Organizations that provide an excellent customer experience (CX) can improve sales revenues by 2 to 7 percent and profitability by 1 to 2 percent, according to McKinsey. It’s no surprise. Focusing on good CX can increase customer satisfaction and drive more meaningful customer interactions, ultimately increasing sales and customer retention. As such, more organizations are increasing their dedication to CX strategy and looking towards successful customer experience examples for inspiration. Their aim is to create memorable customer experiences carried out through e-commerce channels or in-store. Thankfully, customer-centric organizations have many tools, examples, and use cases at their disposal to meet the growing needs of today’s customers.

Great customer experience examples for driving value

Here are some of the best customer experience examples that organizations of all sizes can consider adopting:

Investing in customer onboarding

How an organization begins its CX has an outsized impact on the customer’s overall user experience. It is important to meet the customer’s needs on day one, by making an emotional connection.

First, the organization puts the customers’ interest first when devising marketing strategies. For example, organizations can make it easier for prospects to learn more about available solutions so that prospects can decide whether they want to purchase them or not.

The right cadence of messaging, tutorials, and solicitation of feedback is a great way to understand how customers are using an organization’s products and mitigate any early issues. After a purchase, the organization can send a welcome message and thank the customer for choosing them. Then they can send through any relevant instructions or tutorials that can help them derive the most value from their products. Next, they can solicit feedback or inquire if the user needs support. Finally, they can offer discounts for an accessory or a new product.

Using customer data to improve relationships with the customer base

It’s true that customers are increasingly aware of and concerned about the data organizations have on them. However, there are several great ways that organizations can use that information to provide a great customer experience. Asking customers some information about their interests and their demographics can help create personalized experiences.

For example, a retailer can offer a discount or free item on the customer’s birthday. Or an experience provider can minimize unnecessary offers by limiting marketing emails to events in the person’s area. This experience can often be done through automation and personalized emails that are driven by an up-to-date customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

Creating customer loyalty rewards

It costs organizations more to attract new customers than to retain the ones they currently have. One way to improve customer retention and create happy customers is to reward customers for repeat purchases.

For instance, a retailer might give a 10 percent discount on every purchase, reducing churn. They might also solicit customer feedback on what perks and rewards would best meet customer needs, such as unique products or experiences that are only made available to a select few. Organizations doing this are likely to benefit from an increase in the overall lifetime value of those loyal customers. It is also likely to increase the organization’s net promoter score (NPS), which determines whether an individual recommends products to their peer group.

Engaging in transparent pricing

Organizations will often use data-driven analysis to identify the precise price point that drives profitability. But they need to be as honest with customers as possible about that price and why they’re charging it. Customers absolutely loathe feeling that they were tricked or deceived into thinking something costs less than it does. At a bare minimum, organizations should meet customer expectations by providing the exact price that they should expect to pay. Organizations can do this by advertising their prices online, including any additional fees.

Organizations that do not sell directly online can help customers find where their products are retailed for less. In healthcare, organizations can do this by offering itemized bills to patients. And financial services organizations can demonstrate how the fees they charge leads to greater returns for their customers. Event promoters can show how much a ticket costs upfront, versus adding convenience fees and other costs at the checkout screen.

Establishing an empowered and efficient customer support function

Alleviating customer pain points through great customer service experience and a strong contact center is an important component of providing a better customer experience. Customers strongly dislike talking to a customer service representative that is not authorized to fix their problem or does not have the right resources on hand for real-time remediation. They should do things like create a straightforward return policy. This can help ensure that customer service teams are given leeway to solve customers’ problems, such as providing refunds, discounts, or a replacement.

Thankfully, technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have made it easier for employees to answer those customers’ questions. In addition, the customer support team needs an appropriate structure so that routing requests to the appropriate representative happens as efficiently as possible. Doing so eliminates the potential for negative word-of-mouth from existing customers.

Providing a stellar digital experience

Customers are increasingly comfortable communicating with organizations and making purchases online. As such, organizations must meet customer needs across the whole customer journey, including the entire omnichannel experience.

From self-service mobile apps to AI chatbots, organizations are using digital transformation initiatives to adapt to changing customer behavior. Digital experiences can transform their customer experience management across multiple touchpoints. Digital experiences can improve customer engagement by making it easier to reach customers through social media or newsletters and for customers to provide feedback.

Customer experience, an investment worth making

Providing a positive customer experience can become a competitive advantage. IBM has been helping enterprises apply trusted AI in this space for more than a decade. Generative AI has further potential to significantly transform customer and field service with the ability to understand complex inquiries and generate more human-like, conversational responses.

IBM puts customer experience strategy at the center of your business, helping you position it as a competitive advantage. With deep expertise in customer journey mapping and design, platform implementation, and data and AI consulting, IBM Consulting can help you harness best-in-class technologies to drive transformation across the customer lifecycle. These end-to-end consulting solutions span marketing, commerce, sales, and service.