How to go beyond CX—and get results

When people talk about customer experience (CX) they typically mean the standard sales and marketing customer journey touchpoints. Think attentive in-store clerks and branded apps and websites. These are traditional CX investments, and, sure, they’ve delivered results: higher sales, new customers and more loyalty.

But they’re no longer enough.

Why? Because how we interact with brands has dramatically changed. Even before the pandemic, digital reshaped how we live, work, play and shop. Today, it influences our actions exponentially more. And many of the new consumer behaviors trending now will stick around for a long time—possibly forever.

This massive shift brings us to the brink of a customer experience renaissance. To rise above the competition and keep pace with change, every organization must deliver exceptional experiences and nothing less.

Many of the new consumer behaviors trending now will stick around for a long time—possibly forever.

Closing the gap between expectation and reality

How do we know conventional CX isn’t cutting it? The proof is in the numbers.

Research conducted by Accenture Interactive and Adweek reveals that 80% of brands believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but a mere 8% of their customers agree.

With such a huge disconnect between expectation and reality, pushing beyond CX has never been more vital.

To close the gap, CX has to become the Business of Experience (BX). Now, customer-centricity has to be the driving force throughout an entire company in ways that most organizations have yet to embrace. With so much at stake, brands should ask: Is our current CX enough to meet customer expectations, elicit positive emotions and bring in repeat business?

What it takes to deliver exceptional experiences

Being customer-obsessed is a must. Every brand needs to adopt a new way of thinking and transform into a Business of Experience. That is, an organization that provides seamless, positive and easy interactions with each customer connection.

Experience should not be the responsibility of the chief marketing officer and their fellow C-level leaders alone.

To navigate uncharted customer terrain, organizations need to make stellar CX everyone’s business across the company. Experience should not be the responsibility of the chief marketing officer and their fellow C-level leaders alone. Nearly all employees in all functions can play a role in fulfilling customer experience targets, from product development to supply chain to operations and beyond.

The future of customer experience is the Business of Experience

Leaders who push past irrelevant CX strategies and reimagine the future of business—not just by which products or services they sell and offer, but by the experiences they deliver—will be better prepared for the unknowns ahead. Better yet, they’ll also outperform their peers and spark sustainable growth.

For more tips on how to keep pace with rapidly evolving CX strategies—and how to boost customer satisfaction and sales—dive into the full version of this article here.