What every CX centric company has in common

Being customer-centric is a familiar idea. “The customer is always right” is a saying that can be traced back to the pioneers of retail. However, customer expectations have changed considerably since then.

Customers today have more control over how they interact with brands than ever before. This is why the most successful companies today tend to be CX centric.

To understand what it means to be a CX centric company today, it’s a good idea to study successful businesses that have cultivated a customer-centric culture. In this post, we’re going to highlight what all of these companies have in common and learn how to adapt the practices ourselves. 

Defining customer experience (CX)

Before we dive into the specific aspects of CX company culture, it’s worth getting a full overview of customer experience today.

Customer experience, or CX, refers to the entire experience someone will have when interacting with your business, and what impression they are left with.

Some key areas of your business that contribute to CX include communication, purchase, delivery, and product support. In other words, every step in the customer journey.

How to build a CX strategy in 2023

In addition to the factors mentioned above, there are several trends that are currently shaping the state of CX strategy. In 2023 and beyond, customers will expect:

• A strong digital presence — Customer engagement is now dominated by digital channels, from social media to live chat

• Plenty of personalization — Whether it’s through automatic segmentation or manual customization, people want to feel like valued individuals

• An omnichannel experience — Your customers will expect you to save their progress, so they can move between touchpoints without repeating steps along the way

• In-app support — For users of mobile apps, being able to get on-demand support is important

• A clear path through the buyer’s journey — From the first touchpoint to delivery to after-sales support, customers want to be guided through the entire buying process

If you want to make your business stand out in a competitive market, we would highly recommend taking note of the trends mentioned above and working them into your CX strategy.

What is CX strategy?

To consistently meet your customers’ needs, it’s a good idea to develop a CX strategy.

This is a high-level plan that defines your approach to customer experience management. In most cases, developing a CX strategy aims to improve customer experience in a way that aligns with your business goals.

On a practical level, a good CX strategy should pinpoint the specific areas where CX can be optimized, while also taking into account all touchpoints and channels. Businesses that develop such plans are much more likely to provide the ideal customer experience.

It’s worth noting that a large business may create a comprehensive customer experience plan, and then develop more detailed strategies that focus on individual areas. For instance, corporations with physical outlets might build both a digital CX strategy and an offline CX strategy.

6 steps to building a customer-first business model

1) Take inspiration from companies leading the way

CX strategy is a relatively new field where ideas are constantly emerging. Businesses that embrace a customer-centric mindset usually keep their finger on the pulse by studying the digital CX strategies of other companies that are seeing success.

Virgin Mobile UAE is a great example, as they have improved customer satisfaction with a consistent CSAT of five out of five, all while staffing fewer agents.

One of their tips is to have continuous conversations with customers in order to elevate the customer experience. Something as simple as messaging history can be critical for solving customer issues.

Read more tips from Virgin Mobile + Sendbird here.

2) Research CX best practices

Another habit of leaders at CX-centric companies is constant learning. More specifically, they are constantly sharing and researching best practices within customer experience management, customer success, and customer service.

There are many ways to stay connected with this world: join LinkedIn groups, read case studies, listen to industry podcasts (e.g. CX Centric Leaders Podcast), and pay close attention to product updates from top-performing brands.

3) They have a clearly defined customer experience strategy

All this information allows CX-centric businesses to build a clearly defined customer experience strategy.

Having a solid plan means you can pitch for backing from the boardroom where required, allowing managers to craft roadmaps that align well with your overall aims.

4) Put yourself in your customers’ shoes

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What is your overall brand experience like?

For customer experience directors at CX centric companies, this is a mental exercise that is worth performing regularly. While metrics and KPIs can be helpful, customer satisfaction and retention are ultimately driven by how people feel after interacting with your brand.

5) Think through every touchpoint

The same level of thoughtfulness is also applied to customer relationship management. Leaders at CX centric companies are encouraged to examine every possible touchpoint, and craft strategies which deliver the kind of guided experience that customers expect.

In addition, they usually consider how various touchpoints work together in a sequence in order to understand and optimize all possible customer journeys.

6) Adopt asynch support

You can even find commonalities between CX centric businesses in the way they execute their strategies.

A frequent move made by such companies is the adoption of asynchronous customer support and user chat.

Unlike with live chat, this technology allows you to provide flexible, real-time service for customers. At the same time, removing the live element means that people can return to a chat at any time — and it makes life much easier for reps on the frontline of support in your contact center.

CX strategy examples

To understand how these principles work in the real world, it’s worth looking at some CX strategy success stories.

One standout example is Carousell.

Carousell improves communication for better CX

This popular classified marketplace serves buyers and sellers in South East Asia, handling over 71 million transactions to date.

The popularity of this platform can partly be attributed to the company’s mobile-first approach to business strategy. The Carousell app allows users to upload items for sale with a couple of taps, while buyers can negotiate through a chat-like interface.

However, it wasn’t always such plain sailing. In the past, Carousell connected buyers with sellers through a traditional commenting system. This was slow and cumbersome, so many users immediately exchanged details and moved conversations to more familiar messaging apps.

This caused two key problems: reduced customer retention, and difficulties with providing customer support because reps had no visibility of communications.

Executives quickly realized that the best way to bring users back into the app was by improving the overall customer experience. In response, Carousell’s leadership decided to commit to a new CX strategy based on better communication.

A key pillar of this customer-focused overhaul was creating a chat system that made people want to use the app, not leave it behind. Rather than developing this feature from scratch, the company turned to Sendbird.

Using our Chat API, engineers at Carousell were able to upgrade the app with asynch chat that felt intuitive and personalized for all users — even new customers.

The 10-week transformation included the addition of read receipts, message notifications, and typing indicators, along with business logic integration for better continuity between touchpoints.

Put together, these improvements made a drastic difference. In comparison, the new chat system saw a 6.5X increase in monthly active users, while maintaining 100% uptime.

Happyfresh makes CX the top priority

Another CX success story from Asia is Happyfresh. This on-demand delivery app allows users to order from the 50 largest supermarket chains in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Communication is a key part of the customer experience in any delivery app. With Happyfresh, it takes on even greater meaning.

The app connects users with personal shoppers, who collect items from stores. The shoppers then pass the items to drivers, who deliver the orders to customers.

While you could use some level of automation here, the reality is that customers want to know who is making purchases on their behalf. They may want to add specific requests to their orders, as well.

Realizing that trust and personalization were essential parts of the customer experience, the product team at Happyfresh decided to make it a central focus of the app.

The company chose Sendbird as a technology partner for this project, utilizing the Chat API to connect customers with personal shoppers. The improvement in customer experience led to spectacular results for the business: 10x growth over a period of 18 months.

The ideal customer experience

Both of these companies have seen increasing profitability and customer satisfaction as a direct result of their CX centric approach to business.

If you would like to take the same path with your business and unlock similar returns, we can help.

Get in touch with our sales team to learn more about our solutions, and sign up today to try Sendbird technology for yourself.