Three ways to build a stand-out customer experience

Customer experience (CX) is more than a buzzword – it’s pivotal to building solid relationships with your customers and gaining a competitive edge. It’s often discussed in the context of large businesses like airlines or banks, but CX is equally important for small businesses, where things like recommendations and positive reviews can make a huge difference.

Here, we’ll explain why building a positive, memorable experience for your customers can boost your success. We’ll also break down three core components of stand-out CX.

Why Does Customer Experience Matter for Small Businesses?

When consumers have seemingly infinite choices, two key factors can set you apart from the competition:

• Your product or service
• The experience customers have with your business

Unlike larger corporations, small businesses often cultivate a more personal, one-to-one relationship with customers. This can be an asset in creating unique and memorable experiences.

When you focus on creating positive interactions, these experiences can turn satisfied customers into advocates who can help attract new clients – often at a much lower cost than traditional advertising.

What Does Customer Experience Look Like in a Small Business?

CX looks different for every small business, but there are three things that will set you up for success, no matter what industry you’re in:

1. Understanding Your Customers, Their Needs and Wants

The foundation of a great customer experience starts with understanding who your customers are and what they truly need and want. Get to the heart of what motivates your customers, their pain points, and their goals.

Start by gathering insights through surveys, feedback forms, and data analytics. Regularly analyzing this data helps uncover trends in behavior and preferences. This allows you to make informed improvements that genuinely meet customers’ expectations, ease friction, or solve a problem they may be facing.

Ask yourself:

• What problems do our customers face in their lives?
• How does our product or service help solve them?

2. Meeting Customers Where They Are

Today’s customers expect a certain level of personalization and convenience, and they’re more likely to stay loyal to brands that meet their expectations. So consider whether you’re delivering service in a way that aligns with your customers’ preferences and habits, and making life easier for them.

Ask yourself:

• What problems do our customers face when finding, using, or buying our product or service? How can we make it easier?
• Where are our customers? How can we bring our product, service, or process to them, rather than making them come to us?

How can you deliver this kind of experience with limited time and resources? Automation can power timely and personalized communication at scale. Whether it’s scheduling invoice reminders, letting customers choose their preferred way to pay, or reaching out to customers on their favorite social media platform, these simple yet impactful touches show customers that you value their business.

Tips:

• Set up automatic invoice reminders in Xero to give your customers a friendly nudge when payments are due or overdue. Try the Paidnice app to send SMS reminders, apply prompt payment discounts, and more.
• Payment apps like Stripe, Square, and Airwallex give customers more ways to pay, allowing them to choose the method most convenient to them.
• Connect a job management or customer relationship management (CRM) app to Xero. This kind of software makes it easy to deliver highly personalized communication in a streamlined way.

3. Measuring Success and Improving

No customer experience strategy is complete without regular evaluation. Metrics such as customer satisfaction scores, net promoter scores (NPS), and retention rates offer insight into how well you’re meeting customer needs and what might need adjustment.

But feedback isn’t limited to numbers. Qualitative insights can be just as powerful, especially public ratings and reviews that can drive word-of-mouth referrals.

Tip: Try the NiceJob app to gather reviews and referrals directly from customers and turn your reputation into a growth engine. You can create automatic, set-and-forget campaigns to collect a steady stream of reviews. At the same time, you’re meeting the customer where they are and making the process easy for them.

Once you have this information, it’s time to make some improvements. Customer preferences and market trends are always shifting, so it’s crucial to stay adaptable. By consistently refining your tactics, you can keep the customer experience fresh, relevant, and responsive to changing needs.

Ready to Build a Stand-Out Customer Experience?

Mastering these three pillars – understanding needs, meeting customers on their terms, and continuously measuring success – can create a customer experience that not only attracts new clients but helps build long-term loyalty, driving growth for your business.