By Jo Edwards, Senior Director
According to Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), 32 per cent of customers would leave after just one bad experience even if they love a brand.
However, Forrester Research reported that a smooth client experience (CX) design without friction could potentially raise conversion rates up to 400 per cent.
The same study suggests that investing in CX gives a 9,900 per cent ROI so for every £1 you invest, you’ll get £100 back.
CX is important and having a solid strategy for maintaining it is equally vital to your sales and conversions process.
However, one thing we’ve noticed recently is a failure to listen to the most important people in the equation… your own clients.
Mystery shopping is just one part of the picture
Recently, one of our account managers, Rich, wrote an article on his experience as a mystery shopper.
During a mystery shop…
“We evaluate the overall experience and how the journey feels from a client’s perspective so that you can work on improving your lead time and conversion percentage…
“When I call up your business, I want to feel valued, listened to, understood and I want your prospects to walk away with the impression that they’ve made the right decision by choosing your service.”
(Read the full article here).
However, mystery shopping isn’t the only element of testing your CX that matters and sometimes it’s best to go directly to the source rather than running a simulation.
How to get quick feedback from your clients
A client listening programme is designed to gather, analyse and act on your client feedback to drive improvements in your services and overall business strategy.
One effective tool for gathering client feedback is the Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey.
NPS surveys are really straight forward and ask your clients: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service to others?”
This helps gauge your client’s satisfaction and loyalty by categorising respondents into three groups:
- Promoters (score 9-10): Clients who are highly satisfied and likely to recommend your business.
- Passives (score 7-8): Satisfied but not enthusiastic clients who are unlikely to actively promote your business.
- Detractors (score 0-6): Unhappy clients who may share negative feedback or dissuade others from using your business.
After collecting feedback, you can then segment your clients and drill down with case study and testimonial interviews.
How to run in-person feedback sessions
Conducting in-person listening sessions (we call them Client Experience Boards), with the help of an external agency is the best way to get honest and unbiased feedback.
Your clients will feel more comfortable sharing candid opinions when a neutral third party is facilitating the discussion and using an external agency can create a safe space for clients to express concerns, provide constructive criticism and share valuable insights without risk of offending you.
When we do these, we take away the results and provide you with a full report on how it went, what was said and how you can improve.
We also identify the positive voices for follow up case studies, so you have social proof to put in your marketing comms.
If you would like to organise some client listening sessions, please feel free to reach out to our team for more information.
