Customer Experience in Challenging Economic Times, Part 1

It's that time of the year again - budget time. Companies throughout the United States are working on next year's budgets, a challenging endeavor given the uncertainty and negative sentiment surrounding the economy. Individuals in charge of budgets have been found making perilous cuts to the customer experience budget, in the name of reducing costs and staying "lean and mean." Senior executives, and individuals from operations and finance who advocate for customer experience budget cuts or for the redistribution of increasingly limited funds, do so because they fail to appreciate the value and benefit of delighting customers. Despite all their proclamations about the necessity of delighting customers, and putting customers before all else – here, during budget time is where these executives put the money where their mouths are. Clearly, it is not with the customer experience.

I recently received a request from a struggling customer experience leader to assist him with building the financial case for customer experience management. This executive was asking pointed questions such as "What should be my priorities in this economy?" and "How can I justify my budget?" While I was initially surprised by these questions, I soon recognized that only by answering them resolutely, would he be able to satisfactorily address his organization's doubters and naysayers.

Back to Basics

As I have repeatedly emphasized for years, the customer experience is the core of an organization's business, not an added service or feature. The decision to minimize the customer experience or cut customer experience budgets is tantamount to the cessation of product and service development. Reducing organizational commitment to the customer experience will inevitably lead to a deterioration of the organization's value proposition - not exactly a winning strategy during a turbulent economy and increasingly competitive environment.

In tough economic times, your existing customers are more critical then ever. This is because your marketing, sales and PR budgets (those needed to attract new customers) will most likely fall victim to some form of cost reduction initiative. As such, the likelihood of attracting new customers will be greatly diminished. However, all is not lost as existing customers should remain a core interim and strategic priority. During this challenging economic period, existing customers are reevaluating their spending priorities and are actively seeking less expensive product and service alternatives. A reduction in customer experience quality will only serve to frustrate customers and accelerate their decision to take their business elsewhere. Remember that your customers have choices and that you should never be undertaking any action that would give your customers a reason to switch companies. Think about investing in the customer experience as an investment to protect existing revenue streams. Stated otherwise, investing in the customer experience is intended to defend the organization's current market position.

Another dynamic you can count on during difficult economic times is the competitive response. Customers are not the only individuals subject to panic and erratic behavior. Your competitors are also feeling the pinch and can very well lower prices or increase value to retain and even grow their market position (at your expense) - leaving you with two choices.

1. Defend your market position by lowering prices
2. Offer additional value (through the customer experience) to defend and ultimately enhance your market position

Reiterating our earlier point - these challenging economic times necessitate making the requisite investment into the customer experience to both defend current market position(s) and prevent customer attrition. During periods where customers are reluctant to part with their money, it is critical to give customers a reason to remain loyal to your organization, its products and services.

Challenging economic times bring greater customer price sensitivities and intensified competition - and with it, a need to invest in and improve the customer experience. Since customers will be expecting you to cut costs and reduce service quality, now is your time to prove them wrong. Demonstrating your commitment to customers through the customer experience will yield dividends not only during the present economic crises, but long afterwards when the country faces far brighter economic prospects.

This posting will be the first in a two-part series on the role of the customer experience during these challenging times.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Has the recent economic downturn had a negative effect on your budget for customer experience initiatives? If your budget has shrunk, have you been forced to cut programs or features you think your customers will notice are no longer available?

Lior Arussy is the president of Strativity Group and the author of four books, including Excellence Every Day: Make the Daily Choice—Inspire Your Employees and Amaze Your Customers (Information Today, 2008). To learn more about customer strategies, sign up for Arussy's newsletter.