Customer Experience: A Step-by-Step Guide

Who is this article for?

• Retail businesses, e-commerce companies, and service-based businesses
• Customer experience managers, chief customer officers, customer support leaders, and marketing executives
• Anyone who wants to understand what makes a great customer experience and how to deliver it consistently to build loyal, satisfied customers

What is Customer Experience and Why Does it Matter?

Customer experience is the overall perception and feelings a customer has about your brand based on the entirety of their interactions with your business (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). It’s the sum of every touchpoint, from the moment a customer first becomes aware of your company, through the purchase process, and beyond to post-sale support and ongoing engagement.

In today’s competitive landscape, customer experience has become the key differentiator. Products and prices can be copied, but a unique customer experience is much harder for competitors to replicate (Verhoef et al., 2009). Brands that deliver exceptional, memorable experiences gain a significant advantage.

Investing in customer experience pays off in tangible benefits like:

• Increased customer loyalty and retention. Happy customers stick around and keep buying from you.
• More referrals and word-of-mouth. Delighted customers are eager to tell their friends and colleagues about you.
• Competitive differentiation. Stand out from the competition by offering an experience they can’t match.
• Increased customer lifetime value. Loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase (Bain & Company).

So how can you craft a customer experience that wows people and keeps them coming back? It starts with deeply understanding your customers.

How to Create an Amazing Customer Experience

Step 1: Understand Your Customers

You can’t deliver what your customers want if you don’t know who they are, what they care about, and what their needs and expectations are. Really get to know your target customers by:

• Creating detailed buyer personas
• Conducting customer interviews and focus groups
• Analyzing customer feedback and reviews
• Mapping out the customer journey

The goal is to gain insights into your customers’ goals, challenges, preferences, and behaviors at each stage of their journey. Then you can design an experience that caters to their specific needs.

Step 2: Engage Your Employees

Your employees are the face of your brand and the ones interacting with customers day in and day out. They have the power to make or break the customer experience. To deliver a consistently great experience, you need to:

• Hire people who are a good fit for your culture and values
• Train employees on customer experience best practices
• Empower employees to go above and beyond for customers
• Recognize and reward employees who deliver exceptional experiences

When your whole company is aligned around putting the customer first, it shows. Engaged, empowered employees are more enthusiastic about serving customers and will go out of their way to delight them (Grewal et al., 2009).

Step 3: Be Consistent Across Channels

Today’s customer journey is complex, with multiple touchpoints across various channels and devices. But customers don’t think in channels – they expect a seamless experience whenever and wherever they interact with your brand (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016).

Whether they’re browsing your website, contacting customer service, or visiting your store, the experience should be consistent and cohesive. Some ways to provide that:

• Maintain a consistent brand voice and messaging across channels
• Provide cross-channel customer support (e.g. letting customers start a conversation on live chat and continue it over email)
• Give employees a full view of the customer’s history and interactions across channels
• Personalize the experience using data from past interactions and purchases

An omnichannel approach ensures customers have a positive experience with your brand no matter where they are in their journey or how they choose to engage.

Step 4: Make it Easy and Effortless

Today’s customers are busy and impatient. They want to be able to find what they need, get answers to their questions, and complete purchases as quickly and easily as possible. If you make them jump through hoops, they’ll give up and go to a competitor. Some ways to reduce customer effort:

• Simplify your website navigation and checkout process
• Offer self-service options like a knowledge base and FAQ page
• Provide fast, friendly customer support across channels
• Send proactive communications to address issues before customers have to contact you

The easier you make it for customers to do business with you, the more likely they are to keep coming back (Rose et al., 2012).

Step 5: Get Personal

In an age of automation and algorithms, a personal touch can be a powerful differentiator. Customers want to feel like more than just a number – they want to feel understood and valued as individuals.

Use the data and insights you’ve gathered about your customers to personalize the experience at every opportunity:

• Greet customers by name
• Tailor recommendations based on past purchases and browsing behavior
• Send personalized content and offers
• Empower employees to make judgment calls to best serve each individual customer

Small personal touches can add up to a memorable experience that sets you apart from the generic, one-size-fits-all service many companies provide (Lemke et al., 2010).

