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From Customer Experience to Customer Excellence

Jeroen Zuijderwijk, 27 mei 2020

Why target Customer Excellence?

In 2019 Forrester published a US CX Index, indicating that only 17% of brands rise above “Ok”, 65% are considered on an “Ok” level and 18% score “Poor” or lower on their Customer Experience. This shows, nowadays customers might have higher expectations of the experience companies offer them.Therefore, it is increasingly more difficult to satisfy their expectations, let alone to impress your customers. Customer Experience is just the start of an eye-opening journey many companies are embarking on.

From acknowledging you have a customer through customer experience to customer excellence

Most organisations are already aware of the need to work on their Customer Experience. Some of them are already targeting to achieve Customer Excellence, aiming to be the best in their field of business. Others are still in the exploration phase of Customer Experience and might be learning about Customer Excellence on the way. Customer Excellence means your customers see that you make your best effort in supporting them. They are very happy about working with you, your products or your services. Your customers will recommend you more than your competitors to their friends and contacts as they believe in you. They themselves are loyal to you and your brand as you’ve shown them that they are right in trusting you. This also implies that your competitors will always try to keep up and beat you at your own game. So, you are continuously improving to stay the best in your industry.

Embarking on your journey to Customer Excellence

Where do you start on your journey to Customer Excellence? First of all, you have to be aware that Customer Excellence is something you have to work for. You need to understand you have a customer and your customer has needs. They do need a reason to choose you over your competitors. It therefore needs to be in the DNA of your company, fully onboarded with you on this journey. Starting on your journey towards customer excellence may seem daunting. Yet, with the right approach, time and perseverance the rewards are beneficial worthwhile.

How do your customers feel about you? They provide you with first hand experience of dealing with you and potentially your competitors. Hence, they may even tell you what you can do to improve. When was the last time you asked your customers what they think of you? And how did you follow up on their input? What did you tangibly change based on their feedback? What was the impact on customer retention?

What experience do your customers have at the touch-points with your company. Are their needs really met during those specific interactions with you? Or do you find your employees occupied in follow up requests you could actually have anticipated upfront? How efficient are the requests processed? Or, are these circling around initially, driving the costs of service? Put in other words, how effective and efficient are your End2End customer processes? What do the responses to customer requests look like: are these formulated in a way which is easy to understand for your customers? The way your customer perceives your communication isn’t only the message, but also the packaging and how easy it is to get it.

What will you achieve with this journey?

This journey is about taking advantage of intertwining customer experience and operational excellence, driving sustainable revenue and lowering costs. So, knowing your customer, acknowledging their needs and responding to them appropriately appears to be quite rewarding. Note, every customer is a potential new ambassador spreading word about your brand which is the best kind of marketing possible. Mind you, as a research in 2017 showed that 7 out of 10 consumers are willing to spend more if a company delivers great service. This sure is quite an appealing part of gains to you: growing turnover through market share and share of wallet, just by optimising the customer experience you provide.

Are you ready to shift to Customer Excellence? Are you looking for where and how to start? At Acorel, we are happy to explore with you what would be the best suitable next step for you to start this journey. We love to support your jump start on your journey to exceed your customers expectations and achieve customer excellence.

Jeroen Zuijderwijk

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