Customer Experience and Why It's Crucial Today
Last week I did a short webinar with the MoEngage team on Customer Experience, especially for mobile.
Customer Experience is not only about high level strategy and purchase journeys, but also about 'micro experiences'. These need to be frictionless.
I recently experienced the following:
* A helpline number hidden in the 'About' section of an app that I was trying to use for the first time - UX design friction
* An online booking that I failed to purchase with no attempt by the service to ask me what happened - retention marketing friction
Every micro experience is a multiplier. Every point of friction adds to the likelihood of a drop-off. If you deliver a good customer experience, customers are willing to pay more.
Good Customer Experience creates a virtuous loop. With positive CX, customers are willing to pay more, they can move from awareness to advocacy. Brand advocates spend more and also refer the brand to friends and family, who can in turn have a positive experience and pay more. Businesses increase revenue and their customers amplify their marketing efforts.
Building a good UX on mobile is a critical part of the customer journey. Think big picture first. Understand the motivations of the customer, the moments of truth that are critical to them continuing to engage with the brand and then understand where mobile fits in. Understanding the user story and then thinking through the use cases will ensure that the brand creates a mobile experience without overloading it with features. Focusing on aiding efficiency and making the experience enjoyable for the customer will result in better retention.
When thinking through the mobile experience, it’s important to evaluate PWAs. This medium post talking about the benefits of Native Apps vs PWAs is a good primer and this research by Divante on the Top 30 PWA’s shows that Aliexpress saw an 82% increase in iOS conversion rate, 74% increase in time spent per session across all browsers and 2x more pages visited per session per user across all browsers. Flipkart has seen 3x more time spent on site, 40% higher re-engagement rate and 3x lower data usage.
At the heart of it though, it is important to not treat mobile as a standalone channel. Data should be unified across all sources to build a single customer view. I’ve written more about unification of data and the martech stack here.
Data helps to personalise but it is important to understand what kind of personalisation can help the customer such as by making discovery more efficient, finding a better deal, making the purchase process easier, bettering the engagement experience through the right content etc. In the age of privacy fears, customers need to see the value exchange if they part with information, rather than personalisation being merely recognition. Thinking through first, second, third and zero party data is important. My earlier post focuses on this.
After creating the experience, the right metrics for success are critical. Analytics that can predict and reduce churn is important. It costs more to acquire customers than retain them and an increase in retention rate can result in an increase in revenue. Relentless retention focus is important. Active engagement with the customer through multiple channels can help understand how to prevent churn, which channels are more effective, which behaviour can predict churn and what types of personalisation are truly effective. As I have often said, acquisition is the sexier sibling, but retention is the smarter one!
Two great examples of mobile as channel being used seamlessly in both, offline and online are Nike and Sephora.
Shoppers that use Nike app at Retail average 40% higher sales than those who don’t. Nike’s online sales grew 36% year over year to cross $1 Bn in annual revenue in the quarter ending Feb 28, ‘19.
Sephora’s Johnna Marcus said back in 2013 that “We don’t like to think in silos. We think of the customer experience and then decide on the best technology that supports that experience.”
Watch the webinar video below.
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