Customer experience is the set of emotions and feelings felt by the consumer when making a purchase.
It’s an emotional analysis that takes place before, during, and after purchases of a product or service.
Of course, brands have a very important role to play in this perception, and various parameters can influence customer experiences positively or negatively.
Ultimately, this has a direct impact on customer loyalty, as well as on a company’s brand image when customers do or do not recommend the business.
Numerous elements can have an effect on customer experience:
- ambience of the sales outlet,
- information provided by the sales assistant and their interpersonal skills,
- customer relations,
- advertising tone,
- value for money,
- delivery times,
- etc.
Of course, the aim of every commercial enterprise is to make the customer experience as favorable as possible. In this sense, many companies are striving to optimize the customer experience within the framework of customer experience management (CEM).
Improving customer experience is one of the greatest challenges facing retailers.
Furthermore, it requires constant rethinking.
This also involves optimizing the customer journey, whether in a traditional physical store or on the internet, in the B2C or B2B sector.
The aim is to make purchasing ever simpler and more intuitive. This limits customer pressure and cart abandonment.
To enhance customer experience, new tools are also emerging, such as chatbots and all kinds of smart virtual assistants. Companies may also avail of analytics tools to obtain important customer data and solicit feedback from current customers to improve their offerings.
In addition, there are many ways of automating the processing of requests or certain tasks, such as logistics, to improve the efficiency and speed of certain customer services.
Doing things better, faster and at a competitive price are the key elements of a successful customer experience.
New functionalities, such as geolocation and personalization, are also moving in this direction.
To stand out from the competition, the customer experience must be unique and memorable. This is a key differentiating advantage. While technologies may evolve, customer expectations remain the same: personalization, responsiveness, and availability.
