How To Measure The Impact Of Customer Experience Initiatives

customer experience

By Susan Reilly – Head of Sales and Marketing

The success of firms in all sectors is now heavily influenced by customer experience. Giving your customers a positive experience can boost their contentment and loyalty, ultimately resulting in business growth. But how can companies evaluate the results of their attempts to improve the customer experience? In this blog post, we discuss the resources, advantages, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that businesses may use to monitor the results of their efforts to improve the customer experience.

What Measurement Tools are Available for Customer Experience?

Businesses can use various methods to assess the effects of customer experience initiatives. Customer surveys are one of these methods. Companies can get direct consumer feedback and gain an understanding of their satisfaction levels, preferences, and problem areas by regularly conducting customer surveys.

Cutting-edge technological solutions like TellUsFirst by Customer Perceptions provide the ability to receive direct client feedback whether in store or online. Customers can contribute real-time feedback about their experiences with TellUsFirst, allowing businesses to enhance their services and address customers issues in a timely manner. By giving customers a direct channel to share feedback both positive and negative, this provides companies with another valuable tool to improve customer experience.

Mystery shopping services is another approach to consider. By hiring people to pretend to be customers, mystery shoppers can assess the quality of the customer experience according to predetermined standards. This approach offers an honest and first-hand evaluation of the client journey, allowing organisations to spot areas for improvement.

Benefits of Measuring Customer Experiences

For businesses, measuring customer experience has several advantages. Firstly, it offers information on client satisfaction levels. Companies can determine opportunities for improvement by tracking how satisfied customers are with their experiences. Building strong customer relationships and improving the overall customer experience are some of the benefits that can result from improvements made as a result of this information.

Identifying and resolving problems that result in poor customer experiences is another benefit of measuring customer experience. Businesses can identify these pain points and take the necessary action to address them and prevent them from happening again. This proactive approach shows a dedication to client satisfaction and can significantly enhance how the brand is perceived in general.

Tracking customer experience initiatives over time enables firms to monitor their customer and marketing strategies. Businesses can evaluate the performance of their industries and make data-driven adjustments as necessary by establishing clear KPIs and routinely tracking progress. This cycle of continual development helps your growth and long-term success.

What Are The KPIs For Enhancing The Customer Experience?

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are crucial measurements that assist companies in gauging the success of their activities aimed at improving the customer experience. The following are some typical KPIs for enhancing customer experience:

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): This KPI gauges customers’ general level of satisfaction based on their interactions with a company. Typically, post-purchase or post-interaction surveys are used to measure it.
Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS assesses client loyalty and propensity to refer customers to a business. Detractors (unhappy customers) and promoters (loyal consumers) are valuable indicators of customer sentiment.
Customer Effort Score (CES): CES gauges how simple it is for customers to accomplish a task or solve a problem. Low customer effort is stressed since high effort can result in unpleasant encounters and dissatisfaction.
Repeat Buy Rate: The percentage of clients that make repeat purchases is shown by the KPI known as the repeat buy rate. A high rate of repeat business indicates contented clients who are likely to stick to a brand.
Customer Retention Rate: The proportion of customers who keep doing business with a company over a specified period is measured by the customer retention rate. A high retention rate indicates strong client relationships and a good customer experience.

Businesses can obtain important insights into customer behaviour by routinely monitoring these KPIs.

Ready to reduce bad customer experiences and improve the number of good relationships with customers that your business has? Then contact Customer Perceptions today.

Tips for Creating a Successful Customer Experience Strategy

Easy Tips for Creating a Customer Experience Strategy

Business leaders in 2022 will need to be heavily focused on improving their customer experience (CX) strategies if they hope to succeed.

In order to thrive in a post-pandemic world and adapt to the changes the coronavirus has brought about, businesses will need to leverage the resources and solutions available to them. Only then can they overcome the challenges of building deeper connections and relationships with their customers.

In this blog, we will cover some of the fundamentals of customer experience and three useful tips for creating a successful CX strategy for your business. 

What is a Customer Experience Strategy, and Why is it Important?

