How Customer Perception Can Make You a Leader of Pack

The digital world has changed everything when it comes to the customer experience. Constant connectivity, the ability to research any question and improved access to a huge amount of information are all aspects that have fundamentally changed how consumers perceive brands.

Customers are empowered to make more informed decisions. 

Yet, on top of that, the ubiquitous presence of online companies has resulted in customers having an increased number of companies that they can choose to buy from. These organizations all have similar products and services, and are highly competitive. So, who does the customer choose to buy from?

Becoming a brand leader means breaking out from the pack. Customer perception is now one of the important factors in differentiating your business from the competition. 

What is customer perception?

The definition of customer perception is simple. It refers to a customer’s opinion of your business or the products/services that you offer.

What builds the customer perception is more interesting. Every single interaction that a customer has with your company helps to build their perception of your brand. That includes your customer service phone line, your website, your social media page and many others - it’s built by every direct or indirect experience that a customer has with your brand.

The result of all these interactions determines how a customer perceives and feels about your business.

Why is customer perception important? 

It’s believed that last year, according to a Walker Information report, that the customer experience overtook price and product as the key brand differentiator by 2020. The customer experience, unsurprisingly, is inextricably linked to customer perception.

Providing a superior customer experience, and in turn improving customer perceptions of your business, is set to be far more important than traditional competitive advantages such as the price of your product/services.

That’s why today’s most successful organizations are actively investing in their customer experience strategies to drive customer perception gains. 

How your customer service program can significantly improve customer perception

In today’s highly competitive world, most businesses opportunities are generated through a superior customer experience. In fact, 86 percent of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience with customers willing to pay a price premium of up to 18 percent, according to a pwc report. 

To improve your company’s customer experience and transform the customer perception, it is crucial to prioritize your customer service strategy.

While your phone lines are important, your customer service program should focus on improving every single area that a customer could interact with your company. This means implementing chatbots onto your website, answers customer questions on social media, using contact center artificial intelligence (AI) to make customer service more seamless and building a self-service program and much more.

An omnichannel customer service strategy will improve the experience your customer has with your brand. To improve that even further, make sure to analyze customer interactions and ask for feedback so you have the insights you need to improve your customer experience even more in the future.

To achieve great customer perceptions, your organization must eliminate complexities and friction in every experience that your customer has with your brand. Your customer service strategy is the key to doing that.

Once you have truly achieved a world-class brand perception, you’ll accelerate sales and become a leader of the pack, a go-to brand that benefits from word of mouth marketing, leaving most of the competition in the dust.

Want to learn more about the importance of customer perception, and how Advantage Communications can significantly improve your brand’s customer experience through innovative contact center technologies? Contact our team of experts today.