I had one of those relationship-ending experiences with a brand lately, and it made me think hard about the importance of customer experience management (aka, how we treat the people we're asking to buy our products).

Here's the tea.

I bought some D2C products for a client as a thank you gift. A month later, *crickets*. So I check the Arrive app, and it says their gift was delivered. Weird. 

I awkwardly ask if the client has received anything. Nope! Consider them... not surprised or delighted. 

Upon further investigation, the brand knew my items were returned to a warehouse, and just took my money and didn't tell me about it. 

That's a customer experience you write home about, and not in the way you want.

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Customer experience management is the *most important part* of your growth engine.

You can pour millions into your Facebook ads, optimize till 3 am every night, add influencers, content streams, build a huge list, and experiment… but if you can't deliver on the experience you're promising, your acquisition efforts are a waste of damn time. 

Your new customers will churn, and tell their friends not to join. 

It's the growth equivalent of lighting your money on fire.

At any stage, your growth relies on how customer-focused you are—and that means more than a chatbot and yearly NPS check. 

No excuses: you need to play like someone who cares about people.

Here's three checks you can do this week to design an effective customer experience strategy:

1. Check-in with customer support

This is your front-line of experience, but so few companies treat support like the valuable growth team they are. 

Take some folks on your support team out for coffee, or comb through Zendesk yourself. 

Make a list of experience and communication red flags your customers write in about. You'll be surprised at the insights you uncover.

2. Go through your own sales funnel stages

When was the last time you were your own customer? 

If your answer is “never”, then honey, we have a problem. If it wasn't this week, it's time to refresh yourself on the experience you are selling your users. 

As you go through your sales funnel, keep an eye out for confusing experiences, bad copy, and holes in your email funnel and notification funnel.

3. Book three customer calls

Talking to strangers is awkward. Do it anyway. 

Design a simple product interview, and hop on calls with your customers. 

Here's how to ask the right customer interview questions, with a template you can swipe and use right away.

And remember— silence is your friend. A pause after a lackluster answer can keep your customers talking and get them to tell the honest truth.

Now go forth and give a shit about your people.

🦀

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