Customer experience (also referred to as CX) describes your customers’ interactions and experiences with your business from the first interaction to becoming a loyal and happy customer. Customer Experience and Customer Service are not the same thing. Customer service (the assistance offered to customers before and after they purchase a product) is only one part of the customer journey, whereas CX encompasses the entire customer journey. 

In a nutshell, a customer experience strategy describes your company’s approach toward creating the best customer experience possible for your business’s current circumstances.

A positive customer experience is an integral part of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) because it increases the chances of repeat and loyal customers. Businesses increasingly recognise that their customer experience can differentiate them from their competitors. Unlike price or product range, which only win over customers for as long as you can keep up with or beat your competition, customer experience helps you build strong, long-lasting relationships with customers.

According to research, customers not only make purchase decisions based on customer experience, but they are also willing to pay more for a good experience, and even forgive mistakes made by companies they are loyal to.

Three Tips for Creating a Good Customer Experience Strategy

Always be Prepared

Research and preparation should be the first step in most projects you undertake, and your customer experience strategy is no different. You will need to conduct thorough research into your target market to ensure that your strategy is targeted at the right audience. 

Focus your research on three main areas: 

  1. Customer Personas – You are theoretically inventing someone who represents your ideal customer. The customer persona can represent customers you would like to acquire as well as customers you currently have. You need to understand your customers’ demographic profiles, behaviours, needs, wants, motivations, and pain points to ensure your strategy enables you to connect with them. To start creating personas, you should conduct customer interviews and analyse your data to derive meaningful insights relating to various customer types.
  2. Empathy Mapping – Empathy maps help businesses better understand customer needs. With this approach, teams can build a complete picture of the customer and what actions they might take based on their beliefs, emotions, and behaviours. To make sense of the customer’s experience and preferences, empathy mapping uses the four quadrants of ‘think’, ‘feel’, ‘say’, and ‘do’.
  3. Stakeholder Mapping and Management – A stakeholder management process entails understanding the attitudes of stakeholders before making changes to how you do things. The purpose of stakeholder planning is to know what stakeholders need and wish to see, how to influence them, what risks may occur, who is important to inform about changes, and who might have a negative impact on the change you are planning.

Create an Emotional Connection with Your Customers

A competitive market requires you to have strong relationships with your potential customers before they make a purchase decision. This isn’t easy. The process of building a relationship with clients and maintaining it naturally happens, but connecting with new clients requires more effort. It takes an emotional connection before a lead decides to make a purchase. Once they become a customer, that emotional connection only gets stronger. An emotional bond is the most valuable part of customer loyalty and will help improve your customer retention.

Regularly Optimise the customer journey

The entire customer journey must be considered when creating a great customer experience. Understanding the entire interaction with the customer and how it is received at every touchpoint is crucial. You need to monitor your current strategy and keep note of what is working and what isn’t. You can then adjust your strategy where necessary to ensure that your CX strategy is delivering the desired results.

Focusing on the customer’s journey, and identifying problems within it, can help create a better customer experience. Additionally, this allows your teams to brainstorm ideas to improve business relationships, reduce friction, and increase growth. 
At Customer Perceptions, we have over 25 years of experience in providing market research solutions to enhance our clients’ customer experience, gain insights into their competitors, increase their customer retention, monitor their standards, and increase their sales and revenue. Contact us today for a reliable solution to improving your business operations and customer experience strategies.

The Different Types of Internal Audits Explained

The Different Types of Internal Audits Explained

In the business world, the word ‘audit’ is often associated with nerves and frustration. However, audit functions are integral to a company’s survival and prosperity. There are two primary types of audits, internal and external. In this blog, we will be discussing why internal audits are important, what they are, and the types of internal audits.

What is Internal Audit?

Typically, an internal audit is a department or an organisation within a company that’s responsible for providing unbiased, independent reviews of the company’s systems, business organisation, and processes. 

An internal audit serves as an objective source of information to senior leaders and governing bodies of an organisation about the organisation’s risk environment, control environment, operational effectiveness, and compliance with laws and regulations. 

