Customer Experience: the present and the future of Marketing

CX is the buzzword of the moment that goes far beyond these two letters. Customer Experience is the present and future of Marketing. Find out why!

You have probably spent hours comparing the price of a product/service on various platforms before buying it. After all, price has always been an extremely important factor for consumers. However, with the changes in consumer habits, this factor has been replaced by Customer Experience .

Today, CX is not only related to the level of consumer satisfaction after buying a brand's product or service. Delivering a high-quality experience requires holistic thinking about the customer journey, integrating data and technology with marketing and communication strategies.

In today's article, Indico explains what CX is and how important it is to deliver a delightful customer experience!

CX, CS and UX: understand the difference

Before getting deeper into CX, it is important not to confuse its concept with other abbreviations. Check out the difference between each one of them below:

• CX: Customer Experience - perception that the customer has after contact with the brand; set of actions aimed at optimizing the purchase journey in order to delight the customer. 
• CS: Customer Success - company's area of responsibility for ensuring customer satisfaction.  
• UX: User Experience - experience the user has interacting with the brand's touchpoints (website, app etc.)
  

What is ROX? 

ROI ( Return on Investment) is already a well-known indicator in the market. It is mainly used to calculate how much a company has gained or lost after making an investment, whether in product launches, marketing campaigns, paid media or others.

This metric can be calculated from the following formula:

ROI = (Profit Obtained - Investment) / Investment 

Simply multiply the result by 100 to get the percentage value. 

ROX (Return on Experience) is the metric of the moment. According to PwC, ROX is not an separate metric and is not a new version of other existing  metrics, such as NPS. 

The big challenge is that, unlike ROI, ROX does not have a formula. In other words, to get a result it is necessary to analyze several factors, both quantitative and qualitative, that represent the return on investment in Customer Experience.

Therefore, this process is unique for each company. After all, the main KPIs (key performance indicators) selected for analysis must be meaningful for each business segment.

To select these KPI's, the company must answer the following questions:

1. Was my investment made to improve what type of experience? 
2. Which metrics are affected by this change?
   

Why invest in CX? 

Imagine that a customer is hesitating between two brands that offer the product they are looking for. Brand X doesn't offer any kind of differentiated experience, while Brand Y has apersonalized and delightful buying journey that makes the customer feel special.

Of course the customer will choose brand Y, right? When brands are competing all the time for customers and their loyalty, consumers are looking for companies that don't just see them as numbers.

Today, the customer wants to be noticed and recognised as a person. Take a look at how big market players that are CX references do it:

• A simple cup of coffee at Starbucks has become a complete customer experience. The coffee chain is beloved by its public, from the personalized service (with your name written on the cup) to the cozy atmosphere. 
• With Amazon, online shopping has become even easier. The giant, which describes itself as "customer-obsessed", offers a complete shopping journey, with an intuitive website and app and famously fast delivery.  
• Anyone who has ever visited an Apple store knows that the service is completely individualized. All employees are prepared to offer special treatment and understand the customers' needs.  
• The magic of Disney is known even by those who are no longer children. Whether in the parks, stores, or streaming, the brand creates enchanting stories and memories that make the public want to come back again and again.
  

Are you still not convinced that investing in Customer Experience is essential for companies that want to stand out in the market and bond with their customers? Check out the data from the Future of Customer Experience survey, conducted by PwC:

• 73% of respondents point to customer experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions.
• 43% of customers would agree to pay more for more convenience, 36% would pay more for friendly and welcoming service.
  

How to invest in CX?

Investing in Customer Experience requires a company to be really prepared to put the customer at the centre of its strategy and rethink the purchase journey in order to make it increasingly integrated, intuitive and enjoyable. 

Structuring initiatives to improve Customer Experience is a particular activity for each company, as each business deals with different types of customers and consumption models. However, there are some trends that everyone can follow.

In the research study The Future of CX: 4 Ways Your Business Can Prepare, Oracle lists 4 steps for the future of Customer Experience:

1. Create an unforgettable experience with the Internet of Things: with the growth of connected devices, IoT (Internet of Things) provides a more proactive customer support, generates more accurate diagnoses and optimizes the time of the attendants.
2. Optimize customer service with Artificial Intelligence: This technology allows customers to have 24-hour support access, response time is reduced, and customer service representatives have more tools and abilities.  
3. Increase customer knowledge with virtual assistants: online service agents decrease the time to solve problems, help the customer to understand more about the product/service, and deal with multiple issues at the same time. 
4. Build strategies for the next generations: managing knowledge, personalizing all communications, and being omnichannel are the three key factors that will make your business more agile and efficient 
   

Video Case - Top Club

Watch the Top Club video case, an example of a customized and exclusive platform to drive direct and indirect sales in the B2B segment and provide a unique user experience.

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About Indico

Indico is the Brazilian Martech company with an experience that has reached more than 150 million customers in 9 countries, that develops solutions to combine Loyalty and Innovation creating unique connections and transforming relationships between brands and consumers.

Contact us and get to know the Indico way of revolutionizing the relationship with the customer.