At the 2016 Customer Experience Management Africa Summit held at Century City, RecoMed was proud to be one of the 440 delegates to join fellow professionals from across the country at Africa’s largest customer experience summit, where they heard about the rise of the customer experience economy.

There’s no doubt that customer experience management (CEM) is the new golden pass to achieving customer loyalty and retention – it’s been around for years, but has only recently attracted the attention it deserves. The key here is to cultivate a consistent customer experience and brand persona throughout the entire organisation (as opposed to relying only on your customer service or front-end staff). But what does all of this mean in practice? A couple of lessons certainly apply:

Customer retention is five times easier than attracting new customers

Your customer should be the centre point of focus for each employee in your organisation. Get personal, have a humanly brand and address their emotional need. For example, it’s imperative for doctors to have sympathy with and empathy for their patients, but what else can be done to make the patient feel at ease and have a ‘wow’ experience? Exceeding expectations results in customer retention, which in and of itself is five times less costly than the effort of gaining new customers.

60% of customer loss is due to bad service delivery

You’re already delivering a service, so make sure you’re doing an excellent job while you’re at it. Give your customers a reason to talk about their (positive) experience, because your brand is only as worthwhile as customers tell each other it is. 92% of customers trust personal recommendations more than adverts or media claims.

Obsess about your customer journey

It all comes down to thinking about your customers, the state of mind they are in when they inquire about your service, during service, and after! How are you inspiring your clients? See how you can go the extra mile to ensure you are not merely providing a service, but actually delighting your customers.

Remember that the customer journey starts long before first contact with the client, and extends long after the transaction is completed. Have you thought about ways of delivering an exceptional service even when you’re not face-to-face with your clients? In the medical sphere, for example, millions of South African patients are searching for healthcare online each month. Doctors who want to reach these clients make sure their practice is listed online to meet those patients’ needs. How can you make your customer’s experience better?