Improve Your Customer Experience to Drive Higher Sales and Profit!

September 13, 2023
Category: Get and Keep Your Ideal Clients

I want to share with you one of my favorite techniques for creating happier customers, more repeat business, more referrals and testimonials, higher conversion rates, higher prices, and lower marketing costs. I know what you’re thinking “One technique that can drive all of these positive outcomes in your business? Come on!” Sounds like magic, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. Read on!

Try this simple technique used by many of the world’s great companies.

The technique I’m referring to is used by companies like Marriott and Disney to ensure that they give their customers top-notch experience. It’s based on the simple idea that every contact that you have with your prospects or customers (e.g. the way you answer the phone, how quickly you respond to their needs, the way you and your people dress, how you follow-up, etc.) all influence the success (or failure) of your marketing, your sales efforts and your business.

The term that marketing folks use to describe the entire experience that prospect or customer has with your business is called the “Customer Experience”. And each point of contact you have with a prospect or customer is called a “Moment of Truth”. Each moment of truth has the potential to make or break the overall experience that your customer or prospect has with you.

Doing a great work may not be enough!

Several years ago, my wife and I had our house painted. Our house looked great when they finished, but I would never use the company again or recommend them to my friends because our customer experience wasn’t good. Here are a few examples: The owner called a week before our scheduled start date and told me he had a cancellation and he was going to start the next day, and he got mad at me when I told him I wasn’t ready; The painters smoked on the driveway and left their butts there…which I hate; The owner came over and yelled at his guys at the top of lungs in our front yard one day (which was uncomfortable for us). 

But the last straw came after the painters left. In the center of the garage, I found all the paint cans piled up. This doesn’t sound like a big thing, right? But what was I supposed to do with old paint cans? The city I live in makes it almost impossible to get rid of them, so they still sit in my garage where, occasionally, I trip over them, stub my toe or spill paint on the floor and get angry all over again. 

Obviously, my painter didn’t know about the importance of excelling at each moment of truth!

So how do you create a great customer experience?

Research shows that only customers who rate you a 9 or 10 on a 1–10-point satisfaction scale will gladly refer you to their friends. If they really love you, on average they will tell 5 friends. Not bad!

If you want customers to rave about your business, you need to examine each moment of truth that you have with your prospects or customers and find ways to improve each one. Here are the key steps to creating a great customer experience.

1. First, map out the key moments of truth in your client’s experience from the first time a prospect contacts your business until after you’ve completed working with your customer. 
2. After you’ve laid out the key moments of truth look at what you’re currently doing at each moment. 
3. Now, with the help of some customers, take each moment of truth and find ways to make it better. Some of the changes you’ll make will only make the moment of truth a little better, others will really make the customer so impressed with your business that they will not only want to do more business with you but refer you to their friends. 
4. Make sure to create procedures for each moment of truth and train your employees on the whole customer experience. 
5. Evaluate and adjust. Review, evaluate and improve each moment of truth quarterly.

Follow these steps consistently and you’ll make amazing improvements in your customer experience

Here’s an example:

When I was the head of market research for Courtyard Hotels, I mapped out and interviewed business travelers about the moments of truth they experienced when booking a hotel and staying with us. I found that one moment of truth that we didn’t do well was late check-in. What I found was that when our business customers check in late at night after a long plane flight or a busy day, many of them hadn’t eaten dinner. Our restaurant was closed, and our guest didn’t want to go out to find something to eat. All they wanted was a snack, and to go to sleep. They told us that if we could just have a sandwich, chips, and soda for them at check in, that would be perfect. So, we revamped our late check-in moment of truth by putting a little refrigerator at the front desk stocked with sandwiches sodas and chips and gave them to business travelers for free when they checked in late. They absolutely loved it. And we got so many compliments and referrals just by improving that one moment of truth!

Improving your customer experience really pays off in a big way!

Follow the five step process I laid out here. By improving your customer experience, you will see a significant increase in your repeat business, referrals, and testimonials. More referrals and testimonials will better differentiate you from your competition, and in turn, result in a higher customer conversion rate and higher prices.

Sounds like an activity that’s well worth the effort to me! So, what are you waiting for?

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