Customer experience has just been named the most exciting opportunity for the year, even coming in ahead of mobile and content marketing. Here are six ways to engineer a better customer experience and boost customer satisfaction so you can grow more quickly.

Boost Customer Satisfaction with a Game-Changing Better Customer Experience

Staying the course is not going to boost customer satisfaction and help you gain market share. If you are ready to up your game when it comes to a better customer experience, here are six places to start.

The heart of the matter is the heart of the matter. Nine out of ten retailers surveyed for an Econsultancy report (in association with SDL) titled, The Retailer’s Imperative: A Strategic Approach to Customer Experience agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “Our customer is our brand,” and better customer experience has officially been named as the most exciting opportunity for the year, even coming in ahead of mobile and content marketing.

Marketers are especially concerned about garnering favorable brand impressions across marketing channels, which is not surprising in an omni-channel marketing environment. In the survey, while 89% said that integration was vital or very important to corporate growth, only 40% percent actually described their customer experience marketing effort as well-integrated. Retailers identified five areas in particular where an organization can differentiate its customer experience in order to attract and engage new customers; including:

54% – product offering
45% – price
44% – content designed to attract new customers
35% – mobile
22% – omni-channel or multi-channel customer experience

Customer satisfaction strategies that improve retention rates were also on marketers minds. When asked what were the primary ways they believed their company could differentiate itself in selling to and retaining current customers, survey respondents identified these as the top five areas of opportunity:

47% – improving overall online customer experience
44% – personalization (or customization)
37% – content designed for converting / retaining customers
37% – ease of transaction
35% – merchandising

Technology and technology challenges seem to be the areas where marketers can make the biggest gains. Because of technology, marketers are 37% more likely to have a handle on the digital shopper’s customer journey than for transactions occurring in brick-and-mortar store locations. But lack of integrated technology and inadequate technology budgets are also cited as the two top barriers to successful customer experience management.

6 Steps to a Better Customer Experience

Know Where Customers Are Coming From

Tracing back to the true origin point of a customer’s journey is not always possible; however, the more you understand where each customer journey begins in reference to buyer personas, the more potential customer touch points may become apparent. Not only will you know which first touch marketing tactics are working, you will also know which ones are not – and both represent areas of opportunity.

Map Out All Possible Customer Journeys (and Devices They Rode In On)

The customer journey is becoming more complex, even for brick-and-mortar businesses. It’s vitally important to be able to identify not only where the customer journey begins, but to identify potential customer touch points that lie along the path between brand introduction and buying. That goes both for the actual touch point and the vehicle – or device – used to get there.

Track Purchase and (Online) Browsing History

Extending irrelevant offers or marketing to buyers who have already purchased is a big waste of time and money! Customization of offers and personalization of the customer experience can not only increase conversions, they can also make customers feel like you care about what they really want or need.

Look for Patterns and Disparities

Identifying patterns (such as items buyers purchased immediately before or after key items purchased from you) as well as local buying clusters and other geographic disparities can all be valuable in helping you target marketing more effectively. In addition, this data can be used to create more detailed buyer personas which can, in turn, help you personalize and customize the marketing offers you put in front of prospective buyers and current (or lapsed) customers.

Get Feedback from Individuals and Virtual Focus Groups (and Act On It)

Marketers are generally better about sending information out than they are at systematically bringing it in, analyzing it, and tweaking their marketing plans accordingly. The more information that you can get from real buyers (via surveys, post-transaction ratings and reviews, online or in-person focus groups, etc.) as well as people who expressed interest but did not buy, the better chance you have of identifying the details that matter most in the customer experience provided by your organization.

Develop Customized Marketing Plans

It’s time for marketers to move past the one-size-fits-all marketing plan of the past. The more that marketing can be tailored and put into the paths of buyers at the right time, on the right channels, and with the right message, the more conversions will occur and the more likely buyers are to be satisfied in the process.