In today’s experience economy customer experience (CX) can make or break a brand. This is especially true as rising consumer expectations, inflationary pressures and an increasingly competitive business landscape are converging to make CX a business imperative. Put more simply, brands must get CX right to stand out from the competition and claim more market share.
Companies are turning to branded communication technologies such as branded calling to deliver more enriching customer experiences. Branded calling allows companies to display their name, logo and reason for calling on the call recipient’s mobile device to improve the customer experience.
Delivering great CX should be a priority for every enterprise. Why? Because customer acquisition, customer loyalty and business competitiveness and growth all hinge on delivering exceptional CX. Consider data from PwC which shows that:
• 73% of customers point to experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions, behind price and product quality.
• In the U.S., even when people love a company or product, 59% will walk away after several bad experiences, 17% after just one bad experience.
Further bolstering the business case for optimizing CX, a report from research analyst firm Forrester quantified the massive bottom-line benefits of CX, finding that improving CX by one point can drive more than $1 billion in revenue.
Companies are leveraging branded communication technology as a key part of strategies aimed at optimizing the customer experience to capture more customer loyalty and gain referrals from customers who become brand advocates.
Branded communication technologies such as branded calling allow enterprises to take control of their display name when making outbound calls to customers. The power to let customers know who is calling and why is essential to delivering superior CX at a time when scammers and spammers have conditioned consumers to ignore calls from unknown numbers. In the first half of 2022 alone, U.S. mobile subscribers received over 100 billion scam calls. As a result of this relentless barrage of nuisance calls, 87% of customers rarely or never answer calls from unknown numbers.
Missing calls from companies creates a subpar consumer experience and negatively impacts brand reputation. A First Orion 2021 Brand Impact Report revealed that 3 in 5 people said that if they miss a call from a business — particularly when it relates to an order or customer service — it could create a negative perception of that business.
That subpar customer experience also impacts trust which plays a significant role in CX. Consumers lack trust in companies that don’t brand their calls. The previously referenced Brand Impact Report found that 85% of people believe an unknown number makes a business appear illegitimate.
Recognizing that a critical part of driving an exceptional customer experience is a good phone call, companies today are using branded calling to elevate CX. For example, one call center leveraged the more responsive, more personal customer experience enabled by this technology to lift engagement rates by 10%. That lift in engagement rate translated to a 48% increase in conversion rates for the call center.
Clearly identifying who is calling also enhances employee experience (EX) which in turn improves CX. There is no question that highly engaged employees are more likely to deliver exceptional CX. According to a survey by market intelligence firm IDC, 85% of respondents agreed that an improved employee experience and higher employee engagement translate to a better customer experience, higher customer satisfaction, and higher revenues for their organization. In the same survey, 62% of respondents indicated that there is a defined causal relationship between EX and CX and that the impact was “large” or “significant” and measurable.
Branded phone calls enhance EX by eliminating numerous rounds of phone tag, enabling employees to successfully reach customers the first time. That’s critical considering missed calls create more work for employees and increase customer frustration, making them less likely to convert.
Today, enterprises need technologies that empower them to create more enriching customer and employee experiences that result in more market share and better business performance. Branded calling is one of the technologies essential for elevating CX and EX to drive business success in the experience economy.
