Shep Hyken interviews Augie Ray from Gartner. They discuss the importance of investing in the customer experience and how to build a CX that will benefit both customers and companies alike.
The Interview with Augie Ray:

The emergence of new technology and the rise of social media have changed the way customers interact with brands, giving them more channels of communication than ever before. Brands need to pay attention to the entire customer experience across all channels to stay relevant and successful.

Simply acquiring new customers isn’t enough, especially if you experience high customer churn. Create an experience that focuses on retaining customers and building loyalty—and that experience is the result of not just what we say, but what we do.

There are two different definitions of customer experience, and they are two sides of the same coin.

From the customer’s perspective, CX is their accumulated experiences and perceptions about a brand through every interaction, both direct and indirect.

From a managerial perspective, CX is the discipline of understanding and reacting to customer interactions with the goal of meeting and exceeding expectations, creating loyalty and building advocacy.

As customer expectations rise, budgets for customer experience need to rise as well.

Data shows there is a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and financial gains for businesses. Prioritizing the customer experience benefits the top and bottom lines.

Both segments and personas are marketing tools that allow companies to group individuals together in a meaningful way. Segments demonstrate how customers are meaningful to a company, whereas personas flip the perspective and examine how a brand can be meaningful to customers.

To access the research that Augie quotes, listeners are invited to connect with him on LinkedIn and to subscribe to Gartner’s newsletter, “Smarter with Gartner.”

Quotes:
“We are not what we say we are. We are the experience we provide to customers and what they say we are.”
“When it comes to the customer experience, we have to look not just at what we say, but at what we do.”
“When you succeed for the customer, you succeed for the brand as well.”
About:
Augie Ray is a Vice President Analyst at Gartner, a research and advisory firm. He covers customer experience for marketing and CX leaders and helps them launch and manage successful CX programs.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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