4 Common Objections to Making Customer Experience a Top Priority

(and why you should ignore them!)

SATISFYD 4 Common Objections to Making Customer Experience a Top Priority

When thinking about what actually drives business, customer experience may not be the first thing that comes to mind. Yet, with the radically evolving online landscape making it easier and easier for customers to voice their opinions, it’s important to consider that the voice of your customer is quickly taking over as the voice of your brand. In other words, the more unhappy your current customers are, the harder it will be for you to acquire new ones.

Still, many businesses continue to pour the majority of their respective budgets into marketing/acquisition costs, paying little-to-no mind to the experience of existing customers. Of course, marketing will always be important, but the most successful heavy equipment dealers are the ones who focus on the customers they do have, knowing that those customers will not only come back, but spread the good word to others who are in the market for what you have to offer.

Let’s look at some of the common objections to focusing on customer experience, and why it’s important not fall into this way of thinking.

It’s not worth the cost

It’s easy to assume so (and common), but running the numbers might give you a new perspective. Even saving just one customer per year can have a major positive impact on your overall ROI.  As an example, estimating that an average customer spends $75,000 with you each year – If you save that one customer and they come back nine more years after that, that’s an extra $750,000 on the table. The next year, if you save another, there’s another $675,000 at that 10-year mark. Fast-forward 10 years after saving just one customer each year, and you’ve made yourself $4,125,000. Add in the fact that it costs approximately 5x more to acquire a new customer vs. retain an existing one, and we’ve got ourselves a busted myth.

You can read more about the cost of your customers and budgeting for customer experience here.

I already know what my customers think

Despite the fact that you understand your business more than anyone, it can still be difficult to know what your customers actually think or want from you. We are taught to be kind to others, which means that most might not feel comfortable enough to share their opinions on their experience in doing business with you. By giving your customers an outlet to comfortably share feedback, it will provide you with critical insights you otherwise would never have known (until it’s too late). Customer feedback is by far the best resource available to you when it comes time to assess your overall business performance, so developing a process for acquiring this crucial information is more imperative than ever, especially in the age of online reviews.

I don’t have the resources to manage the program

We understand that some dealers are hesitant about implementing a customer experience management program because they believe that overseeing the process is a huge undertaking, and one that can’t be done with a small team or with constrained resources. But even taking small steps to transform your organizational focus towards customers and their feedback will make a positive impact on your business in the long run. Here are some ideas to keep your customer experience game strong using the resources you already have.

  1. Delegate work- Assign someone in each department to be accountable for following up on open issues. Empower your team to review customer feedback and follow-up on the experiences they’ve created to make them even better.
  2. Use the time you have- Utilize your weekly department meetings or established company communications to share customer feedback received during the prior week/month. If it’s not your busy season, make the most of this opportunity and have your team reach out to your customers to thank them for providing feedback, or to share how you have incorporated their insights into your processes.
  3. Automate whenever possible- Utilize an automated survey approach to send out surveys for every transaction, and get notified every time a customer survey is returned. We recommend you follow up with every customer but, if you have limited resources, your first priority should be to focus your attention and notifications on detractor and neutral respondents.

Take a deeper dive on ways to use your existing resources to build an effective CEM process here.

If I collect customer feedback, then I actually have to follow up and make changes to my business

This is a sad objection, but one that is more common than you think. The best businesses revel at the chance to keep their customers happy and coming back for more. With the color of brand preference diminishing, customer experience is becoming a key differentiator in the heavy equipment industry. The feedback you acquire and subsequently the changes you make to your overall customer experience – no matter how small they may seem – will go a long way towards consistently growing your business over time. If one customer took the time to share feedback with you, there are probably 10 more that experienced something similar, so it’s important to take this feedback seriously to ensure that you’re always focused on providing the best customer experience possible.