

Focus Groups

Focus group discussions are a common and effective method for collecting Voice of the Customer data. Focus groups involve a small, diverse group of participants who discuss their opinions, perceptions, and experiences related to a particular product, service, or topic. 

By leveraging focus groups for Voice of Customer data collection, businesses can gain valuable qualitative insights that go beyond quantitative metrics, helping them better understand the nuances of customer perceptions and preferences.

Voice of Customer: Examples of Survey Questions 

The questions that a company asks as part of its Voice of the Customer program will depend on the goal set at the beginning. For example, if the goal is general customer research, the company will want to ask questions that tell about the demographics of their audience, including:

• Which of the following categories best describes your age?
• Which of the following genders do you most identify with?
• What is the highest level of education you have achieved?
• How many people work at your company or organization?

On the other hand, the company should ask questions about its products and how they compare to competitors if the goal is to increase customer retention. For example:

• How does [company, brand, product, or service] compare to the competition?
• What do you like best about [company, brand, product, or service]?
• What do you want to be improved about [company, brand, product, or service]?

If the goal is to acquire new customers, companies can ask about how the audience makes decisions. A potential question is:

• What factor(s) matter most to you when selecting a company for [product or service]?

Finally, companies should ask about their brand if the goal is to improve their brand image. These questions could ask things like: 

• What word or phrase comes to mind when you see or hear [company, brand, product, or service]?
• What company comes to mind first when you think of [company, brand, product, or service]?
• Where have you seen or heard information about [company or brand] in the past six months?

How Pearl-Plaza Can Power Your VoC Program

Firms are no longer limited to managing Voice of the Customer data from a random sample of customers; now, they can listen in to every customer and every conversation at various stages of the customer journey — not to mention, dig deeper into data on both macro and micro levels.

Pearl-Plaza’s combination of award-winning technology and expert services can power your Voice of the Customer program and make it comprehensive, simple, and scalable. Experience the transformative capabilities firsthand by exploring our demo. With Pearl-Plaza, you can navigate and interpret valuable Voice of the Customer data to understand where to focus and how to create the maximum impact for your customer and your business.  

What is the ROI of Customer Experience?

Customer Experience ROI is a critical metric that measures the financial impact of enhancing customer experiences. By improving customer interactions, businesses can see tangible benefits like increased sales, improved retention, and heightened customer loyalty. These benefits, when translated into financial metrics, help justify investments in these customer experience initiatives.

Despite the ROI being able to calculate (just check out our handy ROI calculator a bit further down the page!), there’s a caveat: it’s notoriously difficult to prove. 

Why is CX ROI Difficult to Prove?

Proving the ROI of customer experience (CX) is challenging for several reasons:

1. Intangible Benefits: Many benefits of a positive customer experience, such as increased customer loyalty, brand reputation, and customer satisfaction, are intangible and difficult to quantify directly in monetary terms.
2. Long-Term Impact: The effects of improved CX often manifest over the long term, making it hard to directly link short-term financial performance with CX initiatives. For example, a great customer experience might not immediately result in increased revenue but could lead to sustained customer loyalty and higher lifetime value over time.
3. Complex Customer Journeys: Customers interact with brands across multiple channels and touchpoints, making it challenging to attribute a specific financial outcome to a single CX initiative. The interconnected nature of these interactions complicates tracking and measuring their direct impact on revenue.
4. Multiple Influencing Factors: Business performance is influenced by numerous factors beyond customer experience, such as market conditions, competitive actions, and internal operations. Isolating the impact of CX from these other variables can be difficult.
5. Data and Measurement Challenges: Accurately measuring the ROI of CX requires comprehensive data collection and advanced analytics. Many organizations lack the necessary tools, infrastructure, or expertise to capture and analyze the data needed to quantify CX impact effectively.
6. Subjective Metrics: CX often relies on subjective metrics like customer satisfaction (CSAT) or Net Promoter Score (NPS). While these metrics provide valuable insights, translating them into financial outcomes or ROI can be challenging.

Because of these factors, demonstrating the financial return on CX investments requires a nuanced approach that combines qualitative and quantitative analysis, along with a deep understanding of the broader business context.

