How Customer Success can improve your customer experience

If a company wants to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty today, it should certainly prioritize the concept of Customer Success, or customer success. This approach seeks to deliver value to the customer at all points of contact, from the first interaction to the post-sale, promoting a culture focused on helping them to consume their service or product in the best way.

By adopting the model, instead of looking for customers who found products and services at random, organizations start to acquire qualified potential customers, as well as create an assertive path to work with them in an integrated way, always in search of success.

In practice this means, for example:

  • high performance onboarding;
  • trainings;
  • marketing campaigns targeting nutrition;

among other actions that anticipate demands even before they arise.

However, as market and behavior changes have taken place drastically in recent years, mainly due to the digital transformation, many businesses still carry out the service and relationship processes in isolation, or in groups, depending on the area involved.

Knowing that it is necessary to change this mindset and increasingly prioritize the integrated processes of Customer Success, we developed this article. Check it out and learn more about the concept, its benefits and how to adopt it!

What factors is Customer Success composed of?

The first thing to keep in mind is that Customer Success and customer service are not the same thing. For example, having customers who know the company, make a purchase and have no complaints are good indicators, but embedding a culture focused on their well-being goes beyond that. What value are you providing them? What do customers get from your company that they wouldn’t find in other companies?

Consumers expect to have positive and memorable insights at all touchpoints with their preferred brands.

For the concept of customer success to really exist, the company must adopt strategies that involve all areas and stages of the purchase journey, so that they are directed to a specific audience, pre-defined and carefully evaluated. ee some pillars that make up Customer Success:

Segmentation

Properly segmenting the target audience through interviews, surveys, market and competition analysis, among other processes, is one of the key factors of the model. After all, all actions must have as main focus the customer’s success, which needs to be known in depth so that they are complying.

Customers follow up

Customer Success must exist from the negotiation process, when the relationship begins, so that the customer chooses the contractual clauses that are most appropriate to their profile and demands, increasing the chances of satisfaction. After that, the company must accompany you throughout the journey, in order to act proactively towards continuous improvement.

Engagement in the sales process

In order for consumers to find the products and services most suited to their needs, which directly contributes to a good experience, there is nothing better than including them in the sales process. Therefore, this is one of the pillars of the concept. Whether through a freetrial or a high-involvement sale, the likelihood that you will be assertive in your decision is much higher.

What are the benefits of Customer Success for the business?

By reading our article so far, you might get an idea of the importance of creating a customer-centric culture. In fact, when well structured, the Customer Success strategy brings a series of advantages. Among them are:

  • Increase in success cases: the customer is assisted from the beginning to the end of the journey, that is, from the first contact to the post-sales;
  • Intelligence in decision making: while customer success contributes to consumer satisfaction, the company benefits from access to a valuable source of data, which point out characteristics, desires and needs, contributing to the creation of increasingly actions efficient;
  • Reduction in churn rate:The customer turnover indicator, or churn, automatically drops when a company starts to adopt Customer Success in its routine. This means retention, loyalty and increased sales;
  • Optimization of social proof: eople start to speak highly of the brand, thus generating continuous engagement. All of this is reflected in better insights, quality relationships and profitability.

How to implement customer success processes in practice?

To start adopting Customer Success, companies must first analyze internal processes, assess how the customer experience is structured, and begin to develop a customer-centric culture.

It is also important to have a qualified team, made up of professionals who understand service, product, relationship, sales, marketing and other areas that integrate the concept.

Other indicated actions are:

  • Invest in training and feedback;
  • Pay attention to the churn index, because if it is high, it is a sign that something is not right;
  • Create loyalty programs and campaigns;
  • Intensify communication flows with customers;
  • Optimize onboarding processes.

As with all actions performed by a company, adopting an approach that puts the customer at the center of everything also involves applying a better experience. Thus, your company delivers a relationship of value and exchange, fostering the evolution of the teams’ strategies and the longevity of this relationship.

Including Customer Success in business processes not only favors the customer, but directly contributes to better knowledge of the public, business intelligence, lower dissatisfaction rate and optimization of the customer experience.

