Eat Your Own Lunch The B2B Client Experience Handbook

Most businesses focus on the organisation instead of their number one asset, the customer. This inside-out approach puts you at risk of high customer churn and often results in having to invest in an expensive client acquisition strategy. It has, however, long been accepted that it is far more cost-effective to retain customers than attract new ones. Acquiring a new customer can cost you five times more than retaining an existing customer. If you want to avoid going down this expensive road and stay ahead of your competitors, having a robust strategy geared toward client retention, risk mitigation, and identifying cross and up-sell opportunities should be your number one priority.

If you were to draw back the curtain and take a peek at what goes on behind the scenes at an organisation that not only delivers exceptional client experiences but delivers them consistently, you would find a tightly interconnected network of carefully thought-through, designed, implemented, continuously monitored, measured and refined closed-loop interactions - otherwise known as a CX strategy.

Having a holistic plan to increase satisfaction and engagement at all stages of the customer's journey with your brand - and working from the outside in to make those experiences memorable, measurable, and consistent - will go a long way in ensuring your organisation's future success. While this strategy will differ from one business sector to another and vary according to where in their journey the customer might be, there is no end to what you can do to make every client interaction with your brand a high-quality one. The nett effect of a customer or client who feels valued is a direct and positive impact on an organisation's bottom line. Get it right, and you will experience noticeable growth in your overall market share, a boost in the value of your brand, and build overall business resilience. Get it wrong, and, well, we all know how that story ends.