COMPLACENT MARKETING
Audience Experience And Customer Experience
By Diana Obath
Customer Experience ( CX ) forms a large part of the success of any business . It is an important piece to the success of sales and retention , but this only comes in once the customer has purchased or tried the product . As customers evolve and social media grows beyond any foreseen leaps and bounds , Audience Experience ( AX ) is now becoming a big influence on the success of customer experience .
Every organization has different audiences with whom they communicate and interact with . These distinct audiences each have a different experience with the brand and this needs to be considered when CX is being evaluated .
The pre-sale experience of the customer is an important aspect of the CX journey which is rarely considered . Especially useful for the sales teams , the pre-sales experience can inform sales approaches and help identify potential market issues . Touch points for the potential customer should also be assessed in this scenario . While the CX journey is designed specifically for the sales journey from acquisition , this perspective might be too narrow to inform the actual CX experience . Other factors still contribute to the success of the organization . Customer service heavily influences the CX experience , and the pre-sales AX can inform the stickability of the customer therefore a valuable contributor to how the CX journey will be mapped out .
Fans , followers , subscribers are all potential customers and have the power to create the most negative publicity that may influence the actual customers . Some of these audiences may never be customers for a number of reasons but they are still important , and their feedback should be considered . This group of people will engage and interact like actual customers transacting in loyalty and advocacy and not directly contributing to the company in real dollar value . Their strength lies in their collective ability to drive trends and word of mouth . The fan experience needs to be considered when designing the CX journey not with intent to turn them into customers per se but to use them to drive the desired customer journey .
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Fans , followers , subscribers are all potential customers and have the power to create the most negative publicity that may influence the actual customers . Some of these audiences may never be customers for a number of reasons but they are still important , and their feedback should be considered .
Besides the fans , all other stakeholders need to be considered in the AX to drive CX . The audience we are most familiar with is the employee . We all agree that good employee experience drives good CX . The recent growing trends of Employee Net Promoter Score ( eNPS ) campaigns within organizations as a measurable KPI point to this fact .
Increasingly , employees are turning down jobs from brands and organizations because their corporate values do not align to the employees ’ own values , even with better pay and reputation on the line . Employees are choosing employers instead of the inverse . While employee branding may be considered a good-to-do , it is an important aspect of AX that has a direct impact on CX . There is a real , measurable cost tied to poor employee experience ( EX ), which therefore must be well tuned into the overall CX journey of an organization .
The challenges come in when the organization believes its customer experience is better than it actually is . Many organizations are living in this bubble and have five-star reviews , customer opinions , testimonials and newspaper articles to show for it . These will exist for many organizations particularly those with large fan bases and many followers - most of who are not the direct customers or purchasers of the product or service . Without a negative experience , they would be the ones who have the time to fill out surveys and share their perceived experiences which may result in all positive reviews .
Often times , marketing teams are left with more questions than answers following these surveys . Why is the product not selling if it is so good and customers are happy with it ? If our customers can get good customer
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