Improve Customer Experience by Putting Customers First

We live in the age of transparency. As such, it's critical to earn your customers' trust and keep it by improving the customer experience.

Eighty-four percent of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Treating customers well is more important than ever, yet companies continue to take advantage of customers by focusing on short-term revenue vs. long-term profitability.

Eighty-four percent of Millennials are influenced by user-generated content on your website. (Opens as a PDF). As such, you need customers to share their positive experiences with your brand's product or service.

You do this by providing a great customer experience, as well as a product that solves the customer's problem as well or better than expected.

How to Get Customer Experience Right

Amazon will ask if you want to buy the same book you bought six months ago. The company is giving up short-term revenue to ensure you're not buying something you don't need. It's reinforcing the trust you've already placed in the brand.

When is the last time your bank warned you before you incurred an overdraft fee?

When has your phone/TV/Internet provider proactively suggested a different, more cost-efficient, package of services based on your usage?

And, we still have pharmaceutical companies making inconsequential changes to medications to keep your doctor prescribing the ethical (oxymoron?) product vs. the generic, which is 10 times cheaper.

Most frustrating for me is the SaaS (software-as-a-service) to which I paid the one-year subscription, did not find value in, and then stopped using. Out of sight, out of mind, until the one-year anniversary rolls around and my credit card gets hit. Come on guys, you know I'm not using your product, let me know you're about to auto-renew so I can opt-out rather than having to call the credit card company to challenge the charge and then call you out for a legitimate, but non-customer-focused, business process.

Moving forward, successful companies will be those that put their customers first rather than taking advantage of them. As David Ogilvy said, "Your customer isn't a moron."