Experiencing your customers

Heino Gevers, Customer Experience Director at Mimecast MEA, explains customer experience is the way a company tracks and organises every interaction between a customer, and the organisation throughout the customer lifecycle. Customer experience is becoming a competitive advantage as the business-consumer relationship shifts, Nicholas O'Connor, Strategic Business Development Consultant at hi.guru, adds. CX, as it is often termed, makes use of data to drive strategic imperatives and build loyalty, he says. Certified Customer Experience Professional and consultant Julia Ahlfeldt adds it costs six to seven times more to acquire a new customer than it costs to keep an existing one. "If companies choose not to embrace CX, they run the risk of delivering negative experiences, which erode loyalty. Over time, these companies will gradually lose favor with customers, and their market share will diminish as consumers vote with their feet."