All of this generates new business opportunities and favors the company’s growth in a market with increasingly demanding consumers and high competition.

We hope this content has helped you understand what Customer Success is and how it relates to Customer Experience.. o access more content related to these topics, continue browsing through our blog!

Why customer experience has become a priority in companies?

The customer experience, or Customer Experience (CX), has been increasingly prioritized by businesses from all sectors. Proof of this is the Brazilian Customer Experience survey, developed in 2019, which shows that 49% of companies increased their investments in customer service and relationship management.

Among the main reasons for this is the change in consumer behavior, which today is not just looking for a quality product or service, but rather a complete and satisfying experience at all points of contact with a brand. At the same time, the competition has been investing in the most diverse methods to provoke a positive perception in potential customers, whether in relation to face-to-face or online relationships.

This makes it even more essential that organizations are aware of the way they are interacting with the public and work to continuously optimize this process, in order to be able to stand out in a highly competitive scenario.

Why has Customer Experience become a trend?

As mentioned, the change in the consumer profile was one of the main drivers for prioritizing CX in companies. In turn, the digital transformation has boosted new habits, based on information, connection and relationships.

For example, before the existence of social networks and complaint sites, customers of a brand could only make negative ratings about it by phone or in person. Nowadays, it is possible to access different service channels offered by organizations, as well as go through the entire purchase journey in an easy way and without leaving home.

In fact, the path taken by the customer until the completion of a business today involves several paths, which include search engines, e-mails, advertisements on external sites, filling out forms on landing pages, among others. In other words, it is no longer a linear path as it was a few years ago, which was limited to face-to-face contacts and call center services.

In this context, companies that offer memorable experiences to consumers at all points of contact and stages of the funnel are those that understand that the Customer Experience must be a priority in all actions developed.

This not only ensures customer satisfactionbut also raises their level of loyalty to the company. In practice, this means loyalty and recommendation of products and services offered to other people, generating new chances for relationships, sales and profitability.

How to create a CX strategy in practice?

Implementing a customer-oriented organizational culture involves a change that impacts the entire structure of a company and its teams. In other words, this is not something sporadic, but a strategy that must be built through different processes. Among the main ones are:

Planning

The first step for a business that intends to adopt the concept of customer experience in its operation is to plan how this will be done in practice. This involves an internal survey of current processes and the creation of a set of instructions that act as guiding principles for the teams.

In addition, it is essential to analyze the customer journey and its different phases, in order to build an action plan based on the behavior of the public, their needs and the way they relate to the brand.

Meet the customer

In addition to making a strategic plan based on how potential and current customers relate to the brand, it is necessary to know their characteristics, pains and needs so that Customer Experience strategies are really efficient.

With the digital transformation, several ways of carrying out this study emerged, which involves the use of CRM tools, the study of interactions in different channels, the development of satisfaction surveys, among others.

Today, it is possible to access data on the public, previously unthinkable by companies, which guide the creation of actions that are increasingly efficient and consistent with what the public expects.

Create emotional connection

The consumer’s emotions during the shopping journey are what induce them to complete a purchase or give up on it. Therefore, it is essential to understand the customer’s journey from their perspective, in order to detect the moments when they feel satisfied, indecisive or uncomfortable, for example.

Thus, it is possible to work continuously to highlight the positive points and establish a healthy and promising connection for both sides.

These are just some of the key factors for a quality Customer Experience strategy. However, new technologies and innovations emerge quickly, and it takes dedication and commitment to keep up with market movements, consumer behavior and competition.

How to optimize the customer experience?

In addition to the aforementioned practices, in order to put into practice the prioritization of the customer experience in the company, a tip is to use three pillars: effort (effort), emotional (emotion) and success (success). See what each of them means:

  • Effort: concerns the minimization of customer efforts throughout the interaction process with the company, involving aspects such as agility, transparency and simplicity;
  • Emotional: putting the customer first, making them feel valued and listened to;
  • Success: pillar of CX that is focused on doing everything for the customer to have their goals met during all interactions with a brand.

