Hey Reader,

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How was your week?

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Mine was the same old stuff. Lots of kid stuff. Lots of work. Lots of chores. Balancing all of the above not so well but doing the best I can. All while juggling a new puppy.

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Fun times. F-U-N- times.

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But hey. It's 4 o'clock here. That's happy hour. I've got a glass of wine because not only is it happy hour, but it's Friday. And it's nearly Shabbat (Sabbath). Three reasons to relax with a snack and a drink. So grab your favs and let's hang.

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I'm getting up on my soap box. So buckle in.

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The other day I was talking with someone about marketing strategy and lamenting the state of many businesses I’ve worked and/or interacted with and their focus on acquiring customers but not doing much to keep those customers interested and loyal (beyond sending periodic coupons or sale emails which, quite frankly, is not exactly a “customer experience strategy”).

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I declared to her – “Customer experience is the new frontier in business!” and I really, whole-heartedly meant it.

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It made me realize, though, that customer experience strategy, and the whole concept of “experience” in building a business, is such a huge deal that maybe the reason many businesses drop the ball is because, well, the ball is pretty overwhelming.

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Customer experience is a lot more than how your website looks, whether or not you send emails, and what you post on social channels. It's actually none of those and all of those at the same time.

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It's sort of a "buzzword" over the last few years. Which is a bummer. Because that means it loses meaning.

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To be honest with you, customer experience is way more important than marketing. Yes, i said that.

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It’s a mindset a business has to adopt holistically – from top to bottom. Even if you're just a team of one.

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Customer experience is approaching business from a retention-focused mentality.

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The best and most succinct definition of Customer Experience (aka, CX) I’ve found recently was from a Hubspot article –

"Every stage of the customer journey" is another way of saying your marketing funnel.

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And I'll further refine it by saying every touchpoint within your marketing funnel.

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What's a touchpoint?

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A "touchpoint" is an online or offline location where a member of your target audience interacts with your brand.

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Examples of touchpoints are:

• Your website. Every page of it.
• Your social channels. And subsequent posts.
• Your checkout page, order form, etc.
• Lead magnets or other free resources.

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Back to the definition.

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This is why CX is so difficult to wrangle – it comes down to the intangible feelings a customer has about your brand before, during and after their interaction with you.

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It’s very closely tied to every single aspect of your business: your cold prospecting leaves an impression, your website leaves an impression, any customer service interaction before/during/after purchase leaves an impression, your follow-up leaves an impression – you get the point.

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It’s also why CX is so incredibly important to the health and longevity of your business.

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If you have a poor customer experience strategy, your entire business could tank. But if your CX strategy is cohesive and authentic, the result is increased affinity and brand loyalty – at a lower cost than continuing to throw money at an acquisition campaign.

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In fact, long term, highly loyal consumers become ambassadors. The dollars spent acquiring those consumers pays off in the form of referrals.

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Here's something crazy about CX though.

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Customer Experience Strategy also extends to your internal organization. Yes, even if you are just a team of one.

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I’m sure you already had an understanding of the importance of the impression you give to a customer from their first interaction with you and beyond.

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What you may have not considered is how that is impacted by the organization of your team internally.

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In order for a customer experience strategy to be executed well, every member of the team must be on board and must be crystal clear how their role fits into the overall why behind the CX strategy.

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For example, if you sell a physical product, every person in your company, from the President to the person picking and packing the item to ship must understand the feelings that the brand wants a consumer to have around the product.

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This influences marketing messages, website copy, email copy, any inserts put in the box as part of the unboxing experience, the manufacturing of the product, the packaging of the product, the checkout process, the follow-up process, etc.

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If a team member doesn’t understand this, it will show up in how the strategy is executed.

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That means if you, as the owner of your business, don't prioritize CX, that attitude will trickle down and impact the attitudes of those who are building the strategy – and this will result in a lackluster experience. If the person picking and packing the order doesn’t understand the overall strategy, he or she may not have as much motivation to ensure the unboxing experience a customer has is on brand.

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This is why Customer Experience Strategy can make or break your business.

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It’s also why many businesses ignore it because they make the assumption that everyone on the team understands the vision. Or that everyone is working toward the same goal: happy customers.

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The thing with a goal like "happy customers" is way too vague.

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What does that even mean? Nothing when you think about it.

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Even if it's just you on this team, if you don't have a vision for the experience you want your clients or customers to have when working with you... the experience will create itself, without your input, and you really don't want that.

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Focusing on CX will turn your business into a brand. Brands have longevity.

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CX is truly about the experience a customer has in their arc with you. If you’ve spent any time figuring out the lifetime value (aka LTV) of your customer, then you understand how profitable it is to look at business from a retention-focused viewpoint.

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If you’re not familiar with LTV, it refers to the value a customer has to a business over time. In other words, as a customer builds a relationship with a business, they take action over time (maybe they continually purchase the product you sell, or they refer people to your service).

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These actions have a monetary value over a specific period of time and, all together, that makes up the lifetime value of that customer.

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This is the true power of CX, because CX is your vehicle for achieving a high retention rate and seeing that LTV come to life.

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This is also why I’m incredibly passionate about customer experience. In the age of connectedness, smart phones, social media, etc CX is more important now than ever.

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So what are your next steps now that you know what CX is?

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Start small. Go look at your website. Does it reflect the experience you want someone to have when they become aware (funnel step 1 - awareness) of you and how you help?

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Does it effectively convey the value you provide (funnel step 2 - consideration)?

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Does it clearly state how you help (funnel step 3 - conversion)?

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Reply and tell me what you think about this. I'd love to know.

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Have the best weekend ever,

Amanda

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