There are many reasons why a customer may choose you over a competitor. Quality and price are contributing factors. But they\u2019ll stick with you if you give them a great experience. That means a frictionless purchase, delivery, and after-sales process. It also means effective targeted marketing.<\/p>\n
How do you know if you\u2019re providing an experience that keeps customers coming back for more? How do you learn how to market that experience? By conducting a customer experience audit.<\/p>\n
A customer experience (CX) audit is an opportunity to put yourself in your customer\u2019s shoes. It\u2019s an in-depth examination of a customer\u2019s experience with your business. <\/p>\n
Effective customer experience audits track every step of the customer journey. They examine every customer interaction from discovery to after sales support. Also, they take into account the fact that not every customer journey is the same. <\/p>\n
Most modern businesses trade across many channels. Customers will come to your business in a variety of ways. Consequently, their journeys will differ. A customer experience audit identifies where friction emerges across all touch points.<\/p>\n
You can gain insights into the customer experience through impromptu conversations with customers. You may even get feedback from time to time through your call center or via email. This can help you identify issues and adapt your marketing strategy<\/a> accordingly. However, a more scientific approach is necessary if you want to see the whole picture.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Conduct a customer experience audit to gain real insights to help you make decisions. You can give customers a better experience when you understand their wants and needs. It\u2019s a chance to provide a more personalized customer experience<\/a> that shows you value them. Customers who feel valued will return to you again and again. This is vital for business growth and profitability. <\/p>\n Below are some of the advantages a CX audit can bring to your business. <\/p>\n There\u2019s never a bad time to make sure you\u2019re delivering for your customers. That said, there are times when a customer experience audit is particularly useful. <\/p>\n Now you know what a customer experience audit is, let\u2019s now discover how to conduct one. Use the following steps to create your own CX audit process. <\/p>\n You need to understand all the stages of your customers\u2019 journeys. Map it from the moment the customer is made aware of your business. Follow it through to any contact with after sales support. <\/p>\n You could make this a hypothetical journey. That means looking at each stage of the customer lifecycle in the abstract. Alternatively, you could use mystery shoppers to give a true sense of the customer experience. You could even transact with the business yourself along with other company leaders.<\/p>\n The customer lifecycle map will look something like the following. This fictional example maps the journey of Zach, a customer of a sneakers retailer.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll notice that Zach interacts with the business in many different ways. This is important. Each interaction is known as a touch point. We\u2019ll go on to discuss that more in another step.<\/p>\n The purpose of this step is to get a high-level understanding of the customer experience. This will help you to determine what data you\u2019ll need to gather. It will also begin to reveal potential points of friction in the customer lifecycle. For example, it may be easier for Zach to rearrange delivery himself online. Instead, he chose to do it through the call center<\/a>.<\/p>\n It’s worth pausing for a second to think about the value of actually walking the path yourself. Sure, you can stare at diagrams and reports all day, but there\u2019s something about grappling with your own process\u2014clicking through pages, waiting on hold, maybe even getting a little frustrated\u2014that brings home exactly where the pain points lie. Sometimes things that look logical from the company\u2019s side are just annoying or confusing in real life. Oddly enough, you might end up surprised by what customers are happy with, or by what\u2019s consistently tripping them up (pop-ups, anyone?).<\/p>\n And don\u2019t forget to factor in those moments that don\u2019t show up in analytics dashboards: weird delays, ambiguous instructions, or forms that mysteriously reject your email for no obvious reason. These micro-frictions add up, and they\u2019re the sort of thing that might not seem like a big deal to anyone designing the process, but over time, they can quietly eat away at loyalty. Getting several different people (ideally with different backgrounds or levels of tech-savviness) to try the journey adds even more color to the picture. If everyone, from your most patient intern to your busiest executive, stumbles at the same spot, you\u2019ve usually found something worth fixing.<\/p>\n To make your CX audit a more scientific exercise you need measurable data. That\u2019s where key performance indicators (KPIs) come in. These will help you understand the strengths and weaknesses in your customer journey. That\u2019s necessary if you’re going to correct things.<\/p>\n The following KPIs are ideal for a customer experience audit.<\/p>\n You obtain CSAT scores by asking customers for feedback. You ask customers to rate your products and service on a five point scale. The simple question \u201chow would you rate your service?\u201d is so valuable.<\/p>\n NPS is a metric that tells you how likely a customer will recommend your company to others. Once again, you should directly seek feedback to get your NPS. A five point scale from \u201c very unlikely to recommend\u201d to \u201cvery likely to recommend\u201d works great.<\/p>\n Your churn rate is the rate at which customers stop buying from you. You may notice different rates depending on the channel which the customer used. A high churn rate is a good indicator that there may be a problem.<\/p>\n To calculate churn rate, use the following formula:<\/p>\n (Lost customers \u00f7 total customers at the beginning of a given time period) x 100. <\/strong><\/p>\n Say your business had 500 customers at the beginning of the quarter and lost 30 customers by the end. Divide 30 by 500 and multiply by one hundred. This gives you a churn rate of 6%.<\/p>\n CLV tells you how much money you can expect to make from the average customer. This isn\u2019t only for one transaction but the full length of their relationship with your business. Improving the customer experience<\/a> should in turn increase CLV.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to continually monitor and analyze these KPIs. There are many solutions available to help you keep track. Choose one with remote log in<\/a> so you can keep an eye on your progress from anywhere.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time to identify every possible touch point in the customer journey. Find all the ways in which a customer can interact with your business. This will cover marketing<\/a>, sales, and after sales interactions. <\/p>\n Look at each touch point and think about the communication method that\u2019s used. Social media, email, and call centers are some common touch points. You should also consider your website. Understand all the ways your customers interact with your company. Then you can identify how to improve them.<\/p>\n Upon identifying customer touch points you should now take a deep dive into each of them. Examine the customer experience at each touch point and try to understand its impact. Apply your KPIs to see where problems may need to be addressed. <\/p>\n Imagine your online customers give generally good CSAT scores. They’re consistently higher than those using a call center. This may be because your agents don\u2019t have access to all the relevant information. Use a cloud integration platform<\/a> to give agents access to up-to-date customer data.<\/p>\n The purpose of a customer experience audit is to identify friction points. It’s then up to you how you overcome them. You may have found many opportunities to be better. It can be overwhelming at first. Don\u2019t worry though. Take your time to develop an action plan.<\/p>\n Begin by getting everyone at the company to buy into the need for improvement. Work with department heads to identify ways to improve. Focus on touch points that will have the greatest impact.<\/p>\nThe benefits of a customer experience audit in summary<\/h3>\n
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When to conduct a customer experience audit<\/h2>\n
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How to conduct a customer experience audit in 5 steps<\/h2>\n
1. Map out the customer lifecycle<\/h3>\n
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2. Choose KPIs to establish a monitoring process<\/h3>\n
Customer satisfaction (CSAT)<\/h4>\n
Net promoter score (NPS)<\/h4>\n
Churn rate<\/h4>\n
Customer lifetime value (CLV)<\/h4>\n
3. Identify customer touch points<\/h3>\n
4. Examine CX at every touch point<\/h3>\n
5. Develop an action plan<\/h3>\n