What are your CX resolutions this year? If you haven't thought about what changes you need to make to improve your bottom line, it's time to move CX to the top of the list.

The best way to improve your CX this year is to think about the human side and just improve your customer relationships. Simple, right? Not so fast.

Good relationships (whether it's your significant other, your friend, or your customer) don't just happen. They take work. But the payoff is worth it in customer loyalty. Here are five people-centric actions you can take to improve your CX this year.

1. Trade Places with Your Customer

Practice empathy. Really look at how your customers interact with you — from their perspective. Then think about your own CX/CS experiences.

How did you feel when you had to return a product, file a claim, or get support? Anxious? Irritated? Angry? Did you have to wait? Push multiple buttons? Answer the same questions over and over? Or were you pleasantly surprised how easy the experience was? Either way, did your experience influence how you felt about the company? Of course it did.

You expect a great experience. So do your customers. Salesforce found that 73% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations but only 51% say that companies generally do.1 Needless to say, there's room for improvement.

2. Build Better Relationships

Do you consider your customers your friends? Treat them like one. If a friend ignores a call, text, or email, you may feel slighted and decide not to reach out to that "friend" again. It's the same with customer relationships. Dissatisfied customers may not come back and the ramifications can be quite costly. Here are some eye-opening stats on why it so important to build loyal customer relationships.

A Bain & Company study found that a customer is four times more likely to buy from a competitor if the problem is service related rather than price or product related.²

• It takes 12 positive customer experiences to make up for one negative experience.³
• 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated.⁴

3. Know the Difference between Customer Service and Customer Experience

Customer service is the frontline customer support team. Customer experience spans marketing, sales, customer service, operations, and IT.

• Customer service is a subset of customer experience (CX). Customer service is how you deliver products and services and interact with the customer before, during, and after the purchase.
• CX is the overall perception your customers have of you based on every interaction with your brand. This starts with the first impression when your customer discovers your brand to where it is now. Every touchpoint (audio, visual, online, digital, print, human, retail, etc) is part of the customer experience.

4. Create Great CX

Great CX pays off. According to the Salesforce State of the Connected Customer report, 91% of business buyers and 86% of consumers said the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.⁵

An Oracle survey showed that "60% of the participants didn't mind paying more for better customer experience."⁶

Another survey found that 77% of consumers (Gen X) say they would spend more money with a company that provides a good customer experience. That finding spans all generations too. 81% of Millennials, 74% of Gen Z and 75% of Baby Boomers feel the same way.⁷

But there is plenty of work to do to get there. The 2022 CX and Communications Insights: Engaging Customers in a Digital World study report found that 65% of consumers believe brands they do business with need to improve their customer experience, up from 35% in 2019.⁸

One way to create great CX is to start with your EX. Learn more in this blog: Good EX Makes Great CX: 3 Steps to Agent Retention.

5. Be Consistent Across All Touch Points

One of the biggest complaints consumers have is that they are asked for information they've already provided or that the company should know. Customers want seamless interactions across all channels (digital, print, phone, etc.) and all departments (sales, support, service, etc.)

Salesforce research found that 85% of customers expect consistency across all business lines when they engage with a company. They expect your representatives to be aware of any recent transactions or interactions he/she had with your company, regardless of the department. By not having that consistency across all touchpoints, you risk losing the trust of 55% of customers.⁹

The moral of the story? Share customer information across all channels and departments.

You may not be able to keep all your CX resolutions this year, but you've got a good starting point in this list. It's also a great primer on what steps you can take to improve your customer relationships and make your CX people-centric. Happy customers are loyal customers and loyal customers are great for the bottom line.

To learn more, read the next five steps in this blog: New Year, New CX: Part 2 — Five Corporate-Centric Resolutions.

The Black Box Customer Experience team stands ready to assist you achieve your CX goals. To learn more, take a look at our CX web page.

Here are some other CX resources you may be interested in.

• The Role of Contact Center for an Enhanced Customer Experience Article
• We Are Not a Call Center White Paper
• Good EX Makes Great CX: 3 Steps to Agent Retention

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1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/deniselyohn/2020/01/07/five-new-years-resolutions-for-great-cx/?sh=5d01d6b23e46
2. https://www.helpscout.com/75-customer-service-facts-quotes-statistics/#
3. https://www.salesforce.com/blog/customer-service-stats/
4. Ibid
5. https://www.salesforce.com/blog/customer-experience/#h-why-customer-relationships-matter
6. https://www.revechat.com/blog/customer-experience-strategy/
7. https://www.broadridge.com/_assets/pdf/broadridge-2022-cx-comms-report.pdf
8. https://www.broadridge.com/_assets/pdf/broadridge-2022-cx-comms-report.pdf
9. https://www.salesforce.com/blog/customer-experience/