Case Slack

To make it clearer how the customer experience can optimize company results, let’s take the example of Slack: founded in 2009, the company, which launched its corporate communication platform in 2014, has always had a philosophy of humanization in service.

So its purpose is that every customer deserves to have a conversation with someone real. As a result, it invested in support systems that were integrated into the platform, facilitating interactions. In addition, in 2017 the platform received live chat and support via email 24 hours a day.

As a result, the company currently has a monthly average of 25,000 tickets, 6 million active users per day, a 100% service CSAT and an optimized response time of up to one hour. In practice, these numbers mean loyalty, sales and increased profits.

Customers’ expectations regarding the service of their preferred brands are greater every day. Therefore, adopting a Customer Experience strategy is more than an option. Trata-se de uma questão de sobrevivência em um mercado mutável, concorrido e cada vez mais exigente.

Has your company invested in customer experience?

Now that you know why customer experience has become so important in companies, we’d like to know: has your company been looking at CX? How about more tips on this subject? Keep browsing our blog and check it out!

What is NPS – Net Promoter Score?

Measuring customer happiness and satisfaction is extremely important for companies, especially for those that already know the value of good Customer Experience management. Therefore, the so-called satisfaction surveys are becoming increasingly known and carried out by various businesses. In fact, they are great allies of companies.

To help you understand how to create an effective satisfaction survey, we’ve developed this article that will introduce you to everything about the NPS – Net Promoter Score. Check out:

How did satisfaction surveys or NPS arise

The NPS, or Net Promoter Score, is a methodology used to measure consumer happiness with your company through a quanti-qualitative survey. A good example of a satisfaction survey are the already famous notes for telemarketing service provided by some telephone operators. This methodology is intended to provide an overview of consumer loyalty and how satisfied they are with the brand in question.

It emerged in 2003, thanks to Fred Reichheld, who wrote an article introducing the NPS methodology to the Harvard Business Review. This was the publication that gave rise to his book, “The definitive question” where he details the research better.

How does NPS work?

You’ve certainly done or at least heard about several other research methodologies, so why use NPS instead of so many others? The answer is simple: most of them don’t work as well as NPS.

Feedbacks do not happen at the right time to generate insights and results are not individualized, allowing a change in behavior by the company.

The Net Promoter Score was developed by listing responses to various questions, with repurchase rates, referrals and several positive indicators, in order to measure the relationship they would have with each other.

From this study, it was concluded that a specific question was directly linked with the positive indicators analyzed, in 11 of the 14 cases studied.

The NPS question is: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how much would you recommend Company X to a friend or colleague?”

With it, it is possible to quickly measure the customer’s feeling towards your company, after all, there is no better way to demonstrate satisfaction with a brand than by indicating the company to a friend.

NPS customer rating

Customers can be divided into 3 groups, according to their answers:

1- Promoters (grade 9 or 10)

These are customers who give this high score because they really like to use your product or service and see its value.

This group of people are called promoters, as they can actually promote your brand through referrals to friends or colleagues. In addition to being loyal to your company, they are people willing to give constructive feedback and respond to surveys.

Therefore, your company must cultivate the relationship with this group of customers and even think about rewards for them. It is also important to adopt strategies to attract more customers from this profile.

2- Neutrals (grade 7 or 8)

These customers are possibly satisfied with your company, but they are not loyal or engaged enough for a referral, or, if it happens, there are reservations regarding the product/service or company.

Precisely because they are not faithful, they can substitute their company for a competitor or for another option if they find a better offer or a more attractive condition.

3- Detractors (grade 0 to 6)

Unlike the first group of customers mentioned, detractors do not feel helped with the product/service offered by their company. In fact, the feeling is that in addition to not helping to solve the problem, the company brought even more frustration to the situation.

Therefore, instead of referring the company to friends, this group of customers exposes their negative experience with criticism.

It is necessary to pay extra attention to these consumers, as they need more support and attention. Once this profile is identified, it is necessary for the service team to quickly analyze and identify the causes of dissatisfaction and present an efficient solution.