Why is Customer Experience ROI So Important?

Investing in customer experience isn’t just about making customers happy—it’s about driving substantial business growth. Key growth factors include customer retention and loyalty, revenue expansion, cost efficiency, brand differentiation, innovation, and sustainable long-term development. As a result, ROI becomes a crucial metric in customer experience metrics for any business focused on achieving lasting success. Consider these key ROI statistics for businesses that focus on customer experience:

• Businesses that prioritize customer experience grow their revenue 1.7 times faster than those that don’t.

• On average, companies focusing on CX see a 2.3 times increase in customer lifetime value.

• 66% of businesses prioritizing CX report increased retention, while 60% see a boost in customer lifetime value.

• Customer experience leaders achieve a 307% return on their stock performance, significantly outperforming the S&P 500 Index.

Moreover, businesses that prioritize customer experience invest heavily in it, with an average of 12 dedicated budget lines. Measuring the success of CX initiatives and sharing insights with your team and leadership is vital to continually improving and achieving these results.

How to Measure the ROI of CX?

Measuring the ROI of customer experience can be challenging and cumbersome. It involves tracking several key metrics that reflect the effectiveness of your CX strategies. A few crucial metrics you’ll want to account for before and after your efforts include:

• CX Objective: Based on your CX strategy, what was the metric that you were trying to improve that closely correlates to your business goals?
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The total worth of a customer over the entire relationship.
• Churn Rate: The percentage of customers who stop doing business with you over a given period.
• Cost of Support: The expenses associated with providing customer support.
• Average Transaction Size: The average amount of money spent by a customer per transaction.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): A measure of customer loyalty based on their likelihood to recommend your brand.
• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): A measure of how satisfied customers are with your products or services.
• Customer Effort Score (CES): A measure of the ease with which customers can interact with your business.

Linking these metrics to financial outcomes can provide a clear picture of your CX ROI. Therefore, after you have gathered all your data from your customer experience strategy, here’s one basic way you can measure your CX ROI:

1. Compare the financial gains to the cost of support by subtracting the total cost of your CX initiatives from the benefits gained. This should give you the net financial impact of your CX efforts.
   Net Gain = Total Financial Gained – Cost of Support
   For example, if you invested $50,000 into a CX initiative and the total financial gain was $100,000, that leaves you a net gain of $50,000.  
2. To calculate the ROI, you can take the total net gain divided by the total CX investment costs, then multiply it by 100 to get your percentage.
   CX ROI = (Net Gain from CX Strategy / Total CX Investments Costs) x 100
   This percentage shows how much return you’re getting for every dollar spent on the customer experience.  For example, taking the example from step 1, you’ll want to divide $50,000 by $50,000 and multiply by 100, your CX ROI is 100%. This percentage shows how much return you’re getting for every dollar spent on the customer experience. 

However, many other factors can influence the ROI of your customer experience including industry benchmarks and standards, numbers of promoters, contact center experience, and more. Therefore, Pearl-Plaza has created an in-depth CX ROI calculator that allows you to easily enter your own data. Our calculator can help quantify these metrics and track your progress over time.

Check out the handy calculator here! Want to see the entire suite of calculators? Visit our CX ROI calculator page, here.

Calculate your business’ ROI using Pearl-Plaza’s VoC tools.

Industry

Please Select Automotive Entertainment Financial Services Healthcare Hospitality Insurance Retail All

Number of Customers

Annual revenue Per Customer ($)

Annual Churn Rate (%)

Number of Promoters

Lead to Conversion Rate (%)

Number of calls per year

Percent of calls where issue is not resolved (%)

Estimated Revenue Growth

$
Use the calculator to find an estimated ROI

Total ICX ROI

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How to Prove CX ROI to Leadership?

To gain executive buy-in for customer experience initiatives, it’s crucial to clearly demonstrate how these efforts translate into measurable business growth. Start by establishing a direct correlation between CX improvements and key financial outcomes such as increased sales, higher customer retention rates, and a greater volume of transactions.

