Understanding Customer Experience

Posted by Mohsin Khawaja on January 1, 2010

1 comments | 1439 reads

Understanding customer value and experience is vital in online business strategy. Companies that focus on short term sales rather than long term customer relations tend to loose their market share quickly. Gone are days of short sales cycles and quick purchases on e-commerce sites, customers are more conscious than ever. Here are some quick facts about customer behaviour online:

Facts

• 77% of online shoppers in the US actively seek out reviews before they buy*

• 92% of shoppers find customer reviews “extremely helpful” or “very helpful” in making their decisions**

• 97% said they trusted recommendations from peers*

Source: Forrester, ** eTailing Group and JC Williams Consultancy

With this scenario in focus, we should try to influence the optimal customer behavior that will lead to win-win outcomes for your company and your customers.

Let us take an example of a software company that provides both a basic and a professional version of their product. Now it is upto their marketing strategy that what value and position they want to place in the mind of their customers about their product. It is possible that they can make more money in the short term if the customer buys Professional today. But our job as site owners is for us to help customers figure out right version of the product for a particular need and if it is the basic version then we should help the customer buy basic version not the Professional edition !

The reason behind this methodology is that it is possible that if customer will buy Professional, use it, get frustrated because it is too advanced for them, and we’ll never see them again (and they will share their suboptimal experience with others). But if we help them buy the right version, Basic, then next year they’ll be back for Professional !

Conclusion: Understand the needs and wants of your customers

Republished with author's permission from original post by Mohsin Khawaja.

Mohsin Khawaja

Mohsin Khawaja is an Internet Marketing Professional with experience in Internet Marketing Planning, Management & Conversion Analysis. Read his tips on Internet Marketing at: sem-seo-resources.com

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Lynn Hunsaker

January 3, 2010

What Is Customer Experience Management

Hi Moshin,

You're right that all managers should understand customer experience as a first step in business success. Customer Experience Management is much more than understanding the needs and wants of customers, online user experience, and customer behavior influence.

Customer Experience Management is customer-centric, systematic, holistic, and preventive of negatives:
* Encourages outside-in thinking and processes
* Demands a much broader view of what the customer experience is
* Views the customer’s experience strictly from the customer’s viewpoint
* Values existing customers as much as new customers
* Keeps customers returning by managing expectations — not by removing choice
* Increases brand equity by strengthening your brand promise
* Differentiates your brand in ways that are hard to copy
* Helps you avoid competing on price
* Enables great strides to be made on a shoestring budget.

This is not a complete definition of customer experience management, but it should help fellow readers get a better sense of its breadth and depth.

Best regards,
Lynn

Lynn Hunsaker helps companies improve customer data ROI, customer-centricity and customer experience innovation. She is author of 3 handbooks. See ClearAction.biz, Twitter.com/ClearAction, Facebook.dj/customerexperience.

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