Step 6: Solicit and Act on Feedback

The only way to know if you’re meeting and exceeding customer expectations is to ask. Regularly seek out customer feedback through:

• Post-purchase surveys
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys
• Customer interviews
• Social media listening
• Online reviews

But collecting feedback isn’t enough – you have to actually do something with it. Analyze feedback to identify areas for improvement, then make changes and let customers know you heard them and took action.

Closing the loop shows customers you value their input and are committed to continuously improving the experience (Palmer, 2010).

Step 7: Measure and Optimize

Like any business initiative, you need to be able to measure the success and impact of your customer experience efforts. Track metrics like:

• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
• Customer Effort Score (CES)
• Customer churn rate
• Customer lifetime value (CLV)

Use this data to identify trends, spot opportunities for improvement, and measure the results of your initiatives. Continuously test and optimize the customer experience over time.

Remember, customer preferences and expectations are always evolving, so your customer experience must evolve as well to keep up (Hoyer et al., 2020).

Risks and Pitfalls to Avoid

• Not getting buy-in and support from leadership
• Failing to engage and empower employees
• Implementing technology without considering the customer experience
• Focusing on isolated touchpoints instead of the entire customer journey
• Collecting customer feedback but not acting on it
• Trying to be everything to everyone instead of understanding your target customers

How Tallyfy Helps Deliver Amazing Customer Experiences

Tallyfy is a workflow management app that helps you deliver consistently great customer experiences by:

Structure intake – go from standalone forms to trackable workflows

Tallyfy lets you structure customer intake so you can efficiently collect key customer information, route it to the right people, and kick off workflows to deliver a seamless experience.

Real time tracking – track the status of a workflow without asking anyone

With real-time tracking, you always know the status of each customer’s journey and can proactively address any delays or issues.

Explain it once – AI-driven documentation

Tallyfy uses AI to automatically generate documentation based on your actual process, so employees always know exactly what to do to deliver great experiences.

If this then that – set amazingly simple and powerful conditional rules to show the right task at the right time and do more like automate assignments and deadlines

Tallyfy’s conditional rules let you automatically route tasks, update deadlines, and more based on specified criteria, so you can deliver a personalized experience at scale.

The power of AI lies in its ability to process massive amounts of customer data, detect patterns, and learn over time to deliver increasingly relevant, personalized experiences. Companies that successfully harness AI can gain a significant competitive advantage through differentiated customer experiences.

What Are the Implications for Managing Customer Experiences?

To leverage these transformative technologies, companies need to rethink how they manage customer experiences. It requires an outside-in perspective focused on using AI to create value for customers, not just drive efficiency for the business (Lemke et al., 2010).

Organizations must develop strategies and governance for deploying AI in ways that enhance specific dimensions of customer experience, such as:

• Personalization – Tailoring interactions based on an individual customer’s preferences and context
• Convenience – Making it effortless for customers to get the information and service they need
• Consistency – Delivering a cohesive experience across all touchpoints and over time
• Proactivity – Anticipating customer needs and addressing them before they arise
• Empathy – Demonstrating an understanding of the customer’s feelings and situation

Effectively implementing AI along these dimensions requires breaking down data silos to get a unified view of the customer. It also means redesigning processes and empowering employees to collaborate with AI for better decision making and customer service (Puccinelli et al., 2009).

What Does the Future Hold for AI-Powered Customer Experiences?

Looking ahead, we can expect AI to become increasingly sophisticated in understanding the context and emotions behind customer interactions to deliver more empathetic experiences (Grewal et al., 2009). Digital assistants may act as personal concierges and guides throughout the customer lifecycle.

At the same time, companies will need to proactively address AI ethical concerns around privacy, bias, and transparency to maintain customer trust (Palmer, 2010). The winners will be those who leverage AI to create mutual value for customers and the business in a responsible manner.

One thing is clear – AI is ushering in a new era of customer experience possibilities. Organizations ignore these technologies at their peril. Success requires a fundamental rethink of the business around customer centricity – enabled by the power of AI (Verhoef et al., 2009).