It is recommended to focus time, effort and money on strategies to bring in more promoters and avoid detractors.

How is the NPS calculated?

To calculate the NPS, just subtract the percentage of promoting customers by detractors, and the result is your Net Promoter Score:

% PROMOTER CUSTOMERS – % DETRACTOR CUSTOMERS = NPS

Realize that neutral customers do not enter this account, therefore, actions to transform them into promoters need to be done, increasingly increasing your company’s satisfaction rate.

Some advantages of NPS

NPS quickly stood out from other surveys and no wonder, it has several advantages, such as:

Adaptability

You can keep the methodology and the basis of the question, adapting it to different market niches and situations. See examples:

  • “On a scale of 0 to 10, what is the probability of referring company X to a friend or colleague?”
  • “How likely is it that you refer product Y to a friend or colleague?”
  • “From 0 to 10 how much would you be willing to indicate brand X to a friend or colleague?”

Ease of application

The NPS survey can be performed by any company, regardless of industry size. It is possible to measure satisfaction at each point of the consumer’s journey or overall satisfaction. In addition to the company, being able to continuously monitor customer satisfaction, if the survey is running continuously.

simplicity and efficiency

For the company responsible for conducting the survey, the NPS is extremely simple, both to apply the survey and to measure the results, after all there is already a guide number that must be reached.

Thinking about the customers, this survey is also simple to be answered and takes a few minutes, without generating weariness or the feeling of spending too much time on something that might not make sense to them.

Power of immediate action

The main objective of NPS is to help companies improve their performance and retain even more customers. As it is a quick and simple survey, it is possible for the company to contact the customer and devise new strategies right after the feedback has been collected.

Less chance of manipulation

It’s true that every poll can be manipulated, but thanks to NPS’ single, straightforward question, this manipulation rate is greatly reduced. This is because it is a single and objective question, your consumer will not be influenced by the order of questions presented in the survey.

Benchmark

As the NPS follows a pattern, it is possible to rely on the rates of other companies to find out if your rate can be considered good or not. Of course, this rate changes depending on product, market and other factors. However, there is a general average that can help you:

  • Excellent – NPS between 75 and 100
  • Very good – NPS between 50 and 74
  • Acceptable – NPS between 0 and 49
  • Bad – NPS between -100 and -1

This type of research brings us several advantages. Among them, we list the speed with which the questionnaire is completed, which facilitates data collection. In addition, it is worth highlighting the ease with which this type of research is implemented, bringing us the result in a quick and easy-to-understand way.

We also highlight the standardization of this indicator, which makes it easier to understand the results and amplifies its ease of implementation in several companies.

And after NPS?

As mentioned, the NPS is a simple research methodology, but it is necessary to dedicate yourself after its realization.

What does your company usually do after receiving feedback from satisfaction surveys? This is one of the most important moments and just measuring the results is not enough, it is necessary to act!

Talk to your customer

Give an answer to your customer, after answering a survey he should not be without any return, after all, he took his time to answer it.

Ideally, the company should contact you shortly after receiving the feedback. Whether to encourage the Promoters or help resolve a problem | doubt of Neutral customers, or Detractors.

At this point, you can ask one more question and really understand why the grade was received, an example of which question can be used:

  • “What is the most important reason for the grade you gave?”

Like the NPS main question, this one is also adaptable and can be used to improve a specific company point or product.

Ready to take NPS?

Now that you have reached the end of this content, you certainly know how much NPS can be for your company, and we hope that we have helped you to understand more about this satisfaction survey methodology. If you want to know more tips about Customer Experience, keep an eye on our blog and social networks.

Customer Experience: are we measuring the right metrics?

It is no surprise that Customer Experience has become a priority in companies that aim to gain consumer loyalty. This strategy aims to offer the best customer experience, which can bring great returns, such as cost reduction, greater competitive advantage, among others.

Although it is clear what CX is and its importance, companies that adopt this strategy need to measure their efforts and understand if the results are according to plan. However, one of the most difficult tasks at this stage is deciding exactly what to measure.

