Myth: Your CX can be subpar if your product is superior

In the tug of war between product vs. experience, who reigns supreme?

“There’s change afoot, however, driven by the pervasiveness of social media and digital communication channels. Customers now have a platform from which they can amplify and publicize their feedback about a business — positive or negative — for millions of eyes to see. Because this publicized sentiment inevitably impacts reputation, savvy businesses have abandoned the inside-out approach in favor of its inverse. With the outside-in approach, businesses adopt the view of their organization through the customer’s eyes. Decisions are made based on what’s best for the customer and how to best meet the customer’s needs (Fuca, Forbes)”

Why is CX more important now?

Big brands used to be able to put experience on the back burner, but today experience can be what sets you apart from your competitors.

Why is customer experience now more important or at least equally as important than in previous years?

1. Customers are more tech savvy and research online before making purchasing decisions
2. 82% of companies want a brand with a human touch and are looking for brands that foster authentic connections
3. The 2008 recession taught us that consumers spend even more time researching before making purchasing decisions in times of economic uncertainty
4. A whopping 89 percent of US consumers are willing to move to a competitor due to a bad experience

AMC Technology conducted the 2022 Contact Center Lead & Consumer Research Report in July 2022 where we asked consumers questions about their customer experience preferences and what CX leaders believe their customer experience preferences are. The report showed that both consumers and CX leaders believe customer experience is almost as important as the product in the brands they use.

Busted! Product vs. Experience: Customer experience should be equally important

According to Gartner, customer experience drives over 60 percent of brand loyalty, which is more than price and product combined. Successful brands are taking notice of the research and are laser-focused on their customer journeys, which is making for happy customers and increased growth.

This doesn’t mean organizations can stop concentrating on high-quality products or services, but stop considering it a battle between product quality and customer experience and intertwine the two into an overall brand strategy.

The real power of growth is now in the hands of your customers.

If you’ve been ignoring your CX strategy, here’s what to do next:

If you haven’t already, start working on a customer experience transformation project. Bring all the major business unit leaders together and figure out what your main customer service or strategy KPI you want to impact with a transformation.

In fact, according to Bob McDonald Vice President of Global CRM Experience at IBM, brands should have three outcomes in mind when planning a customer experience transformation project:

1. A customer centric KPI you want to influence because of a transformation project
2. An increase in incremental revenue growth due to better customer experiences
3. An assumption this will increase operational efficiency

McDonald shared that IBM recently completed a 2-year transformation project for customer support using Salesforce Service Cloud with new digital channels, AI and custom applications. As a result, each support engineer got back forty-five minutes back of their day each day since the project was completed.

The project was such a success; they are now moving on to the sales and ecosystem departments at IBM with a goal of getting a complete 360 degree client experience. What McDonald referenced as the “holy grail” that will differentiate them from their competitors.