Data-Driven Storytelling

One effective approach is to create a compelling narrative supported by data. For example, if you’ve enhanced your Net Promoter Score (NPS) by 10 points and subsequently experienced a 5% increase in customer retention, this direct correlation can be powerful evidence of the ROI of your CX efforts. Presenting these kinds of data points helps leadership see beyond the abstract value of customer satisfaction and focus on the concrete financial benefits.

Build a Comprehensive ROI Model for CX Initiatives

In addition, consider building a comprehensive ROI model that ties specific CX initiatives to business outcomes. This model can include a variety of metrics, such as customer lifetime value (CLV), reduction in churn rate, and cost savings from improved operational efficiency. By demonstrating how these metrics align with broader business goals, you make it easier for leadership to justify continued investment in customer experience initiatives.

Track Long-Term Metrics for Sustained Reporting

Also, don’t forget to emphasize the importance of tracking these metrics over time. Consistently showing how CX improvements drive long-term growth will help not only secure initial investment but also maintain ongoing support. Leadership is more likely to support initiatives that show sustained, quantifiable returns.

Additional Tip: Consider sharing competitor benchmarks and industry trends to drive home the importance of your CX initiatives. 

Real-Life Examples of Customer Experience ROI

Foot Locker

Foot Locker has always put the customer at the center of everything they do, gathering feedback across various channels such as email, call center logs, and social media. However, the vast amount of data collected posed challenges, including:

• Inconsistent Data Categorization: Difficulty in automatically categorizing documents using a common taxonomy.
• Fragmented Feedback Sources: Lack of a uniform view of feedback data from different channels.
• Limited Analytics Visibility: Inability to understand or modify system-generated results easily.

To overcome these obstacles, Foot Locker partnered with Pearl-Plaza, leveraging our Spotlight tool. This solution allowed them to:

• Centralize Feedback Streams: Consolidate all feedback into a single platform for uniform analysis.
• Automate Categorization: Use a universal taxonomy to efficiently capture and track key insights.
• Enhance Data Transparency: Easily adjust analytics to meet changing needs, ensuring accurate and actionable data.

With these improvements, Foot Locker can now proactively address negative retail customer experiences, reduce churn, and enhance overall business outcomes, solidifying their leadership in the sneaker retail market.

America’s Larget Cable and Home Internet Provider

To reduce customer churn, a telecom giant partnered with Pearl-Plaza to identify at-risk customers and promptly address their concerns. Pearl-Plaza’s customer listening technology was implemented in regional care centers to immediately collect customer feedback after each interaction. When customers give negative responses, they are offered the chance to speak with a manager. Real-time alerts notify managers of callback requests, leading to 1,000 recovery opportunities monthly. With each customer worth an average of $1,920 annually, this approach identified $23 million in annual revenue by retaining dissatisfied customers.

North American Fast Casual Giant

A fast-casual restaurant brand that has become a household name with it’s unique blend of quick, convenient service and mouth-watering menu items has seen tremendous success with it’s CX initiative. Since partnering with Pearl-Plaza to get a better understanding of their experience and where they can take effective action to improve it, their OSAT score has increased by 34%. Additionally, the brand saw 4% revenue growth in just one year after implementing their new solution!

Tesco

Tesco—a mammoth multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer—knows its customers want more than just a mundane, transactional grocery shopping experience. So it works to create a unique shopping experience for its customers by encouraging its 330,000 employees across the UK to give a little bit extra through a programme called, Every Little Helps. With this mantra at the core of the company’s mission, Tesco has grown to become the fifth largest retailer in the world with £48 billion in annual revenue and 7,300 locations in 10 countries.

TELUS

Leading the telecommunications industry, TELUS is Canada’s fastest growing telecommunications company with more than 13.1 million customer connections. Whether it be personal, business, health, or security oriented, TELUS offers a full scale of innovative telecommunication products and services. To continuously improve their customer experiences, the brand partners with Pearl-Plaza and focuses on and ROI driven strategy.

In just 18 short months, TELUS saw a $1 million dollar increase in annual savings, a 100% increase in customer feedback volume, best-in-class response rates, and a 1 in 3 recovery for customers that received a follow-up. Furthermore, by focusing their efforts to reach more customers with proactive recovery, they have seen a $5 million-dollar opportunity in churn reduction. TELUS can expect to see further increases in these areas due to their continuous attention to response trends.

