Editorial Highlights

Organisations today understand the fact that user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX) can make or break their services; for consumer facing businesses, the bar gets higher every year. For example, a welcome drink during a hotel check-in used to delight customers, but today it has become a standard onboarding offer in many hotels.

In 2024, it’ll be more critical for organisations to prioritise UX and CX to attract and retain users in the ever increasing digital and on-demand world. As business leaders, how do we build a more customer centric culture with our teams and help our key stakeholders recognise the business impact of what consistent great customer experience in an increasingly digital world?

The Growing Importance of UX and CX in 2024

Customers Expect More Seamless Experiences

Customers will expect personalised, seamless experiences across all touchpoints. If your business can’t deliver a frictionless experience, users will go elsewhere that offers more convenience. We may observe this trend through the rising popularity of digital banks and super apps.

AI & ML Will Enhance Experiences

Technological progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will allow organisations to analyse customer journey mapping, gain insights into pain points, and make real-time improvements. We may observe this trend through an increasing number of self-service kiosks and digital assistants as part of the customer support and onboarding process. If the right data is in place, a degree of personalised experience is made possible.

Emerging Technologies Add New Possibilities

Emerging tech like AR/VR will transform user experience and customer experience with devices like Apple Vision Pro opening up new possibilities. As customers move from search based queries via Google to question based queries via ChatGPT, getting voice interactions right will play an increasingly critical role.

Customer Experience is a Differentiator

In 2024, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. Organisations which make experience a priority, gather customer insights, personalise user interactions and leverage new technologies will build loyalty and see greater success. The first few organisations that get their emerging technology experience right in their respective categories, will win the hearts of new customers and unlock cost savings via automation in the process. Investing in UX and CX capabilities today will pay off dividends.

How UX and CX Impact Key Business Metrics

Great UX and CX has direct impact on business impact with increasing customer acquisition costs and higher consumer expectations.

Increased Customer Retention

According to various studies, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60–70%, while the probability of selling to a new customer is only 5–20%. Loyal customers also tend to spend more. Hence, improving UX and CX is key to higher retention and customer lifetime value.

Customer Acquisition via Word-of-Mouth

With a great experience, customers will see your brand in a positive light. This boosts brand perception and recognition, which leads to increased word-of-mouth marketing and referrals. According to the book ‘How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know’, investing in brand building, lowers overall customer acquisition costs in marketing campaigns. Referrals are also one of the most effective ways to gain new customers since people trust recommendations from friends and family.

Higher Revenue and Profits

When you deliver an engaging UX and CX, you’ll drive higher sales and profits. Happy users buy more and are willing to pay premium prices. They also cost less to serve since they require less customer support. Studies show that improving CX at a company with $1 billion in revenue can increase profits by $775 million over three years (Qualtrics, 2018).

Focusing on user experience and customer experience may require extra effort, but the payoff can be huge. By optimising your UX and CX, you’ll boost key metrics like retention, brand perception, revenue, and profits. In today’s competitive landscape, superior UX and CX can serve as a sustainable competitive advantage.

UX and CX Best Practices for Business Leaders

When speaking to fellow business leaders, they mention their teams recognise the importance of great UX and CX but often find it difficult to start building a more customer centric culture. We encourage all leaders to focus in the following areas.

Encourage collaboration

Successful UX and CX require collaboration across teams. Leaders have to encourage employees from product, design, marketing, and customer service to work together. Their combined insights into user needs and pain points will result in impactful solutions. Leaders should adopt a transparent approach and provide opportunities for cross-functional brainstorming and feedback.

Continuous improvement

UX and CX are ongoing processes, not one-time fixes. Leaders should monitor key metrics like customer satisfaction, retention, and conversions to see what’s working and not working. They should regularly gather user feedback through surveys and interviews to look for avenues to optimise the user journey and overall experience based on the data and input. Incremental improvements over time can have a huge impact.

Observe and listen

The best way to understand your users’ needs is by observing them in action and listening to them. It is important for the team to understand how people interact with your product or service and for them to take note of any negative point. It was one of the biggest take-aways from the business leaders and managers of CBRE Group who attended our customised training workshop, one of who summarised it simply as “Don’t assume. Do research. Brainstorm and discuss the ideas”.  Leaders should relay the importance of customer feedback to their teams in order for them to identify areas of improvements. Look for common themes and insights that can drive meaningful change.

Data-driven decisions

Teams should leverage data to gain useful customer insights that inform important business decisions. Analytics tools can show you how users move through your product or service, where they drop off, what they find most valuable, and more. Quantitative data with qualitative feedback should be paired for a complete picture of the customer experience. Use key metrics to identify the key areas of improvement. As a participant from Maxis who attended our UX Training for Teams workshop said post-course, it is important to “Understand consumers and how we can play with their psychology to drive a particular action”.

With a focus on collaboration, continuous improvement, observation, and data-driven decisions, business leaders can gain a competitive advantage through standout UX and CX. But the work is never done—keep listening, keep collaborating, keep optimising, and keep exceeding user expectations.

Hiring the right talent or train/coach them

To build a user-focused culture in any organisation, hiring the right people is key. If there is willingness internally to change, then investing in training and coaching can reap better results than expensive talent acquisition strategies.

If hiring, look for candidates with a product mindset, strong communication skills, and a passion for innovation. These soft skills, combined with technical expertise, will help your team develop a deep understanding of customers and find creative solutions to their problems.

If training or coaching, look for team members who are data centric and empathetic with a high attention to detail. Change agents have one thing in common, a strong desire to continuously improve.

Conclusion: Putting the customer at the centre

Ultimately, building a customer-centric culture comes down to putting the customer at the centre of every business decision. Use data and insights to gain a deeper understanding of your customers’ behaviours, motivations, and pain points. Then, involving the Voice of Customer to be represented in your business strategies, customer journeys and innovation initiatives. Continuous investment in delighting your customers helps build brands sustainably. It’s really that simple.

To find out more about enhancing your UX and CX capabilities within your team members, kindly reach out to the CuriousCore Team!
https://curiouscore.com/training-for-teams/