Many companies focus on delivering an exceptional customer experience—and for good reason. If your customers don’t have a good experience, they’ll go to a competitor to get what they need. Even if your sales team focuses on providing a top-notch customer experience, you may be falling short. According to research from Bain & Company, 80 percent of organizations believe they provide a superior experience, but only eight percent of customers believe they are receiving a stellar customer experience.

So, how can you close the gap and ensure your customers have a great interaction from start to finish? According to Steven MacDonald, a digital marketing manager for SuperOffice, you can take seven steps to improve customer satisfaction, reduce churn and increase revenues.

We share MacDonald’s seven strategies in this issue of Promotional Consultant Today.

1. Establish a customer-focused vision. The first step to improving your customer experience is to create a clear set of statements. You can then embed these statements into your culture. Every member of your team should know these statements, says MacDonald, and the vision should be embedded into all areas of training and development.

2. Get to know your customers. You can’t give your clients the kind of service they desire if you don’t understand them well. That’s why the next step is creating personas or customer profiles. MacDonald says that by creating personas, your customer support team can better understand your customers’ needs and pain points.

3. Look for ways to create emotional connections. To elevate the customer experience, think about ways you can provide more than a product or service for your customers. MacDonald gives an example of Zappos. When a customer was late on a return due to a death in the family, Zappos arranged for their shoes to be picked up for free. The company also went above and beyond by sending a bouquet of flowers and a note of condolence.

4. Get real-time customer feedback. If you want to learn how your customers feel about working with you, ask them. MacDonald suggests using live chat tools to have real-time conversations and sending a follow-up email to customers using post-interaction surveys.

5. Identify your team’s training needs. Once you know how your clients feel about your service, MacDonald says the next step is identifying each team member’s unique needs. Many businesses review the quality of phone and email communication, but MacDonald recommends taking this assessment one step further by scheduling and tracking your team’s development through coaching and group training.

6. Listen to your sales reps—and then act. If your company is like most, you get employee feedback during an annual review but seldom take steps to act on their feedback in the months in between. Take time to listen to what your employees have to say and be sure to implement their suggestions.

7. Measure the ROI for your customer experience. Whether you use Net Promoter Score or you simply ask, “Would you recommend our company?” it’s important to understand if your efforts are paying off. Look at the results and adjust where needed.

The customer experience matters. If you want your customers to continue working with you—and refer you to others—you should aim to give them an exceptional experience with every interaction. By striving to elevate the customer experience, from the moment clients click on your site to when they receive your products, you can work to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Compiled by Audrey Sellers

Source: Steven MacDonald is an online marketer who works as a digital marketing manager for SuperOffice.