Customer experience (CX) plays a primary role in brand loyalty and should be an prominent part of the marketing mix, new research from Salesforce has found.
The growing importance of CX is driving major brands like Australia Post, Fonterra, General Electric and insurance group IAG to place customer experience at the heart of marketing efforts rather than traditional brand marketing approaches.
The Salesforce Empowered Shopper Report, which polled 650 Australian shoppers this month, found the top reasons for loyalty were responsive service and maintains privacy (chosen by 79% of respondents), makes it easy to find products I need (77%) and has knowledgeable sales staff (74%).
Conversely, shoppers ditched brands if they endured a difficult purchasing process (70%), received inconsistent service experience (66%), which erodes trust.
In terms of customer satisfaction, the most important factors were price (87%) and high quality products and services (82%), followed by convenience (80%), flexible return policies (71%) and a consistent experience across all touchpoints (66%).
Salesforce head of product marketing in Asia Pacific Derek Laney tells AdNews company's that focus on a seamless and consistent experience across all touchpoints will win in an era when brand information and choice at at premium.
“It's not necessarily about the story you are telling, it's also about the utility you are providing and the ease of accessing the service is a big part of that," says Laney, who spoke to AdNews at the Salesforce Future of Marketing conference.
“For example, at Australia Post they've found that in order to be successful they need to have a united approach across brand marketing, service delivery as well as shifting their organisation from being a customer service organisation to being a customer experience agency.
“That means much more proactive engagement with customers and being much more personalised in terms of the way they reach out.
“The experience customers are now judging organisations by to deliver brand affinity and love, in order to deliver that it's not only about solving for marketing and the way they talk to customer, it's also about solving employee engagement and empowering them to create great experiences for their customers."
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.