CX Insights Series
What is “Customer
Experience” and How Do
Successful Companies Deliver
Against Today’s Expectations?
Products and services have been reduced to a commodity in most industries,
in which traditional differentiators such as price and features are no longer the
dominant driver of consumer decision-making. Customer Experience has now taken
center stage as the holistic approach to creating and managing customer satisfaction.
What is Customer Experience?
Customer Experience, or CX, is defined as the cumulative experiences a consumer
has with a brand over the lifetime of that relationship. This broadly covers every
touchpoint a customer has with an organization in every phase of the relationship,
across every medium. This still includes in-person and over-the-phone interactions
of course, but has expanded across all digital mediums on social media and other
web outlets.
Delivering a successful Customer Experience also extends well beyond simply
providing a product or service that meets the needs and expectations of a
customer. Friendly and knowledgeable staff are still an integral part of
the equation, but today CX is being defined by how people's senses are
excited and the level of emotional connection they have with a brand.
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Confidential & Proprietary –
Do Not Replicate or Distribute Without Permission.
Page 1
What is “Customer Experience”
and How Do Successful Companies
Deliver Against Today’s Expectations?
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ea
Why is Customer Experience critical to sustainable success?
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r
Since Customer Experience takes place in all phases of a customer relationship and at every
point they have contact with an organization, the customer journey includes an infinite
number of opportunities to either succeed or fail in the eyes of the consumer. If an
organization takes too narrow of a view of what defines CX, they run the risk of
missing critical touchpoints that establish greater brand value, further reinforce
Not only do effective CX strategies reduce customer attrition, but they
also impact lifetime customer value. A well-rounded approach to
Customer Experience connects the consumer to a product or service on
an emotional level and establishes a personal investment. This greatly
+9
Customer Experience is also a significant driver of customer retention.
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ta
5% Prof
i
the customer's purchase decision and drive greater customer retention.
improves brand loyalty and will transform customers into advocates who
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An increase of 5
percent in customer
loyalty can deliver
95 percent greater
profitability over
the lifetime of that
customer.
50% Willin
g
will strongly recommend and defend your brand.
How do successful companies exceed Customer
Experience expectations?
In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, meeting customer expectations is more
difficult than ever. The most successful customer-centric companies develop
their experience strategies with the end in mind. This involves designing
Regardless of channel and no matter where a customer interacts, the
experience must resonate and "feel" the same to them. Here are three
common characteristics of great Customer Experience organizations.
7 x the
every aspect of every touchpoint in concert with a comprehensive strategy.
A focus on quality and connecting with the customer, not speed.
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Co
t
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e
An increase of
customer loyalty
of just 2 percent is
equivalent to a
10 percent reduction
in costs.
ay More
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o
Over 50 percent of
customers would be
willing to pay a 20 to 25
percent price premium
to the brand that they
are most loyal to before
they would switch to a
competitive brand.
It takes seven times
the cost and effort to
gain a new customer
as it does to keep an
existing customer.
Unfortunately, most companies continue to use speed as one of their primary
Key Performance Indicators (KPI). While customers want issues to be resolved in a timely manner, they also want to feel they
are getting quality care. Companies have found great success measuring total call time rather than time per call. Zappos for
example uses call center technology to track average call time per agent. The focus of this KPI is to not reduce the call time
average, but rather to empower their agents to promote greater customer loyalty. Whether in the form of one call or 100,
agents are expected to spend at least 80% of their time interacting with customers. By removing time per call, Zappos’
agents are focused on getting service right on the first call and establishing an emotional connection with the customer.
©2017 PPT Solutions. All rights reserved.
Confidential & Proprietary – Do Not Replicate or Distribute Without Permission.
Page 2
What is “Customer Experience”
and How Do Successful Companies
Deliver Against Today’s Expectations?
A consistent Customer Experience integrated across all channels.
Apple may be an overused example, but that’s only because it is a benchmark of a company that creates a consistent Customer
Experience across their entire ecosystem. Every print ad, billboard, TV commercial, website, and product packaging has the same
feel and generates a consistent emotion. Their retail locations reflect it and their employees live and breathe it across the entire
customer journey. This does not happen by accident. Great CX is a result of great design, consistent execution and improvement,
and most critical, successful delivery of your customer promise across all channels.
They listen to their customers.
This may seem like a simplistic tactic, but unfortunately many companies fail to listen to their customers. As a result, they don’t
understand their needs and unknowingly deliver a Customer Experience that falls short of expectations. Whether through
traditional customer feedback methods such as customer satisfaction surveys and focus groups or through contemporary tools
and technologies like social media and CRM solutions, history shows that companies that listen to their customers thrive. One
such example is Best Buy. By collecting customer reviews, the company is able to share product and services feedback with
vendors and readily take action on feedback provided. They even reward customers with special points to use toward future
purchases for completing reviews. As a result, they have carved a unique market position and continue to excel as a customercentric and innovative electronics retailer.
“Customer Experience is not simply the key
touchpoints and interactions a consumer has
with a company. It’s a philosophical approach
to care and service that’s embedded in the endto-end journey your customers have with your
brand. It’s a holistic emotion and expectation
that results in a sustainable and profitable
customer relationship.”
©2017 PPT Solutions. All rights reserved.
Confidential & Proprietary – Do Not Replicate or Distribute Without Permission.
Dennis Weikle,
Founder and Managing Director
Page 3
What is “Customer Experience”
and How Do Successful Companies
Deliver Against Today’s Expectations?
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
How do companies define success and benchmark?
Measuring your Customer Experience doesn’t have to be a guessing game.
Successful CX is influenced by many more variables than a traditional
marketing funnel. Overall, Customer Experience can broken-down
into 3 main areas: Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention and
Organizational Efficiency. Within each of these categories are
many opportunities to develop benchmarks for numerous
KPI's such as Conversion Rate, Net Promoter Score,
or Customer Satisfaction. That being said, most
companies find that there’s so single metric to
measure your Customer Experience success.
Rather, it’s a collection of data points that allow
you to gauge your customer happiness and
provide the means for actionable insights. No
matter how you choose to measure, make
About PPT Solutions
sure that you are not simply tabulating
results. It’s critical that you have an
actionable system in place that drives
improvement and is customer-obsessed.
Recognized by CIOReview as one of
the Top 20 Most Promising Customer
Experience Solutions Companies, PPT
Solutions empowers our Clients with
transformational business solutions
Since 2013, PPT Solutions has served as a premier provider of Clientcentric, performance-based Customer Experience and Business
Optimization Solutions. Whether a Fortune 50 company or an emerging
small business, we passionately deliver a broad range of people,
process and technology solutions customized to increase customer
advocacy, enhance revenue and optimize operational efficiency. With
over 60 years of combined experience and an extensive portfolio
of Management Consulting, Professional Services and Partnership
Solutions capabilities, our Clients rely on us for advanced insights,
adaptive business processes and innovative growth strategies.
that deliver exceptional performance,
outstanding customer experiences and
measurable results. Visit pptsolutions.com to
learn how we can optimize your business and
p
w
a
918.518.6336
pptsolutions.com 9521 B Riverside Pkwy, Suite 266 • Tulsa, Oklahoma 74137
Customer Experience.
©2017 PPT Solutions. All rights reserved.
Confidential & Proprietary –
Do Not Replicate or Distribute Without Permission.
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