Tallyfy Tango – A cheerful and alternative take

Scene: Two friends, Carly and Xavier, are having coffee at their favorite local cafe.

Carly: Hey Xavier, how’s your day going? You look like you’re in a great mood!

Xavier: I am! I just had the most amazing customer experience at that new electronics store downtown. It totally made my day.

Carly: Really? Do tell! I’m always on the lookout for places that really know how to treat their customers right.

Xavier: Well, first off, as soon as I walked in, I was greeted by this super friendly salesperson. She asked me what I was looking for and really listened to my needs. No pushy sales tactics, just genuine helpfulness.

Carly: That’s awesome! There’s nothing worse than feeling pressured by salespeople who are just trying to make a quick buck.

Xavier: Totally. But it gets better! When I was ready to check out, the cashier noticed that one of the items I was buying was actually on sale, even though it wasn’t marked. She made sure I got the discount without me even having to ask.

Carly: No way! That’s the kind of customer experience that really sets a business apart. I’m definitely going to have to check this place out.

Xavier: You should! It’s so refreshing to find a store that actually cares about its customers and goes the extra mile to make sure they’re happy. That’s the kind of place that earns my loyalty, hands down.

Carly: Here’s to more businesses prioritizing amazing customer experiences! *raises coffee mug*

Xavier: Cheers to that! *clinks mugs* May we all be so lucky to have such delightful interactions while shopping.

Delivering an exceptional customer experience is no longer a nice-to-have – it’s a must-have for any business that wants to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. By understanding your customers, engaging employees, being consistent across channels, making it effortless, getting personal, acting on feedback, and continuously optimizing, you can craft experiences that wow customers and keep them coming back again and again.

Related Questions

What is the meaning of customer experience?

Customer experience refers to the overall perception and feelings a customer has when interacting with a company or brand. It encompasses every touchpoint, from the moment they first discover the business to post-purchase support and beyond. A positive customer experience leaves the customer feeling valued, satisfied, and more likely to return for future purchases or recommend the company to others.

How would you define a good customer experience?

A good customer experience is one that meets or exceeds the customer’s expectations at every stage of their journey. It involves providing high-quality products or services, responsive and helpful customer support, and a seamless, personalized experience across all channels. A company that delivers a good customer experience prioritizes the customer’s needs, listens to their feedback, and continuously improves its processes to ensure customer satisfaction.

What customer experience describes?

Customer experience describes the sum of all interactions a customer has with a company, including their thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. It covers various aspects, such as the ease of finding information, the quality of customer service, the reliability of products or services, and the overall brand image. A customer’s experience can be influenced by factors like the website’s user-friendliness, the helpfulness of staff, the speed of delivery, and the effectiveness of problem resolution.

What are the three main components of customer experience?

The three main components of customer experience are:

1. 1. Customer Service: This involves the direct interactions between the customer and the company’s representatives, such as support staff, sales personnel, or customer success managers. Excellent customer service is responsive, empathetic, and focused on resolving the customer’s issues efficiently.
   2. Product or Service Quality: The quality of the company’s offerings plays a crucial role in shaping the customer experience. Products or services that meet or exceed the customer’s expectations, are reliable, and provide value contribute to a positive experience.
   3. Emotional Connection: Creating an emotional connection with customers helps foster loyalty and advocacy. This can be achieved through personalized interactions, a strong brand identity, and a genuine commitment to customer success. When customers feel emotionally connected to a brand, they are more likely to forgive minor shortcomings and remain loyal over time.

References and Editorial Perspectives

Lemon, K., N., & Verhoef, P., C. (2016). Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey. Journal of marketing, 80, 69 – 96. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.15.0420

Summary of this study

This study examines the concept of customer experience and the customer journey in the context of increasingly complex customer behavior. It provides a historical perspective on customer experience within marketing and integrates current knowledge about customer experience, customer journeys, and customer experience management. The authors identify critical areas for future research on this important topic.