These real-world examples clearly illustrate the significant impact that a strategic investment in customer experience can have on a company’s bottom line. By leveraging advanced tools and methodologies, businesses like Foot Locker, TELUS, and others have not only improved customer satisfaction but also unlocked substantial financial returns. Whether through reducing churn, increasing customer loyalty, or driving revenue growth, the ROI of a customer-centric approach is both measurable and compelling. Investing in customer experience is not just a good business practice—it’s a critical driver of sustainable success.

Mistakes to Avoid When Measuring CX ROI

When measuring the ROI of customer experience, it’s essential to steer clear of common pitfalls that can undermine the accuracy and effectiveness of your analysis:

• Focusing on Short-Term Metrics: CX improvements often require time to manifest in financial outcomes. It’s important to maintain a long-term perspective and avoid dismissing initiatives that don’t show immediate results. Patience is key to seeing the full impact of CX investments.
• Ignoring Customer Feedback: Customer feedback is a goldmine of insights for identifying areas where CX can be improved. Neglecting this feedback not only risks missing out on valuable information but can also lead to misguided investments in areas that don’t resonate with your customers.
• Not Considering Employee Experience: The link between employee experience and customer experience is strong. Happy, engaged employees are more likely to deliver better customer service, leading to improved CX. Ignoring this connection can result in missed opportunities to enhance both employee and customer satisfaction.
• Overlooking the Full Customer Journey: CX is not confined to a single touchpoint; it spans the entire customer journey. Ensure that your measurement efforts consider every interaction a customer has with your brand, from awareness to post-purchase support.

By avoiding these common mistakes and focusing on a holistic, data-driven approach to measuring CX ROI, you’ll be well-positioned to present a compelling case to leadership. This will help you secure the necessary resources to kickstart your CX program and demonstrate the ongoing value of these initiatives as your program evolves.

See ROI in Half the Time with Pearl-Plaza

At Pearl-Plaza, we understand the challenges of demonstrating ROI from customer experience initiatives. That’s why our integrated customer experience program is designed to help you see ROI in half the time. By honing in on the metrics that truly matter and leveraging our advanced analytics tools, we empower your business to transform customer experience into a powerful driver of growth. 

Whether you’re just starting your CX journey or looking to advance an existing program, Pearl-Plaza provides the insights and support you need to achieve measurable, impactful results. If you’re ready to see what we can do to supercharge your business, schedule a CX demo with us today!

Think of your favorite clothing brand. Why is that brand your favorite? It is probably because you enjoy their clothes, but also because every time you buy something it is an easy, enjoyable process. The way you feel about that brand is because of the customer experience you have every time you make a purchase. The customer experience you have with a brand will cause you to be a lifelong customer, or never shop there again. 

What is Customer Experience (CX)?

Customer Experience (CX) refers to the overall impression and perception a customer has about a company or brand based on their interactions throughout the entire customer journey. This includes all touchpoints and interactions a customer has with a business, from initial awareness and consideration to purchase, use, and after-sales service.

Customer experience programs refer to an organization’s ongoing efforts to listen to and collect customer feedback, measure customer perceptions of their experiences, and ultimately improve those experiences to encourage positive brand perception and business growth. Customer experience can also be referred to as customer experience management (CXM or CEM).

Why is Customer Experience Important?

Did you know that 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for a product or service if they have a great customer experience? Also, companies who prioritize the customer experience outperform their competitors who do not. 

The customer experience represents the relationship that consumers have with your organization. Every interaction a customer has with you is important, and curating a great customer experience shows that you value your customer’s time and feedback, and will use it to further improve your organization. 

Focusing on the customer experience will significantly improve your business performance. From increased loyalty and customer lifetime value to decreased churn, the customer experience is key to achieving your goals. Here are some statistics that prove the value of customer experience: 

• Organizations focused on customer experience realize revenue 1.7x faster than those who do not
• Customer experience leaders outperform the broader stock market, generating returns that are 108 points higher than the S&P 500 Index
• Customers with positive experiences are likely to spend 140% more than ones with negative experiences

Where to Begin with Customer Experience?

