Ultimate Guide to Customer Experience Management (CXM) for Businesses

customer experience management is the set of processes a company uses to track oversee and organize every interaction between it and a customer throughout the customer life cycle sometimes customer experience management is referred to as cem and other times as cxm in this video we'll refer to it as cxm first of all it's important to clear up any confusion between cxm customer experience management and what's commonly known as CRM customer relationship management when it comes to strategy and software they may appear similar but there are key differences in their perspective and goals CRM shows what a

customer looks like to the company while cxm defines what a company looks like to the customer more specifically CRM strategy focuses on sales and Outreach to customers from the company's perspective of capturing more Revenue this sales oriented system sometimes integrates with customer service and support but major digital transformation is required to support a broader cxm program cxm strategy puts customers at the center of Marketing sales and customer support to drive brand loyalty and repeat business cxm programs rely on voice of the customer initiatives to measure how customers feel about their experiences with a company a

cxm program will then adjust the areas that generate negative feedback to correct those perceptions now let's take a close look at the customer experience itself and how it contributes to customer perceptions sales revenue and the company's bottom line good customer experiences are more critical today than ever before partly because of the covid-19 pandemic it upended sales and marketing strategies and stiffened competition as a result new strategies tools and techniques geared to increasing brand awareness product differentiation and customer-centric programs are keys to business survival customers today are savvier about technology demand more satisfying experiences and want

to engage with a company on the channel of their choice customer experiences can be positive when cxm has done well or negative when some elements of it are left unattended let's focus on the positives when customer experiences are good because of effective cxm various business benefits will follow higher sales and profits retaining a customer costs less than acquiring a customer Studies have shown that a five percent increase in customer retention can result in a 25 percent increase in profit also satisfied customers tend to purchase more often improved business processes voice of the customer data comes

in the form of web surveys mobile app feedback and phone and chat conversations it provides a blueprint for improving customer experiences and retaining customers better employee experience too studies show there's a strong link between customer experience and employee experience companies that provide the best customer experiences also focus on measuring voice of the employee data with an eye toward improving employee experience and retention Word of Mouth marketing satisfied loyal customers voluntarily endorse a company's brand to their peers customer endorsements can often weigh more heavily in buying decisions than advertising or marketing campaigns and a Competitive Edge

measuring customer sentiment yields information about competitors customers compare Brands when making their buying decisions and offering feedback knowing this information can help a company position itself favorably against rivals customer experience management requires that companies have a 360 degree view of their customers through integrated up-to-date data on customer accounts there are four critical steps in creating a sound cxm strategy first understand customer needs and behaviors cxm teams can develop customer profiles to better understand how to Market to targeted customers then they can segment customers into different groups based on factors such as age interests and spending

habits second create a customer Journey map this helps identify customer touch points and anticipate how customers will interact with products or services that info can often help cxm teams boost long-term customer retention third develop an emotional connection by creating a brand personality that establishes a relationship between the customer and the company and fourth capture feedback to measure customer satisfaction in real time customer feedback can help track customer perceptions enable quality monitoring and measure the success of the cxm strategy companies must assemble a customer experience team to execute these steps this team could include a number

of leadership roles such as Chief customer officer Chief experience officer VP of customer experience and multiple customer experience managers with different responsibilities customer analysts often report to the customer experience managers or Executives to manage the data projects involved they also can act as a liaison between the cxm team and other departments like marketing customer service sales and it again the best way to understand customers and their interactions throughout all of their experiences with the company is to compose a customer Journey map let's look more closely at that process five stages along the journey tell a

lot about customer interactions first is customer research the customer discovers the company often on the web through ads or through third parties such as consultants colleagues or social media acquaintances second is comparison shopping customers also learn about a Brand's competitors they compare capabilities user perceptions products and costs third is when the customer makes a purchase this part of the journey is the big business win but it's just the beginning of customer retention and loyalty building fourth is customer support after a sale customer service and support teams are where customer loyalty and repeat sales begin or

end depending on the competence of these teams they can make or break the customer experience and fifth if all goes well customers make another purchase or share their positive experiences [Music] four main obstacles can derail a customer's experience the first obstacle is when the voice of the customer data is ignored or given short shrift a company can't solve customer experience problems that it's unaware of second is the lack of omnichannel support customers who don't feel like they're being listened to on the channel of their choice are more likely to move on to a competitor third

is ignoring qualitative data companies should Harvest and analyze individual comments in survey free text Fields these comments can yield a much deeper understanding of customer experience issues than numbered ratings can and the fourth obstacle is poor internal Communications customer experience initiatives will only work if all the information generated by analyzing the customer journey and voice of the customer data is distributed in a way that business stakeholders and sales marketing customer support and Senior leadership can understand [Music] Journey can be long and difficult to manage effectively to ensure a successful customer Journey with good experiences customer

experience teams must do all of the following generate content evaluate customer sentiment create customer personas and marketing segments invest in customer loyalty programs evaluate customer touch points and analyze customer data let's look at each of these actions more closely content generation comes in two forms one set of content for internal use and another for external use internally marketing and sales teams can benefit from studying up on supporting research marketing pieces and sales enablement literature externally for engagements with customers sales and service will use personalized emails text messages web content and mobile apps simply collecting voice

of the customer data isn't enough Enterprises also need to apply customer sentiment analysis tools and techniques to that data to get an in-depth understanding of customer motions and opinions customer personas and marketing segments are based on the assumption that different groups of customers have different needs that means building a consistent engaging experience by addressing and anticipating the specific needs of customers to do so different customer personas based on Behavior patterns should be plugged into a customer Journey map to provide a blueprint for designing a customer experience that caters to each persona customer loyalty programs tell

frequent customers that they're special and their business is appreciated well-executed loyalty programs use savings offers and perks to help Drive repeat sales and upsells customer touch points must be evaluated so the company knows where and perhaps why customers make their purchasing decisions or flee to its competitors these touch points show what prompts customers to take action like traditional media advertising social media and Word of Mouth finally customer data and feedback should be analyzed to continuously improve the customer Journey long term customer analytics can also help influence the direction of a company's marketing and product development

strategies a customer experience management strategy can only succeed with the right Technologies to support it whether on premises or in the cloud many Cloud software vendors have platforms to manage customer experience from end to end these platforms are built on four major components CRM marketing automation e-commerce and customer service a CRM system enables sales reps and marketing agents to easily access and manage customer information it generally pulls data in from a variety of channels and touch points and Spares customers the aggravation of repeating their information during each engagement marketing automation tools include lead management customer

segmentation and campaign management capabilities to increase marketing efficiency then eliminate repetitive tasks with an e-commerce platform companies can build an online storefront with capabilities such as checkout product catalogs and integration with Payment Processing customer service teams use cxm platforms to communicate with customers on different channels based on the customer's Choice some platforms also offer self-service so customers can solve their own problems through chat Bots product documentation and other options in addition there are several other important customer experience tools that should be included in a sound cxm strategy personalization engines automation tools such as artificial intelligence

technology contact center software collaboration tools voice of the customer software a motion analytics tools and Knowledge Management Systems companies need to keep Pace with today's demanding complex and Savvy customers these tools and more must be considered as part of a comprehensive all-encompassing well-executed customer experience management strategy [Music]