Among other things, internal audits help determine the reputation of an organisation, its efficiency, growth strategy, impact on the environment, and how it treats its employees. 

Why Do Companies Have Internal Audit?

Having an internal auditing program in place is essential for monitoring and ensuring that all your business assets are properly safeguarded and protected against threats. Additionally, it is vital for verifying that your documented policies and procedures match your business processes.

Internal auditing holds several benefits, including: 

  1. Providing objective, unbiased insight into your company. This objectivity ensures that nothing is being sugar-coated or ignored due to personal or professional biases. 
  2. Improving the efficiency of your business operations by identifying control recommendations aimed at improving these processes. 
  3. Evaluating potential internal risks and protecting your assets through systematic risks assessments, saving your company time and money.
  4. Helping to ensure legal compliance in your business processes which can help you avoid fines and gain a trustworthy reputation.

Types of internal audits 

A significant portion of the internal audit procedure as a whole is based around financial reporting within a business, the generally accepted accounting procedures (GAAP), and financial statements. However, there is also a need for other types of internal assessments that internal auditors can evaluate. The types of internal audits that we at Customer Perceptions provide are: 

  • Company awards: To audit your outlets across various metrics for your own internal rewards programme, so that businesses can reward the key players that keep your business running.
  • Retail Audits: This is used to audit the availability of products, stock levels, price changes, regulatory compliance and the quality of your date checks. These audits will help companies measure and monitor their retail success.
  • Merchandising audits: Takes a look at your presentation and merchandising standards to ensure that the product is positioned to be appealing to consumers.
  • Health and safety audits: aimed at assessing and optimising the health and safety standards of operations. Auditors look for hazards and workplace risks that can jeopardise the health and safety of individuals on the premises.
  • Pricing audits: Takes a look at a businesses’ planogram and point of sale to determine if the pricing is correct and consistent. This audit will help you avoid missteps within your pricing strategy as you can’t fix problems that you aren’t aware of.
  • Promotional compliance audits: It is important to know that products are being promoted adequate during promotional periods. That is precisely why this type of audit is crucial for any business.
  • Food and beverage standards audit: This audit will take a look at food and beverage compliance, quality, safety and hygiene, It is important to regularly audit these standards to avoid mishaps or quality failures.

If you are in the retail industry and are looking to audit your business, Customer Perceptions has a several decades-long track record of cost-effective, expert auditing services. At Customer Perceptions, we work with our clients to tailor and design the particular audit criteria appropriate to their business needs. Our dedicated, professional team (with the help of field researchers) can help you measure your customer experience, audit your business, and gather valuable consumer insights. Contact us today for assistance.

3 Reasons Why Customer Experience Increases Sales

3 Reasons Why Customer Experience Increases Sales

Do you remember a time when, from the second you walked into a store, you were greeted by friendly staff, a welcoming atmosphere, and the entire experience left you feeling great? You likely left the store with a huge smile on your face, itching to tell your friends and family about the amazing experience you had and thinking that you need to go back to that store. 

Now think back to when you had a terrible experience trying to buy something or order a service. The anger and frustration made your blood boil, and you swore to yourself that you would never use that business again. 

These two feelings show the importance of Customer Experience (CX). CX is the result of every interaction a customer has had with your business and the impression your brand leaves in their mind. The entire customer journey determines whether they will return to your business or not, which is why a customer-centric CX strategy is vital to the success of your business. 

This blog will discuss three reasons why customer experience is essential to your business success and how a positive CX will drive sales and increase your revenue. 

Customer Retention is More Profitable Than Generating New Customers

The business world has a lot of controversy regarding which is better, customer retention or acquisition. However, the fact of the matter is that customer acquisition, while rewarding, can be highly time-consuming and expensive. 

As a business, building loyalty and a positive association with a new customer takes time and money. In contrast, the costs associated with repeat business are considerably lower, from both a sales and a marketing standpoint. With repeat business, your ad spend is lower because you have already built a connection with these customers, so you have a better chance of making a sale. The book Marketing Metrics explains that the sales conversion rate for an existing customer sits at around 60 – 70%, whereas an entirely new prospect has a conversion rate of only 5-20%.

