Inbound 2021 was a cornucopia of marketing knowledge. From the CEO of HubSpot to the legendary Oprah Winfrey, any marketer who attended was graced with the knowledge of some of the industry’s leading experts. One marketing concept that took center stage at Inbound is Customer Experience (CX).
A common term in marketing, the speakers framed CX as the future of marketing, the bedrock on which all marketing efforts should be built upon. If you hadn’t noticed, we are in a time of tremendous change as a society, and marketing is no different. CX must be at the forefront of every marketer's mind. The experts at Inbound have realized this, and it’s time for the rest of us to realize this as well. Dharmesh Shah said it best, “In many companies, customers sit at the periphery of the organization, instead they should be the center of focus for every team across the entire company.”
While there are many reasons why companies should focus on customer experience, here are three timely reasons that should be top of mind for any marketer:
1. Focusing on Good CX Helps You Understand Your Customer
In recent marketing news, Google has announced plans to eliminate the use of cookies for tracking customer data for sites on its search engine. While benign news for the average Google user, this should rattle the marketing world. The main benefit of cookies is that it provides marketers with rich data to better understand their customers' behaviors and in turn, target those customers with relevant content and marketing offers. The key phrase there is “better understand”. Understanding your customer is critical to successful marketing, and good CX gives marketers just that, without relying on collecting data via cookies (often without the customer's knowledge).
A hallmark of good CX is excellent communication, including a customer’s communication with you. Good CX builds trust and confidence which in turn will result in an increase in customers reaching out to you and sharing information they would otherwise be hesitant to offer. This organically obtained data from exceptional CX will be crucial for successful marketing campaigns, especially after Google’s elimination of Cookies.
2. Promoting Diversity and Inclusion through CX
Now more than ever, it is important for companies to have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. Customers want to do business with a company they feel comfortable with and share similar values with. Prioritizing customer experience is one of the best ways to do this. Putting customers’ needs and wants first, no matter their creed, creates an aura of inclusion that customers can feel. Customers want to be heard, they want to feel as though they are a part of an inclusive environment, and good CX is just the way to do this. To promote diversity and inclusion through good CX, you first need to understand your customer, and we already know that good CX can result in good customer understanding. By having this understanding, businesses can more successfully reach a diverse group of customers with the tools needed to effectively communicate to them.
3. Supercharge Customer Retention
A good saying is that a happy customer is a loyal customer. It may seem obvious, but when a customer has a pleasant experience with a business, they are more likely to return to said business again and again. Customer retention is an essential element in marketing, especially in today's highly competitive business environment where the competition is a mouse click away and companies must get creative to stand out.
This fact alone is reason enough for businesses to push an exceptional customer experience. However, once you have an established base of loyal customers, there are additional opportunities to use CX for even more benefit. One major opportunity is the creation of customer communities. By linking customers by their shared needs, wants, and interests, you can create strong communities within your customer base. Creating customer communities is exceptional CX, and customers can see this effort. They see the intentional branding, the responsiveness from customer support, the highly specific promotions, etc., and this in return builds their loyalty further. It is a positive feedback loop and it does wonders for customers retention.