There are a lot of different reasons why you may be looking to improve your customer experience. It might be because organizations that focus on the customer experience are 60% more profitable than those that don’t, or it might be because you are interested in improving customer retention, satisfaction, or lifetime value. Regardless of your goals, there are steps you can take to build a solid foundation for your future customer experience initiatives. 

1. Map the Customer Journey 

In order to improve the customer experience, you need to make sure you understand the current customer experience that exists in your organization. This can be done by creating a customer journey map. Customer journey mapping is a powerful tool to visualize every touchpoint a customer has with your brand. Customer journey mapping examples can be useful to see how other organizations have visualized their customer experience. This exercise will highlight potential pain points and opportunities to enhance the customer experience.

2. Set Clear CX Goals

Before taking any steps to set up your customer experience program, you will need to meet with the stakeholders within your organization and decide on what you want to achieve. When choosing these goals, try to avoid broad goals such as “improve sales.” Instead, try to make specific, targeted goals such as “improve overall customer satisfaction by 25% over the next year.” Specific goals will help you create a focused strategy, and will also be easier to track success. 

3. Design Your CX Program

Now that you have your goals set, you will need to design your CX program. It is important to do this before reaching out to customers via surveys or asking reviews. That way, when customer feedback does start coming in, you are prepared for it. 

These steps will help you create an effective and long-lasting customer experience program. If you want to learn more about the best way to kickstart your CX efforts, check out our beginner’s guide to launching a customer experience program! 

How to Measure Customer Experience

There are many different customer experience KPIs on which you can measure the success of your customer experience initiatives. The metrics you choose will depend on what your customer experience goals are. For example. customer satisfaction helps you measure overall satisfaction, while customer effort score measures the ease of which customers interact with your business. 

You should choose the metric that most closely aligns to your CX goals. Once you have chosen the metric that makes the most sense, you will need to get a baseline of where your customer experience metrics stand that you can use to measure for improvement. Here is a brief overview of some of the most common customer experience metrics:

1. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) 

The customer satisfaction score assesses the overall satisfaction customers feel with your product, service, or overall experience. This score is typically assessed through a customer satisfaction survey that asks “How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the service you received?” where respondents answer on a scale from 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. 

This metric is best used for gathering immediate feedback on customer satisfaction with specific aspects of the business. A long-term use case would be to identify areas that need improvement and track changes in satisfaction over time.

2. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

The Net Promoter Score measures customer loyalty and the likelihood of them recommending your brand to others. It involves asking customers a single question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague?” Based on their response, customers are categorized as Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), or Detractors (0-6). NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters.

3. Customer Effort Score (CES)

The Customer Effort Score evaluates how easy it is for customers to interact with your business, whether it’s finding information, getting support, or completing a purchase. Customers are asked to rate the ease of their experience on a scale. A common question is: “How easy was it to resolve your issue with our company?” A lower effort score indicates a smoother, more positive customer experience. 

These metrics are important to showing the ROI of your customer experience efforts. They can also be used alongside business growth metrics such as retention rate, repeat purchases, growth in sales, and more to correlate the customer experience improvements with business improvements. 

Building a Customer Experience Strategy

A customer experience strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines how a company intends to improve and manage customers’ interactions and perceptions of its brand. Often headed by a customer experience manager, these plans encompass all touchpoints across the customer journey and aim to deliver a consistent, positive, and memorable experience. 

Whether you have an established CX program or are just getting started, a customer experience strategy ensures you are making focused decisions on how to improve the things that matter most to your customers and your business. 

If you are just getting started, check out our small CX team checklist to ensure you have everything you need to make the biggest impact to on your customer experience!

Do You Need a Customer Experience Manager?

If your company is new to customer experience, starting with a dedicated customer experience manager is a smart move. This role is crucial for ensuring that all interactions and touchpoints between your company and its customers are positive, consistent, and aligned with your overall CX strategy.

A CX manager serves as the central figure in your customer experience efforts, connecting the dots across different departments—such as frontline employees, sales, marketing, and the executive team. This ensures that the customer experience is cohesive and integrated throughout the organization. Furthermore,  a CX manager can lay the groundwork for a strong customer experience strategy and scale the program as your organization grows.