It is vital to build a CX strategy that is centred around long-term customer loyalty. Repeat customers are statistically far more likely to make a purchase when they visit your business. They are also generally willing to spend much more because they are satisfied with their customer experiences and know the level of quality and service they will receive. 

Customer Experience is Free Word-of-Mouth Marketing

The impression that your customers have of your business is now far more likely to be shared thanks to the help of social media platforms and the internet. If your customer experience is positive, loyal customers will become advocates for your business and share their experiences with others, helping attract new customers at no extra cost to you. When your customers share their positive experiences, it piques the curiosity of others, so people are encouraged to interact with your brand to see the top-notch service for themselves. 

While a negative online review can deter prospective customers, positive online reviews strengthen the online presence of your business, increasing the visibility of your brand and attracting new clientele.

A Better Customer Experience Sets Your Brand Apart from Your Competitors

When your business provides a customer experience that exceeds expectations, you take your customers on a journey that breeds an emotional connection and loyalty. You won’t need to ‘remind’ customers why they should use your services or buy your products because they will already know. 

A review conducted by SuperOffice determined that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for better customer service. So even if your competitors may have lower prices, if your customer experience surpasses theirs, customers will be more likely to use your business. When developing your CX strategy, consider rewards programs like coupons, free shipping offers, and lower prices for repeat customers, especially if your company operates in the e-commerce sector. It will set your brand apart and increase the positive perception of your business even more. 
Customer Experience is a foundational element of the success of your business. If you need assistance improving your strategy or are curious about how you can improve your customer experience, contact Customer Perceptions today or visit our website to view our list of expert services.

Interview with our MD – Emma Harte

Interview with our Managing Director – Emma Harte 

 

Emma Harte has been involved with the Customer Perceptions and Optimum Results teams for almost 20 years. Emma is the backbone of these teams leading by example to hit KPI’s, targets and achieve the business goals. Discover what challenges Emma had to face through her long journey with the company through recessions and pandemics while coming out more resilient on the other side. Have a look at some of the questions thrown to Emma.

 

How would you describe your role?

Emma considers herself a “jack of all trades” within the business as she has experience in almost every role in the business throughout her 20-year career. However, in the later years of her career leading and supporting the management team while looking after the strategic direction of both companies. This will also be the case moving forward.

The experience and drive displayed by Emma is visible in day to day operations. Spearheading the business strategy forward for both Customer Perceptions and Optimum Results.

 

What do You Enjoy Most About This Job?

There is no doubt Emma is definitely a people person. She proved it by answering this question almost immediately that “without a doubt it’s the people”. This wasn’t just attributed to staff on the team but to clients, assessors and trainers. Due to the diverse nature of the business you could end up dealing with any industry and definitely meet people from all walks of life. It certainly brings a variety of different challenges and dynamics that the whole company enjoys.

 

What is the most challenging project your team has worked on & Why?

During the early part of Emma’s career, the shopper base was small with only 200-250 shoppers and she claims she was related to about half of them. However, as bigger clients started to come on board for mystery shopping she had to grow that base up to the thousands in order to meet their needs. That was a huge challenge for organising the trainings and finding the right systems to facilitate the change.

In recent years the most difficult challenge has been the shift from shifting the majority of our focus from the customer experience to shop audits. It involved increased training to “elite shoppers” who are our most experienced and talented mystery shoppers.

 

What is the most unusual project the team has ever worked on?

Over the years there has certainly been a few unusual projects tossed our way. They are always very interesting for the whole team to work on. The one that stood out to Emma was for an eye laser treatment. The candidates all had to be over forty, have no heart condition and have a stigmatism in one eye on a national scale. Funeral homes also got a special mention, as it involved hiring assessors to go in and measure how understanding and empathetic they were.

 

What has been the biggest challenge to Customer Perceptions in this Covid era?