Editor perspectives

As a workflow automation platform, we at Tallyfy find this study fascinating because it highlights the importance of understanding the entire customer journey to deliver exceptional experiences. By digitizing and automating customer-facing processes, businesses can ensure a seamless, consistent experience across all touchpoints.

Verhoef, P., C., Lemon, K., N., Parasuraman, A., Roggeveen, A., L., Tsiros, M., & Schlesinger, L., A. (2009). Customer Experience Creation: Determinants, Dynamics and Management Strategies. Journal of retailing, 85, 31 – 41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2008.11.001

Summary of this study

This paper examines the creation of customer experience from a holistic perspective, proposing a conceptual model that discusses the determinants of customer experience. It takes a dynamic view, arguing that prior customer experiences influence future ones, and emphasizes the importance of the social environment, self-service technologies, and the store brand in shaping the customer experience.

Editor perspectives

At Tallyfy, we recognize that creating a great customer experience involves multiple factors and touchpoints. By providing a platform that enables businesses to streamline and automate their processes, we help them deliver consistent, high-quality experiences that keep customers coming back.

Grewal, D., Lévy, M., & Kumar, V. (2009). Customer Experience Management in Retailing: An Organizing Framework. Journal of retailing, 85, 1 – 14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2009.01.001

Summary of this study

This paper focuses on the role of macro factors in the retail environment and how they can shape customer experiences and behaviors. It identifies several ways to deliver a superior customer experience, such as promotion, price, merchandise, supply chain, and location, which should result in higher customer satisfaction, more frequent shopping visits, larger wallet shares, and higher profits.

Editor perspectives

We believe that by leveraging workflow automation, retailers can optimize their processes and deliver the kind of seamless, personalized experiences that customers crave. Tallyfy’s platform enables businesses to streamline operations, reduce errors, and free up employees to focus on delivering exceptional customer service.

Rose, S., Clark, M., Samouel, P., & Hair, N. (2012). Online Customer Experience in e-Retailing: An empirical model of Antecedents and Outcomes. Journal of retailing, 88, 308 – 322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2012.03.001

Summary of this study

This study develops and empirically tests a model of the relationship between antecedents and outcomes of online customer experience within Internet shopping websites. It identifies and provides operational measures of these variables, plus the cognitive and affective components of online customer experience, contributing to new knowledge and understanding of how e-retailers can provide effective online experiences for customers.

Editor perspectives

As more and more shopping moves online, delivering a great digital customer experience is critical. At Tallyfy, we understand the importance of streamlining and automating e-commerce workflows to ensure fast, accurate order processing, real-time inventory updates, and prompt customer service. Our platform helps e-retailers create the kind of seamless online experiences that keep customers loyal.

Puccinelli, N., M., Goodstein, R., C., Grewal, D., Price, R., Raghubir, P., & Stewart, D., B. (2009). Customer Experience Management in Retailing: Understanding the Buying Process. Journal of retailing, 85, 15 – 30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2008.11.003

Summary of this study

This article provides an overview of existing consumer behavior literature and suggests that specific elements of consumer behavior play important roles during various stages of the consumer decision process. It offers ways in which retailers can leverage this understanding of consumer behavior to enhance customer satisfaction and retail performance.

Editor perspectives

Understanding the customer buying process is essential for delivering great experiences. At Tallyfy, we believe that by digitizing and automating key workflows, retailers can gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. This allows them to personalize experiences, anticipate needs, and proactively address issues, leading to higher satisfaction and loyalty.

Lemke, F., Clark, M., & Wilson, H. (2010). Customer experience quality: an exploration in business and consumer contexts using repertory grid technique. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39, 846 – 869. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-010-0219-0

Summary of this study

This study proposes a conceptual model for customer experience quality and its impact on customer relationship outcomes. It finds that customer experience quality is judged with respect to its contribution to value-in-use, and hence proposes that value-in-use mediates between experience quality and relationship outcomes. The study also notes differences in how B2B and B2C customers assess experience quality.

Editor perspectives

At Tallyfy, we recognize that delivering high-quality customer experiences is essential for building strong relationships and driving business growth. Our workflow automation platform helps businesses streamline processes, reduce errors, and improve communication, enabling them to deliver the kind of value-adding experiences that customers expect.

