5 Signs You Should Start Exploring Your Customer Experience in Context

From the moment a customer becomes aware of your company through their first visit and purchase to years later after becoming your loyal customer, all of that is their customer experience with your business. But what do they think about their experience? Do they love it? Do they hate it and are just waiting to find another company to buy from? Could there be areas you could improve on or grow your business more? If you aren’t asking the right questions at the right times during that customer experience, these questions will always be challenging to answer. So here are 5 signs you should start exploring your customer experience in context.

You Lose Customers After Their First Visit or Purchase

If you notice that your customer base is mainly first-time buyers but rarely see any returning customers, you need to know why. You need to understand what happens during that first buying experience that prevents someone from becoming a loyal customer. On the other side, you need the context of understanding what is making your loyal customers come back again and again.

You Miss Out On Referrals or Recommendations

When people like a product or service, they tend to tell their family and friends about it. So if referrals and recommendations aren’t a contributing factor of business to your company, you may be missing out on what’s stopping your customers from taking that step. You need to understand what’s stopping people from yelling your praises from the rooftops. On the other side, when someone does recommend you, you need to track that and understand how much financial impact that brings to evaluate whether something like offering a referral discount would make sense for your business.

You Have Tons of Data, But No Idea What Part Of Your Business People Are Referencing

Having a customer tell you, “I had issues with your buttons”, might be valuable feedback, but if you don’t know what they are referring to, it’s a guess on what you need to improve. Was it buttons on your website? Buttons on the elevator at your retail location? Buttons on a piece of merchandise they’ve purchased? Or something else entirely? Feedback needs context, so you know what the customer means when you receive it. Having actionable insights happens when you collect customer feedback as it happens, and you can look at it in the context of a customer journey.

Your Company Is All Over The Place With How To Action Feedback

If you have a large team of people in charge of different aspects of your company or even different locations, it can be tricky to keep everyone on the same page on how to action feedback. If you find yourself always having to chase people and you get a different opinion on what the company’s process is, it’s probably time to get everyone working off of the same page. Having one analytics dashboard where you can see, prioritize and followup on feedback can help your team keep track of all they do. It also makes sense to focus on how people action the customer feedback you receive based on their job function within your business.

Customers Aren’t Responding To Your Current Methods For Gathering Feedback

Maybe you already know you need more information from your customers to understand what can be better and what’s working just fine. Perhaps you’ve set up a survey or physical comment cards to gain that insight. But if you don’t see a high rate of response that gives you enough data to make informed decisions, it’s probably time to re-evaluate the delivery method you are using to gather feedback. A system built into the already existing interactions the customer has with you, like a built-in slide in your mobile app, may give you better results without pushing your customer outside of their normal flow.

What were some of the signs that lead you to prioritize your customer experience? What are some challenges you are still looking for the best solutions to solve?

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