Customer experience (CX) is a hot topic for companies looking for a competitive edge. In a world with so many choices, if you’re not delivering the really positive experiences your customers expect, they’ll take their business elsewhere. And that can hit your bottom line.
These days, putting customers first is a top priority in almost every company’s playbook. Companies know the stakes are high. If they get CX wrong, they’re in jeopardy of losing customers. But if they get it right, the upside potential is huge. Great CX helps companies drive repeat revenue and cross-sell opportunities, promote loyalty and advocacy, and stand out from their competitors.
The importance of CX isn’t just hype. According to a recent report from Aberdeen Group, when it comes to CX, best-in-class organizations (those in the top 20 percent) outperform everyone else (the bottom 80 percent). That’s true across a bunch of important metrics, including revenue, customer satisfaction, and customer retention.
Given the connection between CX and business outcomes, companies are hard at work figuring out how they can do better. And there’s no shortage of areas to consider: overall product satisfaction, customer service, perceived value, and even emotional connection all play a role. Countless other things help shape customer experience, too.
In a new Acrolinx guide, we’ve focused on one key aspect of CX that’s super important but often overlooked: The role content can play, and the impact it has in shaping CX.
→ Download: Customer Experience Matters! The Content Guide to Better CX
Content Drives Customer Experience
In today’s digital world, when people interact with brands, it’s through content. Would-be customers search for solutions to their problems online, visit company websites to learn about products and services, and download eBooks and white papers to find information that can help them.
Your buyers also use content to validate their decision to buy from you. They’ll read case studies, consult FAQs, and scour product fact sheets for information. And post-sales, they’ll look to your company’s technical documentation, customer service content, and training materials to become better skilled with your products and troubleshoot any challenges they run into. These are just a few examples of how content plays a major role at virtually every touchpoint across the customer journey.
Self-Service is the Name of the Game
One of the things driving this trend is that we live in an age where customers want to be in charge. Most have a self-service mentality, and they want to access the information they need, quickly and easily. Many try to avoid sales or customer service reps until they’re well on their way to buying your product, or simply don’t have another option.
What all this means is that, in many cases, your content isn’t just your brand ambassador. It’s also one of the main tools you have to help shape your customer’s experience. So every blog post, Tweet, and line of web copy is a chance to either enhance or weaken a customer’s experience with your brand.
Practically speaking, your content has to do double-duty. It not only needs to convey needed information to your customers, it also has to do it in a way that creates a positive brand experience. That’s a tall order, but it’s critical.
Recent research from Forrester reinforces just how critical:
“Customers are three to four times more likely to say they trust brands that communicate clearly. And when customers trust a brand, they prefer it to other brands. In contrast, when companies do not communicate clearly, customers perceive the brand to be deceptive or unethical — as literally trying to cheat them.”
The research goes on to say that how well your company communicates with your customers has a great impact on your brand’s overall customer experience. And that can really affect your bottom line.
Take Your CX Content to the Next Level
If you recognize the importance of content in driving customer experience, but aren’t entirely sure how to help your content do the job it needs to, we’ve got the solution for you.
→ Download Customer Experience Matters! The Content Guide to Better CX
In it, you’ll find more information on the importance of content in CX, a review of the qualities your content needs to give your customers the best experience, and the content operation you should have to make that possible at scale.
