Customer experience emerges as the new battlefield for companies

Kenya has been earmarked as one of the leading emerging economies in Africa to invest in. More and more companies are entering our market, and many actively monitor, review and improve customer experience as part of their strategic agenda. We have various customer clichés from “the customer is always right” to “the customer is king”. Yet many companies still fail to provide adequate customer service, let alone exceptional customer experience. If companies don’t invest in improving customer experience, they will come out a sore second on the corporate battlefield.

Companies globally are investing significantly in customer experience. According to Gartner, 89% of companies surveyed plan to compete primarily on the basis of customer experience.

Why do companies invest in customer experience?

Customer experience directly impacts revenue and profitability. If your customers love doing business with you, they will positively advocate your brand to others. They happily recommend you to others, reducing your customer acquisition costs.

They are also more likely to maintain longer-term relationships with you and ultimately buy more products and services. They are less likely to defect (even during serious issues) and will provide constructive feedback. This can help you to improve your business and directly contributes to increased revenues and decreased costs.

Promoters are also less costly to serve. Consider how much a disgruntled customer could cost you even before they exit the relationship — they call your help lines, inundate you with messages, potentially cause negative publicity on your social pages, file support tickets, return products and demand refunds. Disgruntled customers may not tell you about their negative experiences, though they will tell others and will take their business elsewhere.

According to Ruby Newell-Legner’s ‘Understanding Customers’,a typical business only hears from 4% of its dissatisfied customers and 91% of the remaining 96% never come back.

Herein lays the gap.

Kenyan businesses need tools that would allow them to collect qualitative and quantitative feedback directly from their customers, helping them understand what they are doing well and where they need to improve.

Customers need a way to compare companies based on their customer service. This data can also be analysed to produce meaningful insights that will drive improvements, ultimately giving customers better value for money.

Digital tools can put power back in the hands of the consumer. Are you ready to invest and plan guided by authentic user-generated reviews?