In this scenario, there are many types of metrics available, which can end up generating more noise than intelligence. In any case, for you to be able to build an effective Customer Experience base, it is very important to measure the correct metrics, know how to interpret data and make decisions based on results.

What metrics are most used?

In CX there are some very relevant metrics, among them, we highlight the following:

NPS – Net Promoter Score

The NPS or Net Promoter Score, is a methodology that helps companies identify the level of consumer loyalty. Instead of asking if the customer is satisfied with the service or product offered, here the question is: How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”. The responses are scalable, which can be, for example, between 0 and 10, resulting from detracting customers to potential promoters. In addition, it is possible to include more questions to complement the survey.

CES – Customer Effort Score

The CES or Customer Effort Score shows about the customer’s level of effort with the brand. In other words, it is a metric that measures how easy it is for a customer to do business with your company, in which only one question is asked, which can be: “How easy was it to solve your problem today?” The answers are also scalable, typically from 0 to 5, ranging from extremely easy to extremely difficult.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

The CSAT or Customer Satisfaction Score identifies customer satisfaction with a service, product or relationship with the brand. The question usually used is: “How do you rate your experience today?” Answers are also created on scales, such as 1 to 7, where 1 represents the worst experience and 7, the best.

Churn Rate

The Churn Rate displays the rate of people who stopped doing business with your company. That is, this metric indicates the percentage of abandonments registered in the base during a certain period of time, such as customers who stopped buying or canceled some type of subscription.

To reach the result, you must:

  • Choose a period;
  • Check how many customers your company had at the beginning (X);
  • Check how many customers you had at the end (Y).

The formula is: (X-Y)/X.

Example: At the beginning of the month your company had 100 customers, and at the end of the month you realized it had only 80. This way, the formula would be: (100-80) / 100 = 0,2. In this case, the Churn Rate is 20%.

Each of these metrics we’ve highlighted can be used to understand different aspects, such as why, how and when customers are less engaged.

Why aren’t they working?

Having metrics is only part of the way. As already mentioned, it is essential to decide exactly what you should measure and to know how to interpret the collected data. If the measurements are not working, be aware of these aspects – which may be the reason for the lack of success in your measurement:

Wrong focus on using metrics: Ideally, the Customer Experience metrics are aligned with the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of your core business;

Too much information generated and little view of all the data: It is important to have tools that integrate all points of contact to facilitate visualization;

Use of metrics to validate actions at different stages: the measurement of metrics must be carried out according to each stage of the campaigns. For example, a company cannot use pre-sales metrics to guide some post-sales action.

How to change this situation?

To change this situation, you must follow three steps:

  • Analysis;
  • Understand;
  • Make the decision.

If you are having difficulty measuring or if the results are not going as expected, review your strategy. First, it is essential that you define the Customer Experience metrics according to your company’s objective and think of questions that will really help you in your next actions. It is not necessary to track information that will not be valid for your business. Choose the right metrics to reduce noise and you’ll get a more valuable interpretation of what’s going on.

Another key point in this scenario is to rely on existing technologies in the current market, such as Omnichannel platforms, which integrate all surveys in a single location, facilitating the visualization of all the information generated for a more assertive, optimized and agile conclusion.

And finally, of course, make decisions. Don’t just stay with the measurements. Create improvement actions to increasingly provide the best experience for your customer.

If you are looking for positive results in your Customer Experience strategy, it is essential to understand your customer’s behavior. Right now, satisfaction surveys and measurements done in the right way can help you build a personalized and efficient journey to conquer and retain your audience.

We hope this article has helped you understand which metrics are important thinking about Customer Experience and how to measure them. For more articles about Customer Experience, please continue browsing through our blog.

Customer Centric: steps to adopt this strategy

According to surveys, the customer experience has a higher decisive value than price or product quality for 8 out of 10 consumers. Another relevant fact is that 86% of them are willing to pay more to have a good service at all points of contact with the brand. In practice, this means that companies that prioritize the Customer Centric strategy are much more likely to thrive in a demanding and highly competitive market.