Should You Invest in Customer Experience Management Software?

Customer experience management software is a set of tools that help you manage, analyze, and improve customer interactions across touchpoints throughout the customer journey. The best customer experience management software will be one that fits your business needs, and can be tailored to your specific goals. 

Customer experience software can be especially useful for CX managers or small CX teams who do not have the resources available to manually gather and analyze data. By automating the collection and analysis of customer data, customer experience software can quickly identify areas needing improvement and help prioritize them based on potential impact. This means you can focus your efforts on the changes that will make the most difference to your customers. 

Customer Experience Examples

A great customer experience can take many forms. But, something that all memorable customer experiences have in common is the ability to put the customer first, no matter what. Here are a few examples of companies that have gone above and beyond to create a customer experience that keeps customers coming back. 

Foot Locker

Foot Locker is one of the most popular sportswear companies in the world. As a result, they, deal with a large volume of customer feedback. Going through this customer feedback manually was time-consuming, and caused important feedback to be missed. As a solution, Foot Locker chose text analysis software that allows them to summarize, analyze, and act on the most important comments from customers. In doing so, they increase customer satisfaction and are able to pinpoint any operational changes that need to be made as a solution for future customers. 

Rural King

Rural King is a farm supply store with locations all over the United States. Rural King’s main form of customer feedback is through online reviews. But, with no way to review every review that was coming in, they were struggling to connect with their customers. To fix this problem, they implemented a review management solution that allowed them to tag keywords, analyze sentiment, and respond to reviews. Furthermore, their solution allows them to create and share dashboards with multiple stakeholders across the organization. 

Both of these organizations have created great customer experiences by putting their customers first and making sure they have the necessary tools to listen to and implement feedback in the most efficient way possible. 

How to Improve the Customer Experience

Some businesses may think that it takes a lot of effort to improve their customer experience, but the truth is that improving your customer experience can be as simple as updating your business hours, or giving customers a discount on their next purchase for leaving a review. No matter where you are in building your customer experience journey, here are some ways you can improve your customer experience. 

Determine what Customers Value Most and Deliver

As you seek to improve your customer experience, gather information on what your current customers value most. You can leverage customer feedback surveys and analyze customer reviews, both good and bad, to determine what your customers are looking for from your company. 

Do your customers want your services to be more convenient? Do they want to know more about the service before they buy or subscribe? Do they have concerns about how their information is used and protected?  Do they want to spend less time on the phone with customer service representatives?

As you discover what it is that your customers are looking for, take steps to deliver it to them.

Let Customers Know Their Opinions Matter

Tell your customers that you’re listening and making changes to improve their experience. Advertise the changes you are making on your website or through social media. You may also want to thank customers for providing feedback and be quick to address any concerns that they express by reaching out to them personally.

Measure Improvements

As you proceed with your CX improvement strategy, measure the response from your customers with relevant metrics. As you keep track of things like conversions, customer complaints, purchases, and website traffic, you’ll be able to figure out which of your efforts are paying off and which are not.

Consider the Digital Experience 

As you work on your customer experience, don’t forget about the digital experience. Making improvements to aspects of the customer experience like your website navigation or automated phone menu options can vastly improve how easily and readily your customers can avail themselves of your services. Convenience and accessibility are large parts of a good customer experience, so be sure not to neglect how technology can help in your overall CX strategy.

Aim for Continuous Improvement 

Even as your improvements take effect, build upon your successes by continuing to analyze and improve your customer experience. Don’t rest on your laurels — in today’s constantly changing world of digital commerce, continuous improvement is needed. 

This is especially true if your customer’s needs start to outpace your current customer experience model — for instance, you might need greater technology capacity to serve larger numbers of customers, or you might break into a niche market that has different needs.

Improve Your Customer Experience with Pearl-Plaza

InMomet’s best-in-class XI Platform gives your business all the tools you need to create a great customer experience. You can track the metrics that matter to your business, create cases, respond to customer reviews, and more! Everything within the XI Platform ca be customized for you. Schedule a demo today to see how Pearl-Plaza can help you improve your customer experience.