It was only a matter of time before customer experience appeared on the agenda of Chief Marketing Officers. In a highly competitive and commoditised marketplace brands are finding it increasingly difficult to deliver competitive advantage in an era where the purchase journey starts with a click and a customer makes a decision to buy based on what they experience online.
Leading information and technology research company Gartner’s latest survey results show eighty-nine percent of companies surveyed planned to compete primarily on the basis of the customer experience by 2016. The research also shows: that fewer than half the companies surveyed rate their customer experiences as exceptional. To get in the game, brands will need to find their purpose, align people and processes across the business, design and deliver their brand promise seamlessly across every touchpoint and turn loyal customers into advocates.
We believe that great experiences get people talking. Brands that create emotionally positive experiences at every moment in the customer journey drive engagement, satisfaction and positive customer behaviour that leads to word-of-mouth recommendations. Nielsen’s global Trust in Advertising Report shows, when a loyal customer recommends a product to a friend, they were four times more likely to purchase the brand.
Brand experiences have a huge influence on what people purchase. Every time a customer interacts with a brand they have an experience, and what they experience is what they remember. When a customer has an emotionally positive experience it connects them to the brand and positively impacts satisfaction and advocacy. However, when a customer has a negative experience, not only do they vote with their wallets and buy from the competition, they tell their friends and peers too.
First Published: https://goo.gl/1Fjfde