Good Customer Experience Equals Loyal Customers

How My Prom Experience Can Help You

When I was in high school, my prom group and I went to a restaurant downtown before
attending the dance. We had been excited to eat dinner at this restaurant because it had a really
different atmosphere than most restaurants. To our dismay, the experience was terrible. Since we
understood we were a big group, we made reservations months in advance, but still had to wait
an hour before being seated. Once seated, the service was spotty and it ended up taking two
hours to get our food. Not only did we leave upset that no one seemed to realize how poorly we
were treated, but we were late for the dance and we never went to that restaurant again.

Still reeling from the experience, I wrote a review on Yelp. While I didn’t know if my review
would end up affecting their business, I did know that I have looked at Yelp reviews before
eating somewhere and often times the reviews decided whether or not I actually ended up there.

But what does this have to do with customer experience?

Imagine if my prom group and I had been seated right away and were treated with respect. If that
had happened, I would have never written a bad review of the restaurant, but instead I would
have praised them for handling such a big group so well! Instead, I wrote about our bad
experience and it was incredibly easy for me to do so, showcasing how customer experience is
an incredibly important thing for a business especially with the technology we have nowadays.

The difference between a good customer experience and a bad customer experience affects your
customers more often than not. Yet, customer experience is not at the top of the list for
businesses and they are often not aware of the experiences their customers leave with. In order to
help your business, we’ve detailed why customer experience is just as important as every other
aspect of your business and some little things you can do to help improve it.

Why is Customer Experience so Important?

According to Giorgi Lobzhanidze, a customer service blogger for Qminder, “Studies predict that
by 2020, customer experience will become more important than not only price but also the
product itself.” But what are the reasons for putting customer experience at the center of your
business?

1. Customer Loyalty

The biggest reason for ensuring a good customer experience is to make sure your customers are
coming back for more. In fact, according to Lobzhanidze, “89% of U.S. consumers are willing to
move to a competitor due to bad customer experience.” Therefore, focusing on customer
experience will bring you loyal customers.

2. Increased Profit
While providing a good customer experience might cost your business money at the start, with
hiring additional staff and time dedication, once customer experience is a major part of your
business you will start to see profits increase. Not only are you going to have loyal customers
that return to your business time and time again, but, according to Lobzhanidze, “42% of
customers said they would pay extra for a pleasant and friendly experience, while 52% would
pay more for a faster service and efficient customer experience.”

Based on my experience at the pre-prom restaurant, I would have rather paid more for a good
experience than paid what I did for my bad experience.

3. Improved Brand Image

In the current generation, brand image is absolutely everything for a business. By improving
your customer experience, you will be ensuring positive reviews, at no additional cost, that can
improve your overall brand image. Nowadays, everybody updates their status on their social
media, and ensuring a good customer experience means that people won’t be able to detail a bad
experience on Yelp like I did!

How Can You Improve Customer Experience at Your Business?

Now that you know the advantages to improving customer experiences, how exactly can you do
it? While there are a plethora of ways to improve customer experience, and each business is
going to find their own way that works, there are three simple tips suggested by Lobzhanidze
that we wanted to spotlight.

1. Identify Your Customers and Their Preferences

While most us think we know who our customer is, in order to optimize your services, it’s more
important that you research your customer’s preferences. This can help you ensure that what you
are doing to improve customer experience will actually work for the people who visit your
attraction.

2. Interact with Customers

This one might seem like a no brainer, but it’s so important to make connections with your
customers. Not only will this improve their customer experience but, according to Lobzhanidze,
“Emotionally engaged customers are more loyal, have higher lifetime value and are more willing
to continue with the new purchase.” You don’t necessarily need to spend one-on-one time with
every customer that visits your business, but a simple hello and goodbye can work wonders! I
can’t tell you how different my experience before prom would have been if someone from the
restaurant had stopped by our tables to apologize for all the delays.

3. Constant Improvement
Like the world of tourism, customer experience changes every day. In order to ensure that you
are making the most out of your improved customer experience, allow for customer feedback
and actually implement it, and constantly identify what is working and what isn’t working.

Case Study: Tourism Australia

In 2017, Tourism Australia launched a campaign solely on selling customer experiences. Titled
“It’s a place you feel,” the Tourism Australia campaign focused on the experiences that
customers can feel when visiting Australia. To lock down the campaign, Tourism Australia lined
up Chris Hemsworth as an ambassador for an event and a promotional video. According to
Sprinklr, the campaign was incredibly effective for Tourism Australia. Not only did Tourism
Australia realize how important customer experience is, but they also made it the center of their
campaign!

While we don’t expect you to snag Chris Hemsworth to promote your business, allowing
customer experience to be a large part of your business can help you reach the forefront of the
travel industry. After all, four years later I still remember my experience at the restaurant before
prom, and still tell people about it. Imagine how much different things would be if customer
experience had been just as important to that restaurant as everything else, or if Chris Hemsworth
had been my date!