Customer experience. A term so seemingly simple but when put into practice is quite extensive. When you think about CX, what likely comes to mind is a live phone agent answering a customer service call, however that’s not all that customer experience is. Let’s jump into what customer experience is so you have a better understanding when you decide what type of CX support you need.

What is customer experience?

Customer experience and customer service are not the same, but they work together to ensure a satisfied, repeat customer. 

Customer Service: Customer service is the direct one-on-one interaction between your company and a customer directly before and after purchasing. It offers your customers the assistance they need to buy from you confidently and ensures they get the full value of their purchase.

Customer Experience: Customer experience, or CX, is your customer’s perception of your company or brand throughout their entire buying journey. CX encompasses all the ways your company, directly and indirectly, interacts with customers, including:

• Brand awareness and marketing campaigns.

• Path to purchase.

• Experiences with your product or service.

• Customer support.

Companies that offer the strongest customer experience know who their customers are and what they need at each stage of the customer journey. They then make sure the processes, messaging, and channels are in place to create a frictionless, positive interaction. 

CX Blog Post: Customer Experience Phone Scripting Essentials

Why you need CX support

Customer experience is essential for any business looking not only to improve service for customers but also to retain current clients. Because retaining customers is cheaper than acquiring customers, it only makes sense to place more attention on those already spending their money with you. Once a provider loses a customer, 68% of consumers will not go back and 83% report that if companies could provide customers with better live or in-person customer service, it would have impacted their decision to switch providers.

Besides customer retention, here are some other reasons you should be focusing on CX support:

1. Your customer service is how customers view your brand. If your customer experience agents have the ability and responsibility to portray your brand in the best light and make your customers happy to give you their money.

2. Customer retention and happy customers also bring brand loyalty. 

3. 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.

How to Determine The Type of CX Support You Need

Determine your budget

The first step in any project is to define how much you want to spend. You can’t determine the type of CX support you need without starting with the budget conversation. Different service offerings require varying amounts of resources, from personnel to IT, which in turn can alter your budget.

Determine your goals

The next step in determining the type of customer experience support you need is to outline your business goals. Yes, we all want our businesses to increase revenue and have a positive return on investment, but that can come in many forms.

Common business CX goals:

• Improve customer retention rates

• Increase cross-selling or upselling

• Efficient live support (phone, chat, etc)

• Market Research

• New customer growth

Outlining your goals will then help you formulate a plan. Because there are countless CX solutions and programs to fit your specific goals, this is the best place to start. If your primary goal is to increase customer retention rates, it might not make sense to start a new outbound calling program but instead offer increased inbound phone, email, or live chat support.

If you’re not sure exactly what specific goals you want to accomplish, working with a customer experience partner can help you formulate the plan from start to finish.

If your goal is to grow your customer base or perform market research, perhaps B2B sales outsourcing could help you. From list-building to cold-calling, your outsourced inside sales team can help perform the actions to reach your ultimate goal.

Or perhaps you’re looking to increase the efficiency of your live CX support. If that’s the case, outsourcing phone or live chat support during peak times can help improve your customer experience. We have a blog post all about different ways outsourcing saves you money and improves CX support at the same time.

Another place we recommend using to determine your goals is to analyze your customer’s journey. Using a customer journey map to document where and how your customers interact with you will open your eyes to any gaps in the CX journey.

Determine the channels you want to offer your customers 

We’ve talked about how the customer journey works best when your brand uses a multi-channel or omni-channel approach to handle customer interactions. However, if you’re not in the place yet to offer a vast range of communication channels, you’ll want to look to your customers to tell you where they want to communicate with you. 

The best method to do this is to look at your data - which channels or platforms are you receiving the most engagement on? Do you have enough support currently to handle that level of inbound communication? 

If you’re considering offering another platform of communication, polling your customers is a great place to start. 

Determine your CX metrics

Now that you’ve determined the goals for your CX campaign, it’s time to move onto defining your customer experience metrics! If you are working with a CX partner, they will be able to help you outline metrics based on your goals along with target goals for each metric.

As a result, you’ll need to be prepared to answer questions like:

• What is your average handle time? 

• What percentage of calls need to be answered within ## seconds? 

• How many sales are you looking to generate through this partnership? 

• How are call outcomes evaluated?  

Good news, if you’re new to the CX outsourcing game, your partner can often guide what your CX key performance indicators (KPIs) should be and suggest reasonable benchmarks. They’ve got the experience and baseline data to make sure realistic expectations are set.

Learn more about customer experience, how you can improve it, and outsourcing

We compiled a free guide (yes, totally free - you don’t even need to give us your email!) on CX and how outsourcing can be beneficial for your organization. Not only will you find information about outsourcing, we also provide details on customer journey mapping, customer experience strategy, training, and more.

ABOUT INCEPT

Incept is an outsourced call center service that brings true conversational marketing back to customer experience. Our team of customer service representatives and experts partner with your team to improve the outcome of customer interactions and satisfaction, promote and protect your brand, and accelerate growth.

We’ve worked with some of the largest brands in the world to develop CX campaigns with one main goal - strengthen relationships at every touch point. From inbound phone calls and technical support, to organic and paid social media campaigns, to live chat, Incept is one of the best call center outsourcing vendors to assist all your CX and lead generation needs.