Walt Disney once said, “Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.”
Disney’s wise words encapsulate the power and value of customer experience (CX). When brands deliver on their promises, meet (or exceed) customer expectations, are at the top of their game at every customer touchpoint, customers are delighted, they’re more likely to come back, buy more, and recommend those brands to others. The more aspects of the customer experience an organization gets right, the more likely customers are to do these things.
The opposite it also true.
Marketing’s impact on customer experience, and ultimately, revenue, is greater than many marketers realize. Consider: According to research from Temkin Group, promoters are 5.2 times more likely to purchase more from a company than neutral or detractor customers, and customers are 9.9% more likely to purchase from a CX leader than from other companies in the same industry.
Let’s look at a few examples of where marketing can positively or negatively affect the customer experience.
The brand promise: Marketers craft and communicate the brand promise. This promise sets customer expectations in such areas as product quality, brand image, and customer service. If an organization doesn’t deliver on that promise or live up to those expectations, customers will be disappointed and less likely to purchase from that company. Conversely, if a brand’s delivery exceeds its promises, customer engagement increases. Zappos is a well-known example of this. It promises standard delivery in four to five days; customers often receive their purchases within two or three days. The result: customer delight. (And the outcome of customer delight: in many cases, repurchase and recommendations.)
Email: Marketers are continually challenged to find the right email frequency, messaging, and audience. This is made more difficult by myriad customer preferences. According to Epsilon, 58% of consumers polled say that receiving emails customized to their interests is “somewhat or very important,” and only 44% say that they receive just the right amount of email. Mailing too frequently or too infrequently or with messaging the recipient thinks is irrelevant translates to a poor customer experience—and potential deletions and opt-outs by customers who may have increased in value had the messaging or timing been on target.
Mobile: Along with avoiding the customer experience perils of sending email not optimized for mobile, marketers have to deliver value via mobile on par with how personal the experience is to the mobile consumer. Consumers who invite marketers into their palms and pockets expect a highly relevant customer experience. Marketers need to, for instance, provide apps that are useful and unique. SMS communications—whether coupons, contents, or promotions—need to be on target.
Direct mail: Marketers who do direct mail well deliver an engaging customer experience not only when the mail arrives, but also over the long term. Consider how many recipients of comprehensive or slickly design catalogs (think: IKEA) leave those tomes on their coffee tables to page through again and again. Conversely, direct mail that looks like “junk mail” is often treated as such—even by otherwise engaged customers. I’m referring to relevance, not design here. Mailing an offer for a product a customer already has, for example, is a poor customer experience.
Those are but a few examples. Marketing also influences the customer experience in such channels as social (the right content or promotion or interaction type through the appropriate channel); the contact center (the right offer to the right customer at the right time); and even sales (collateral that relevant, timely, and on target).
Think about your own role in marketing. What do you do that affects the customer experience? What is the state of that experience, and can you improve it? How will doing so profitably impact revenue?
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This post is part of the Customer Experience Professionals Association’s Blog Carnival “Celebrating Customer Experience.” It is part of a broader celebration of Customer Experience Day. Check out posts from other bloggers here.
