What do consumers want from companies?
They want to know businesses give a damn.
The problem is, consumers don’t think they do.
According to Edelman, almost 9 in 10 consumers want more meaningful relationship with brands, but less than 1 in 5 believe brands are delivering on that wish. This data is based on survey of 15,000 consumers in 12 countries who have some level of engagement with brands. Two-thirds of people said brands that ask them to share with them (their stories or personal information) don’t share / engage in return and called it a one-sided relationship. 7 in 10 feel that companies have a self-serving goal of increasing profits vs. sincere commitment to their customers.
But failing to put your customers first, let alone building meaningful relationships with them, can be a costly mistake. With the increased popularity of social media, each customer now has a strong voice and a bigger platform than ever before to be heard. Any bad customer experience is an opportunity for a brand to be seen as uncaring. Not only that, negative experiences are talked about more and are now shared at scale.
The infographic below shows statistics related to customer experience that any business leader should know. This is the true cost of not prioritizing the customer experience.
The message could not be any clearer: brands need to pay close attention to the experiences they deliver at every touchpoint. And do it consistently. To be able to do that, businesses need to be prepared internally to support the customer-first approach with people, processes, and infrastructure in place. If you’re ready to start investing in the customer experience management done right, this Customer Experience Management Guide will help you take the first steps.
Originally published on Inc.