There is no doubt the company has overcome many challenges in its’ existence. Even staying afloat was a major concern during this period of time. According to Emma, “the most daunting 48 hours was back in March when almost 90% of our projects paused.   It was frightening at the time but thankfully we have maintained really good relationships with our clients and stayed in touch. We did a lot of customer sentiment surveys with our base which provided really good insights into how they were feeling and what our clients could do to offer them something. That was certainly the biggest challenge. Thankfully month on month we are back to where we were.”

 

What advice would you have for clients or business owners who want to improve their level of customer satisfaction?

Every business should want to improve their customer satisfaction, there is no doubt it is a crucial aspect of any business. If you don’t have satisfied customers, then soon you won’t have any customers. When you don’t have any customers soon you won’t have a business at all just an idea. Emma says that there is nothing to be afraid of. All of our mystery shoppers are trained in Covid compliance and regulations. Our shoppers will comply with the outlets regulations. If a business has customers there is no reason they shouldn’t have a mystery shop. Especially as it has been such a long period without measuring your customer experience. It is so important to get back to those standards operating procedures and experience. From experience we find that issues that get measured tend to be resolved.

 

What does 2022 hold for Customer Perceptions?

Emma has always been ambitious and we can see this from her goal for 2022. The goal is growth, growth and more growth. Particularly in hospitality alongside food and beverage. The sector has seen a huge incline in the last quarter. Hopefully it will get back to normal and that area will keep improving. The aim is to also increase the shopper base. We need to extend our base to ensure we have every different variety of shopper available for any and every business need.

 

What excites you most about 2022?

I am sure the thoughts of 2022 probably excites a lot of people in terms of getting everything back to normal. Emma is excited about the development of the TellUsFirst service which is an instant customer feedback platform. It is a cost-effective method for a business to get both positive and negative customer feedbacks. We are also launching an online TelIUsFirst plugin that is available for companies to use on their website.  The plugin will give you instant feedback and measure your customer experience for you online store. Especially now that having an online store or presence is a must.

 

How do you balance being the head of two companies?

Even though the staff are “split” between two different companies, we very much operate as one team here and utilise everyone’s’ expertise to drive the best results across all of our sectors. Thankfully, Emma also sees it that way. “I don’t really look at it as two companies anymore. Maybe in the early days I did. I very much see us as one team. We offer two very complimentary aspects to the business. We have the training consultancy on one side (Optimum Results) and the customer experience on the other (Customer Perceptions). The research from Customer Perceptions identifies the gaps while the training and consultancy (Optimum Results) plugs the gaps.” The team here enjoy providing a complete service for your business needs and providing you with the tools for success. 

CPL logo HD

 

info@CustomerPerceptions.ie

0429333033

Benefits of Visual Merchandising for your Business

Shop window displays

Benefits of Visual Merchandising 

 

Visual Merchandising is at the core of a successful retail outlet. It is the first form of selling and featuring your brand image, expressing your brand story and enhancing brand loyalty. It is a marketing practice which makes use of some of your stores key elements to attract customers attention which leads to more footfall and therefore increasing sales. These key elements can include window displays, floor plans, colour, lighting and instore displays. The main purpose of visual merchandising is to attract customers in-store with the use of striking window displays, then to maintain an engaging customer experience with in-store displays and layouts to encourage a transaction. Or even better yet, a good visual merchandising programme can convince your visitors to be loyal and returning customers. If visual merchandising is implemented correctly with creativity, imagination and expression, each retailer will reap the benefits. It truly is an exceptional investment for all shop owners.

So lets look into how Hestia can help retailers get the most out of their retail merchandising;

Branding

Visual merchandising has the power to express your brand identity. A positive visual merchandising experience is formulated using many elements such as:

  • Appearance of your store front
  • Staff uniforms
  • Lighting
  • Menus
  • Outdoor and instore signage
  • Colour
  • Point of sales material
  • Textures
  • Shapes
  • Ticketing
  • Packaging

 

When these elements are combined, it allows a customer to understand your brand better which then leads to a positive shopping experience and increases the number of transactions. As a retailer, knowing how to utilise all these tools to communicate your brand image, will in turn help you stand out amongst your competitors, attract more customers and expand your success.

