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September 21, 2021

Your Customers’ Experience (CX) with Your Firm Can Make or Break You!

I’m a bourbon drinker. But sadly, this blog post isn’t about bourbon… it’s about CX – the customer experience.

As a bourbon drinker, I have gotten into the habit of sending bottles of bourbon as gifts to clients. And I’ve been using a website called ReserveBar.com to do it.

It’s a really easy site to use… to find the particular product I’m looking for and to have it sent. But recently, I had a problem with a purchase there.

I was ordering a couple of bottles for a client as a ‘thank you’ for renewing their agreement with us. And for the particular product I was ordering, they were offering free shipping if I used the special code they provided. A nice CX touch.

However, when I typed in the code to take advantage of the offer, it wasn’t accepted. So, I tried going through the entire purchasing process from the beginning and again, no luck.

I wanted this resolved, and the easiest and fastest way to do that was to use the text chat window on the website (an offering that is really good for CX)… and unlike some text chat platforms at other companies… this one was actually staffed with a real, live human being – and the customer support person (Lauren) responded immediately. Again, more good CX stuff!

She was friendly and professional – even using just text chat – and tried to resolve the issue. Which she couldn’t… it was some sort of technical glitch not easily fixed on the spot. Instead, she offered to refund the shipping costs once the order was placed… which I was fine with (a total of $20). Good CX.

But when it was time to place the purchase, she sent me another discount code to use, this time with a value of $50, which actually covered the cost one of the bottles of bourbon! Wow… unexpected and very generous. CX, CX, CX!

The point of this little non-MR story is that with your firm, you have many opportunities to touch buyers and potential buyers all along their purchase journey… on your website, with downable content, with your proposal, during the onboarding process, at many points during a project, with your invoicing and so on and so on.

So… how’s the CX experience with your firm? When was the last time you conducted an internal CX audit? Do you understand the purchase journey of your buyers? When was the last time you talked to your clients about their CX with your firm?

Like Lauren and the folks at ReserveBar, are you quickly available, friendly and professional (even without text chat)? Is your website easy to use and a resource for buyers? Do you work hard to resolve client issues, even small ones? Do you occasionally surprise and delight your clients? And even though it’s ‘after the fact,’ do you thank your clients in some meaningful way?

I’ve heard that if you mess up with a client, they’ll tell 10 people about it. But what about when you do things right? Or better than right? I don’t know what the stats say about that, but I was so impressed with my online experience that I’m sharing the story through this blog.

Bottom line: Solopreneur or a 500-person firm… CX matters. In fact, it may be the most important thing. Think about it… you and your competitors offer the same kinds of products and services to the same kinds of companies. The CX your buyers go through can be a real differentiator – maybe the only differentiator – leading not just to satisfied clients, but to loyal ones who will tell their friends and colleagues about your firm.


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