7 Ways to Improve the Customer Experience

No matter what type of business you run, the customer experience should always be at the forefront of every corporate action you take. From touch points in a retail environment to your brand’s website layout, how your company interacts with customers is crucial. More importantly, how your customers feel after an experience with your business can make or break future success.

While every business is unique and every customer interaction is personal, there are some tried-and-true methods that you can use to improve the customer experience, both now and in the future. If you’re curious about how to delight customers and keep them coming back for more, check out the following seven ways to improve customer experience in 2024 and beyond:

1. Utilize Social Media Content

Most business owners use social media to promote their companies, but do you have a social media strategy? There’s a big difference between posting funny memes on your company’s Facebook page to get likes and actually using social media to improve the customer experience. While posting funny memes and cute pictures of kittens may improve engagement, is this approach going to improve the customer experience beyond a passing moment in time?

Instead, look for ways to add value through your social media profiles that can foster and build upon relationships with customers. For instance, how are you using your company's social media profiles to engage with customers before and after a sale? Are you researching pain points and putting out social media content that addresses what customers care about? Are you encouraging customer feedback after a transaction with your company to highlight the customer experience on social media?

Social media can be an invaluable asset if you’re looking for ways to improve customer experience in 2024, but it can also be a crucial tool if you’re trying to figure out how to get more sales.

By releasing helpful content that incorporates your products and services, you allow your customers to join the conversation. Engaging with customers through your social media profiles only improves the customer experience.

2. Create Loyalty and Retention Programs

Incentives to take action are used in almost every facet of life. Humans respond to being rewarded for doing things, and adding an incentive to a task increases the likelihood of that thing happening.

In business, this same approach can extend to your company’s relationship with customers. To improve the customer experience, offer incentives and rewards to loyal customers. Incentives like access to special discounts or sales can not only improve customer retention but also enhance the customer experience by making customers feel special.

It’s fairly well-known that exclusivity tends to improve desire. Consider creating a loyalty club for customers that provides access to rewards for being a member. You can analyze customer behavior and buying habits to create a tiered loyalty rewards system. Within this system, better or more valuable rewards can be offered to customers who spend more money or purchase certain items.

This has the potential to improve the overall customer experience and can also motivate customers to spread the word about your company. You can help this process along by adding referral bonuses to customers who refer family and friends. This further incentivizes customers to share their experiences with others and motivates your business to do everything possible to provide the best customer experience.

3. Improve Customer Service to Improve the Customer Experience

At the heart of the customer experience is customer service. Whether browsing your company’s offerings online or in a retail store, the ways in which your company engages with customers can make or break the customer experience.

Because customer service is so important, take some time to evaluate your current level of service. Do you provide personalized interactions? Can customers expect to be treated as valued buyers or just numbers?

If you’re not sure how your customer service rates or how it affects the customer experience, ask for feedback via surveys. When you ask your customer base about their interactions with customer support, you not only get feedback that can help you improve the customer experience, but you also show and tell your customers that they are valued. Understanding customer concerns and acting upon them to improve things can lead to increased customer satisfaction and better overall customer experiences.

4. Evaluate Your Service Options

Another top way to improve customer experience in 2024 is to reevaluate your service options. Thanks to digital advancements like artificial intelligence, the world is changing fast. If your business isn’t keeping up with industry trends, your customers may not have the best experience possible.

By re-evaluating your service options, you can find ways to improve the customer experience. Outdated products and services or methods and processes can dampen the customer experience and cause buyers to look to your competition.

This doesn’t mean that you should chase fads, but it does mean that it’s a good idea to ensure you remain competitive. Once again, you can survey customers about their interactions with your company’s offerings to see if there are ways to improve service options to offer a better customer experience.

5. Address Customer Pain Points

Addressing customer pain points is a mainstay in marketing any business; you may already have your customers’ pain points figured out. The thing is that pain points don’t always remain the same.

As your customer base changes over time, their pain points may change as well. Societal changes, changes in technology, and changes with age can also cause pain points to shift. If your business isn’t in tune with what your customers need, they may not feel understood, ultimately affecting the customer experience.

While you can solicit feedback from customers and your team to learn about pain points, you can also do some online detective work. Look through forums and message boards related to your industry on the web.

Read through comments and discussions from real people within your target audience to learn what currently matters to them. With this information in mind, you can then go on to evaluate your marketing, sales, and product or service development efforts to better align with what matters most to your customers.

6. Keep in Touch

While you might think that the customer experience ends at the point of sale, it actually extends long afterward. Buyers may tell friends and family about their experiences or, in the digital age, share their experiences with the world online.

This is why it’s important to have methods for following up with customers after a sale. Not only does this show that your business cares, but it also keeps your brand in front of customers. This can go a long way in driving repeat business.

To stay in touch with customers, you can use social media, as mentioned previously, and email marketing. A simple newsletter can be a good way to stay in touch, but you should also consider segmenting your email subscriber list and personalizing your communications.

For example, create a separate email list or segment for customers who purchased a particular item. Then, create email newsletters and offers about complementary products or services to send to those specific customers. You can then take this approach and apply it to all types of segments to offer personalized communications.

7. Correct Mistakes Quickly

No matter how well you run your business, mistakes happen. The key to overcoming mistakes that lead to poor customer experiences, however, is all in how you handle customer complaints and concerns.

Instead of making excuses or, worse, becoming argumentative, look for ways to address negative customer experiences quickly. It should be noted that this is one of the top ways to improve customer experience in 2024, but it’s also plain old good advice for running a business no matter the year.

When addressing mistakes, provide a genuine response. Keep in mind that your customers have choices when it comes to who they do business with. While a negative experience doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll lose the customer, a negative response to a negative experience can almost certainly guarantee that the customer is gone for good.

Look for ways to offer something extra in return for the customers’ trouble when possible. For example, in addition to replacing an incorrect order, offer a discount on future purchases. This doesn’t guarantee that the customer will return, but the goodwill gesture can improve the customer experience and possibly turn a negative into a positive.

Make Your Customer the Star of the Show

The tips offered above can be your guide to improving the customer experience, but they can all be summed up in a simple phrase: Make your customer the star of the show. When customers feel valued, they are more likely to feel positive about their experience with a brand, which can have a ripple effect.

Not only will the customer be more likely to return in the future, but they will also be more likely to tell others about their experience. This adds value to the interaction for your business and creates a walking, talking billboard for your company.

Contact E-Marketing Associates to Learn How Our Team Can Help You Improve the Customer Experience

E-Marketing Associates provides a customer-centric approach to marketing to help business owners build lasting relationships. Our team specializes in personalized marketing strategies, and we also provide solutions using reputation monitoring software and more.