Klaus, P., & Maklan, S. (2013). Towards a Better Measure of Customer Experience. International journal of market research, 55, 227 – 246. https://doi.org/10.2501/ijmr-2013-021

Summary of this study

This article introduces a new measure of customer experience quality (EXQ) that is more appropriate for the modern conceptualization of customer experience than traditional measures like customer satisfaction. The authors establish that EXQ better explains and predicts both loyalty and recommendations than customer satisfaction.

Editor perspectives

Measuring customer experience is critical for understanding how well a business is meeting customer needs and expectations. At Tallyfy, we believe that by digitizing and automating workflows, businesses can gain real-time visibility into process performance and customer interactions. This allows them to continuously monitor and improve the customer experience.

Becker, L., & Jaakkola, E. (2020). Customer experience: fundamental premises and implications for research. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 630 – 648. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00718-x

Summary of this study

This article develops a set of fundamental premises that reconcile contradictions in research on customer experience and provide integrative guideposts for future research. It identifies eight literature fields that address customer experience and derives four fundamental premises of customer experience that are generalizable across settings and contexts.

Editor perspectives

As a workflow automation platform, we at Tallyfy are keenly interested in the evolving understanding of customer experience. By staying up-to-date with the latest research and insights, we can ensure that our platform enables businesses to deliver experiences that align with customers’ changing needs and expectations.

Palmer, A. (2010). Customer experience management: a critical review of an emerging idea. Journal of services marketing/The Journal of services marketing, 24, 196 – 208. https://doi.org/10.1108/08876041011040604

Summary of this study

This paper provides a critical review of customer experience management (CEM), noting paradoxes in the use of the term “customer experience” and suggesting that despite academic interest in the concept, practical application of CEM may be difficult to achieve due to issues of inter-functional integration and the unique, situation-specific nature of customer experiences.

Editor perspectives

At Tallyfy, we recognize the challenges of implementing effective customer experience management. However, we believe that by providing a platform that enables cross-functional collaboration, process standardization, and real-time monitoring, we can help businesses overcome these hurdles and deliver consistently great experiences.

Hoyer, W., D., Kroschke, M., Schmitt, B., H., Kraume, K., & Shankar, V. (2020). Transforming the Customer Experience Through New Technologies. Journal of interactive marketing, 51, 57 – 71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2020.04.001

Summary of this study

This paper offers a fresh typology of new technologies powered by AI and proposes a new framework for understanding the role of these technologies on the customer/shopper journey. It discusses the impact and implications of these technologies on each stage of the shopping journey and advances a new conceptualization for managing AI technologies along customer experience dimensions to create experiential value.

Editor perspectives

As a workflow automation platform, Tallyfy is excited about the potential of AI and other emerging technologies to transform the customer experience. By integrating these technologies into our platform, we can help businesses automate routine tasks, personalize interactions, and gain deeper insights into customer needs and behaviors, enabling them to deliver truly exceptional experiences.

Glossary of terms

Customer experience

Customer experience refers to the overall perception and feelings a customer has as a result of all their interactions with a company, its products, and its services. It encompasses every aspect of the customer’s journey, from initial awareness and consideration to purchase, use, and post-purchase support.

Customer journey

The customer journey is the complete path a customer takes when engaging with a company, from initial contact through purchase and beyond. It includes all the touchpoints and interactions a customer has with a brand, across all channels and over time.

Touchpoints

Touchpoints are the various points of contact or interaction between a customer and a company. These can include physical locations, such as stores or offices, as well as digital channels like websites, mobile apps, social media, email, and customer service interactions.

Omnichannel

Omnichannel refers to a seamless and integrated approach to customer engagement that provides a consistent experience across all channels and touchpoints. It recognizes that customers may interact with a brand through multiple channels and aims to provide a unified, personalized experience regardless of the channel used.

Personalization

Personalization involves tailoring products, services, and communications to meet the specific needs, preferences, and behaviors of individual customers. By leveraging data and technology, companies can deliver more relevant and engaging experiences that build stronger relationships and drive loyalty.