That’s because the concept aims to centralize the entire strategic planning of an organization on customer satisfaction, in order to constantly increase the loyalty rate, sales and profitability.

We developed this article to help you understand even more about what Customer Centric is and how to implement it in your business. Check out:

What is Customer Centric?

Customer Centric, which in Portuguese means “centrado no cliente”, is a term that refers to companies that place consumers as their main focus in the creation of planning in the most diverse areas. In other words, it is not an action carried out only by the marketing and sales sectors, for example, but it involves the organization as a whole.

In practice, this means that everything that is done in-house should aim to create a satisfying experience for the target audience. This involves from the first contact to the relationship along the purchase journey and post-sales.

By choosing to follow this strategy, it is possible that the organizational culture of the business will need to undergo profound changes, as in addition to saying that the customer comes first, it is necessary to make them feel that way.

Although any cultural change requires a good deal of effort, the task is certainly rewarding, as Customer Centric not only pleases consumers but also drives teams.

Proof of this is a survey by SurveyMonkey.com, which shows that 83% of employees who work in customer-focused organizations feel confident to say that they will continue working there for at least two more years.

What are the advantages of Customer Centric for your company?

Adopting Customer Centric as a strategy can bring several benefits to your company, such as:

  • Increased competitive advantage;
  • Greater customer satisfaction and retention;
  • Reduction of CAC;
  • Increased average ticket and lifetime value;
  • Customers become brand promoters;
  • Strengthening the brand image in the market.

 

As you can see, Customer Centric does not only bring benefits for customers, who will have a much more pleasant experience, it is also reflected in advantages for companies!

With that in mind, we’ve put together the main steps for your company to adopt this strategy!

Step by step to adopt the Customer Centric strategy for your business

fter understanding what the concept of Customer Centric is and the importance of adopting it, the time has come to show the necessary steps for this to happen within companies. See what they are:

1. Collect customer data constantly

There is no way to implement a Customer Centric strategy without knowing your customer in depth. fter all, it is necessary to understand their characteristics, desires, pains and needs, in order to create actions that meet exactly this profile.

A tip to achieve the goal is to use Customer Relationship Management systems, or Customer Relationship Management (CRM). These centralize and integrate all aspects of the relationship with consumers, including contact histories, registrations, customer service, sales, marketing, technical support, customer service, among others.

Thus, the company has greater control and organization in relation to Customer Centric processes. Furthermore, only with a complete analysis of the consumer profile is it possible to customize the actions.

2. Share a consumer-focused culture across the company

Customer Centric depends on a culture that values the customer experience. Therefore, it is essential that the company invests in sharing this purpose in all areas, whether through leaders who understand the importance of the strategy or through internal communication actions, implementation of policies or training.

It is essential to make everyone aware of the importance of valuing the consumer, how this can be done and in what ways it can positively impact the organization.

3. Facilitate communication between company and customer

The more efficient thecustomer service strategy in terms of process optimization and agility, the better. To be clearer: when a company facilitates communication with its public, as well as offering autonomy to the teams, it is automatically contributing to the good performance of Customer Centric.

4. Review customer feedback monthly

As important as monitoring performance indicators that show business results is paying attention to customer feedback. Reviews, complaints and responses to satisfaction surveys, for example, must be reviewed monthly.

The reason is that the company follows closely the success of Customer Centric, evaluating which processes are having good results and which ones need to be readapted to improve performance.

5. At all meetings, bring questions about the customer’s point of view.

There is nothing more natural in a customer service strategy than putting you at the center of the action. Therefore, talking about the customer, their desires and needs, should be an agenda at all the organization’s meetings, as they are the main guide for strategic planning, debates and execution of the actions discussed.

Adopting a consumer-focused posture generates transparency and a more loyal relationship with customers, which is reflected in increased sales and profitability. Now that you know where to start, you can start adopting Customer Centric in practice.

We hope this content has helped you and to learn more about this and other issues related to customer experience, follow our blog!