Customer experience marketing is the art and science of putting the customer – whether that person is in a brick and mortar location or online – at the center of your company’s marketing strategy. You then adapt your retail store, website, products and services to fulfill guest needs. 
The idea is simple: if people love the experiences they have with your brand – whether that’s in person or online – throughout the entire user journey, they will become your biggest promoters. If you delight your customers, they will recommend you to their friends, family, and colleagues. They’ll do so both the old fashioned way – in person at playgrounds, on the phone or while at the water cooler – and new ways. These “new” ways include things like making TikTok videos about your brand, product or services. Or maybe it’s just leaving Google or Yelp reviews. Or maybe it’s random posts on social media. Happy customers = more rave reviews.
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Digital rave reviews often boost your website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERP).
Over time, this leads to long-term benefits for your company:
- greater brand loyalty
- improved customer retention
- New customers coming to check out your goods or services
- Higher ranking in search engine results
- and increase in bottom-line revenue.
According to one study by The Temkin Group, companies that earn $1 billion annually can expect to earn, on average, an additional $700 million within 3 years of investing in customer experience.
More statistics to prove customer service marketing matters:
- Companies that regularly mention how much customers matter to them – on various web pages, on their social media and in their policies – are 60% more profitable than companies that don’t use words like “customer.”
- According to customer reviews research, 46% of consumers remember bad experiences with products, companies, brands and employees from “two or more years ago.” Think about it yourself – do you remember the last time you got burned by a store? Bet you didn’t go back!
- While cost matters, especially during periods of inflation, people will pay more if they truly believe a company values customers. One study found that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. That’s amazing news for small businesses who can’t compete with big box prices. People will pay for a great experience with you.
- 49% of buyers made impulse purchases after receiving a more personalized experience they attributed to a company putting the customer first.
Is Customer Experience Part of Marketing?
It sure is. A good customer experience strategy should aim to keep the customer front and center across your entire organization. That means from when they walk into your door in a storefront location, or when they first look at your homepage.
Does the homepage, for example, mention the word “You?” If it does, that shows you have customers front and center in your mind.
But if the homepage says something about how great you are, well, you may come off as a little egocentric.
Customers should be at the forefront of every marketing meeting, decision and action. After all, every team or department, from marketing and sales to cashier support and product development, has a stake in what customers do, and how they feel.
The way people discover and interact with products and those that offer services has changed since the times people placed ads in newspapers. Your marketing strategy should reflect these changes.
For example, today’s customers are much more conscious of what a company stands for – whether that means how they treat customers to whom they donate money to.
And guess what? Unhappy customers have A LOT more places to complain about the products or treatment they received. People use online review sites – from Google Reviews to Yelp – to validate their experiences. They see it as doing others favors. If they have a bad experience, they don’t want others to have the same experience.
Now some people don’t have the best intentions. Sometimes, someone who is simply not mentally stable posts unfair reviews of their experiences. Sometimes, rival business owners will post negative reviews about you to drive business their way. At SEO Design Chicago, one of our services is to monitor your online reputation. We know the policies that trigger removal of reviews, and we’ll handle the entire process for you.
Do Reviews Really Matter?
Oh yes, they do. According to customer reviews data, over 92% of people out there rely on reviews to guide their purchase decisions. This is especially true for younger people.
62% of people in the 18-34 bracket trust a company or product because of its ratings and reviews. In fact, they’ll often filter through products to see what’s rated 4 and above.
These statistics prove it’s not just about what you’re charging for products or services. It’s about what people say about those products, and the quality of the customer experience journey. That can make in person interactions with staff, or just how hard it is to get a product into a digital shopping cart and to their front door. Part of the customer journey is also how fast and well you respond to queries, complaints and requests for refunds.
That doesn’t mean you should have a “return anything anytime” policy. It means being transparent, and applying whatever policies you have uniformly to every single customer.
Also, you don’t want to just “do what’s fair.” You want to make people excited and happy. Companies that go out of their way to entertain customers and bring them joy gain loyal fans. It can be simple – how loud or soft is the music in your store? It should be just right.
Is the font on your homepage too big or too small? That can have an impact.
How to Build a Customer Experience Marketing Strategy
To improve your customer marketing strategy, you need to do a lot of research, or honestly – just think like a customer. You can also call experts like us at SEO Design Chicago for a one-time or ongoing consultation. The whole process falls under the category of customer experience management (CEM).
For organizations of any size, CEM can be a complex and challenging process. As a business owner, you may be too sensitive about the quality of your products, the quality of your staff and the quality of your website. Hopefully, you think the world of all of those things.
That’s why it’s important to get outsider perspectives.
Here are some things we do for ourselves, and can do for you.
Customer Experience Marketing Step 1: Monitor and Manage Reviews
It’s important to have a system in place to track online reviews.
Doing so aids your understanding not only of your brand reputation, but also of the kind of customer experience your company delivers. We’ll flag reviews that violate policies of the platforms they’re published on. We also know how to get your happiest customers to publish reviews of you online (even if they’re busy and tired).
Customer Experience Marketing Step 2: Respond to Reviews
Effective customer experience marketing, however, involves listening to and engaging with customers, as well as staying responsive to their feedback.
This is why it’s important to learn how to respond to negative reviews as well as positive feedback.
People are drawn to brands that respond to feedback, promptly answer phone calls and emails, and proactively join conversations on social media. Think about it: have you ever applauded a company that doesn’t even acknowledge your feedback as a customer?
If the feedback is negative or the review came with a low rating, acknowledge the customer and work on resolving any issues related to their experience. 
Customer Experience Marketing Step 3: Collect Date from Reviews
Data from reviews and unsolicited feedback is not easy to analyze and act on. We use a variety of tools to detect trends, patterns, and insights that define the user experience.
Customer Experience Marketing Step 4: Show Off Your Reviews
Show off your best reviews.
This makes it easy for potential customers to find information about others’ experiences with your brand. Use pull-quotes from Google reviews and post them on your site. Repost rave reviews from one social media platform to another. Ask happy customers for text or video quotes to post on your site or social media.
Reach out to us for more tips on CEM.
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