Look at the organizations you engage, whether B2B or B2C.  Is it surprising that those companies who are winning are putting their customers first, have the best profits and the happiest shareholders? They are accelerating volume and revenue while maximizing customer satisfaction, loyalty, retainage, and referral.  They are creating for themselves a competitive advantage. Their workplace is more unified, they are attracting better employees, and harvesting their future leadership.

If you are spending money, investing trust in the company or product you are buying, you want to be advised and cared for.  You want to be genuinely appreciated.  You want to be treated like royalty.  You want the experience to bring you back.  You want to tell your friends about the great experience.  (Or you’re just pissed-off and want to tell the world about it!  More people talk about their bad experiences than their good ones!)  The foundation of the selling and buying experience is emotion, and no one participates without igniting an emotional flame.

Name some companies or brands known for customer experience before the products they sell. Ritz Carlton, Nordstrom, Chick-fil-a, Subaru, Walt Disney, Amazon, Zappos, Airbnb, Starbucks come to mind. What do THEY do to earn that reputation? They all tap into our emotions, providing extraordinary recurring experiences.

But Matthew Dixon, author, and expert on the Customer Experience, says it’s a required understanding that great CX is not necessarily a thrilling experience.  Some studies have found that even more important than exceeding expectations is just making all interactions with the customer those that are trouble free and made easy by your team.

B2C organizations got out of the gate early, but catapulted years ahead by the steady evolution of e-commerce and now the pandemic.  Our customers are working from home, with reduced staffs due to lay-offs and furloughs.  They are now tasked with more hands-on responsibility.  They want reassurance, handholding, TLC, they want to trust someone.  They want partners that make it easy, with fewer obstacles.  They want their vendors to protect their interests, solve their problems quickly, keep them out of the weeds, reduce their effort, help them control costs.  They want a unique, rewarding, and recurring experience. They want the relationship trouble free and easy. If they do not receive that, they will go elsewhere.

Every statistic available today confirms that customers believe the buying experience is more important to their choice than any other factor.  The level of CX you provide has never been more important as a differentiator between you and the competition, never more critical than now. Are YOU ready!