According to a recent report by Gartner Research, the role of customer service is now more important than ever in today’s business world. The report claims that 89% of companies are seeking to differentiate themselves from the competition by providing a better customer experience.
Another key finding shows that 65% of businesses have adopted a Chief Customer Officer role, whose entire job is to ensure that customers are walking away with a positive experience.
Knowing all this, it’s time for you to ask yourself whether or not you’re taking your customer service seriously.
Enter the Customer Analyst
In the modern business landscape, a customer analyst is typically someone with a nose for statistics and analytics. Their job is primarily focused on measuring the data gathered from customer feedback, analyzing and interpreting the data, and presenting their findings to senior managers within the company.
For any business, customer feedback is often the most valuable resource in helping a business understand where they stand in comparison to their competitors. It is also a key source of inspiration for creating new services and products.
More than simply collecting and analyzing information, a customer analyst’s goal is to solve problems before they even appear. It’s all about providing a positive customer experience before they ever have to send an email to customer support.
With that in mind, a customer analyst can be incredibly beneficial for the marketing and public relations departments for a business as well. By keeping their ear to the ground, a customer analyst is keenly aware — at any given point — what the motivations and sentiments of a brand’s target market are. This can be useful in helping craft a more concise marketing message, or dealing with the potential fallout of bad press.
A customer-focused business understands that their relationship with a customer begins before they ever purchase their first product, and lasts beyond the end of the sale.
The importance of the Customer Experience
When a business makes providing a positive customer experience a priority within their business, they immediately open themselves up to a variety of benefits.
Studies have repeatedly found that a happy customer is a loyal customer, and a loyal customer will not only be one that you can count on for repeat business, but someone that will actively advocate your brand and refer others to you. It comes as no surprise that brands that focus on providing a strong customer experience grow nearly 10 times faster than companies that don’t.
Another great benefit of prioritising customer experience is that customers are much more forgiving if they feel like they have a strong relationship with that brand. In fact, a whopping 95% of people who have had a bad experience with a brand’s product or service are willing to give the brand another chance if they feel like their problems have been heard.
Customer experience affects a company’s bottom line as well. Another study found that 70% of customers are willing to spend more money with a brand that they feel provides good customer service. It goes to show that customers understand what good service is, and are willing to pay for it.
Meaning that instead of investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into creating new products or introducing new features, you can spend a fraction of that on your customer service and see immediate ROI. In today’s world, customers want more than just a product, they want to have a relationship with the brand they’re doing business with.
With all of these benefits it’s no wonder businesses everywhere are scrambling over themselves to make sure they have someone to deal specifically with customers.