 

 

Increase Sales and Footfall


Your storefront and window display is the first and last opportunity to convert that passer-by into a customer. Having a visually pleasing storefront and a powerful window display will entice the customer in store who may have not already intended to enter. This is so important in helping a business increase its customer base and footfall – catch a customers eye and draw them inside!

Once your storefront has enticed that customer inside, this needs to be followed by a simple but effective floor layout with striking instore displays to complement your products, brand image and window displays.

Your displays need to be engaging and innovative enough to impact a customer’s purchase decision. A powerful and impactful visual merchandising will result in the customer having a positive experience and making a purchase/additional purchases which ultimately increase your sales and revenue.

 

Enhancing the Shopping Experience


Retailers can often forget that visual merchandising is not just about creating visual and enticing instore and window displays, other senses can also be triggered to create an unforgettable instore experience. By creating a multi-sensory shopping experience, you can engage with your customers on an emotional level which is instantly recognisable to your store. You can do this through the following;

Music

Playing appropriate music for your target market, the correct music can dictate your customers mood. Music undoubtedly will add ambience; however, it is wise to consider which music suits the style of merchandise and the customer. It is also advisable to check that the lyrics are not offensive.

Scent

The scent is the strongest memory and emotion controller compared to other senses – global brands use the art of scent marketing to entice customers to choose their products. Aromas and scents will stimulate the senses of shoppers. Atmospheric aromas can also be introduced to an area that warrants them and can help to promote a product. Scented candles displayed in an aromatic environment will boost sales. Smells relate to memory and emotion and can trigger feelings which is therefore a strong tool to work with in stores. By having a nice scent throughout the store it puts the customer at ease , improves their mood which may result in a sale.

 

For retail stores to stay competitive in this e-commerce world, proactive visual merchandising has undoubtedly become of key importance. Retail stores need to understand that the bulk of their sales are generated from impulse purchases. Therefore, a perfect visual merchandise strategy can be the difference between a highly profitable retail store destined for continued growth, or one which has become stagnant. With all the responsibilities of everyday work in retail, it is easy to get lost and forget the core purpose of visual merchandising. We can go on autopilot, forgetting to make improvements and often forgetting to remind ourselves why we do what we do.

 

Contact us today on 042-9339911 to speak to one of our expert Visual Merchandisers to discuss a package to suit you and your business requirements, or email on info@customerperceptions.ie.

Retail Excellence Retreat and Expo 2019

UPDATED Retail Expo

Customer Perceptions are delighted to be exhibiting once again at the Retail Excellence Retreat and Expo, which is taking place at Citywest Convention Centre, Dublin, from the 21st to the 22nd of May 2019. This is Customer Perceptions third year exhibiting at this fantastic event.

We are located at stand N5, and will be on hand to have a chat about any Market Research services you may need.

We will have plenty of information available on all of our services such as Mystery Shopping, Customer Satisfaction Surveys, Audits, Social Media Monitoring, Focus Groups and much more. Drop by to see a live demo of our reporting dashboards. You will be amazed at how much insightful data you can have at the touch of a button.

We are also pleased to announce we will have demos available on the day of our instant customer feedback tool called TellUsFirst™. This tool gives you the power to talk to your customers before they leave feedback elsewhere.

This year, the Retail Excellence Retreat and Expo has a fantastic line up of speakers. We are really looking forward to hearing some of the speakers. Keith Rogers, Head of Operations in Ecco will give a talk about how to ‘Motivate Your Team To Motivate Your Business’ – a fantastic topic. We are also really interested in hearing Jean McCabe, MD of Willow talk about ‘The Willow Store – from Clicks to Bricks’. Jean and her team led Willow to winning the Retail Excellence Store of the Year 2019.

To organise a meeting with us during these two days, please email info@customerperceptions.ie. We would be delighted to chat to you on the day.

Alternatively follow our social media accounts for updates throughout the two days.