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Startups have witnessed exceptional growth in recent years with an expected  CAGR growth of 27.1% from 2019 to 2024. Startups are capitalizing on different online business ideas to offer something unique to the customers. Customer Experience (CX) is the kind of interaction or experience that your customers have with your brand throughout the customer journey, from the first contact to the point of becoming a loyal customer. 

A customer is the most vital asset in any upcoming business. As a startup, there is a lot you should do to keep your customers coming for more. Personalized customer experience increases sales in the long run. 

According to this study, 49% of buyers make impulse purchases after receiving a personalized customer experience from a brand.

What should you do when you want to optimize CX and beat the stiff competition in the market? Here we look at five tips to help you optimize CX in your startup.

1. Have a clear CX vision 

Set a clear CX strategy to have a clear customer-centered vision that you can use to communicate to your customers. You can set this strategy by drafting a clear statement to define your vision. 

For instance, Zappos has been able to develop a customer service principle based on their culture and family values. The company strives to improve CX through the provision of humble service and to embrace its culture. 

Similarly, lighting services company, American Holiday Lights has earned lots of positive reviews by providing the best service to their customers. The company has a rating of 4.3 on Google My Business. The idea is to keep your customers happy. 

Once you set a principle, you can easily drive the behavior of your organization. Every staff member, especially those in the customer care team, should know the set principles. You can also ensure your team practices these principles by training them in all areas affecting customer relations. 

2. Respond to customer feedback in real-time 

Customer feedback is the issues, input, and information that customers share with your business concerning their experience with your brand. This feedback can be either negative or positive. It acts as a tool for knowing what you are doing right or wrong for your customers.

If you want to capture customer feedback in real time you should:

• Use a live chat software to engage with customers in real-time conversations.
• Send follow up emails to every customer
• Make direct or outbound sales calls to customers to get more insightful feedback 
• Assign different customer feedback to customer support agents if you want to show every team member the difference they are making to the business.
• Provide instant feedback to your customers through the business website.

3. Measure Customer Experience metrics 

Customer experience optimization is one of the major challenges most businesses face. Whether you are using social media marketing strategies to improve customer engagement using video marketing tools such as Invideo or leveraging the power of SEO to acquire prospects, measurement is crucial. Start-ups must measure CX metrics to establish what strategies work best for their brand. 

When you measure customer service metrics like Customer Satisfaction Score (CSC) and Net Promoter Score (NPS), you can learn what areas need improvement in your business. 

Collect data on resolution and response time to know how long it takes to offer customer support.   

You can also use predictive analytics to reduce churn and know what communication channels work for your client.

4. Establish an emotional bond with your customers 

Establishing an emotional bond with your customers is another way of improving CX and sales in the long run. Sometimes when dealing with customers, it’s not what you say that matters but how you say it. The best CX is achieved when a team member creates an emotional connection with your customer. 

In recent research by the Journal of Consumer Research, it is established that at least 50% of an experience is emotion-based. Emotions shape attitude, character and determine how customers are likely to make purchase decisions. 

Customers can easily establish an emotional connection with a brand where they understand how they feel when using the product or service. Ideally, a business is likely to outshine its competitors by 85% on sales when it establishes an emotional connection with target customers.

Here are some tips for establishing an emotional connection with your customers:

• When you promise customers something, you should fulfill the promise 
• Make your customers believe they are in capable hands by giving them a sense of comfort.
• You can go personal and with customers and include some humor in your conversations. 
• Establish a strong social media presence to keep you connected with potential customers. You can do that by posting at least once per day on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. 

5. Identify the needs of your customers

Before you can tell what your customers like, you have to know who they are. This should be the next step after building principles that you want your staff and team to work on. 

When you know your customers better, you can easily build on CX principles and bring to life customers who deal with your support team every day. For instance, Lines.com have successfully identified the needs of customers to serve their sports information requirements. Hence, they regularly update their Facebook page to reach prospects. 

Your organization should be able to deal and empathize with the situations your organization faces if you target understanding what your organization needs. 

The best way to go about this is to create a complete profile or persona of your customers. By creating personas, you can know who your customers are and understand how to deal with them better. You should also step forward and become more customer-centric.

6. Use AI and machine learning to boost CX                    

Some studies now show that 6 out of 10 U.S customers prefer using a digital service tool over a video chat or call when resolving brand issues. Startups can enhance digital experience by using AI and employing machine learning technology in communication. Here is how AI can help your business in improving CX:

• It reduces the need to attend to every customer that inquires about your business 
• It increases personalization by allowing you to segment your users 
• You can use AI to retrieve past interactions with customers, which helps you create a more personalized experience with your customers.
• AI enables auto-response to customers and guides them with clear and customized content to resolve their issues.

Final Thoughts 

There are many ways to boost CX. For instance, you can adopt the right technology like machine learning, email marketing, direct phone calls, and AI to personalize and improve customer experience with your brand.

CX provides an immense opportunity to create more loyal customers and establish a reputation for your brand. By adopting some of the strategies we have highlighted here, you can improve CX, sales revenue, and take your business to the next level.