Today’s customers are increasingly powerful thanks to the internet. It’s easier for a single voice to influence thousands or millions of people. If your customer is dissatisfied, they can quickly switch to a competing brand — and tell all their friends on social media about it.

The companies that will thrive in these uncertain times will do more than just sell products. They will deliver exciting and satisfying customer experiences. As companies compete, the ones that are best at this will stand out and win repeat customers, loyalty, and word-of-mouth advertising.

How will you build your customer experience strategy for the rest of 2020? Here are five ways that we at Trustpilot think about it.

1. A Superior Customer Experience Is a Competitive Advantage

In a globalized marketplace, many brands try their hardest to improve customer satisfaction and do this a little better than their competitors. Not doing so would leave your brand behind.

How can you compete and pull ahead of other brands? There are many points of interaction during your customers’ journey that are slightly different than what your competitors have — and that you can improve to create a unique customer experience that other brands can’t duplicate.

Gather feedback and reviews from both satisfied and dissatisfied customers, then consistently work on improving each area of your business to show:

• Dependability and accuracy
• Authenticity
• Responsiveness to customers’ needs

2. Great Experiences Lead to Customer Retention

You’ve heard that it costs a lot more to find a new customer than to just serve and retain an existing one. But how do you actually do that?

Focus on improving the customer experience that you deliver. It can become your best asset, along with the repeat customers and dependable revenue it brings in.

If you currently have a high rate of customers who only buy from you once, you can:

• Gather more feedback from all your customers
• Pay attention to reviews on Trustpilot and other third-party review websites
• Start answering every review with either a thank you or courteous solutions to the customer’s challenge (no matter how rude a customer might seem at first)

Professional, polite dialogue and better customer service are facets of the customer experience that you can improve almost immediately.

3. Satisfied Customers Become Your Allies

How much do you trust advertisers to tell you the whole truth? How much does anyone trust marketing? In contrast to what you say about yourself, social proof is especially powerful today. Use it by:

• Building memorable and buzz-worthy customer experiences
• Encouraging your customers to write reviews and social media posts for you

Brainstorm creative ways to make this fun for customers. For example, they could win prizes by posting social media pictures of themselves using your products. Participants will cement their loyalty to your brand while attracting prospects into your excellent customer experience process.

4. Prospects Are Looking for a Great Experience

Our Trustpilot clients have found that consumers read reviews to:

• Evaluate the quality of products and services AND
• Find exciting customer experiences

Some of the best Trustpilot reviews feature stories about:

• Brands over-delivering on customer expectations
• The ease of buying from or interacting with a brand
• A company’s quick response to solve a product problem

When a prospect is choosing between two similarly-rated products, he will usually pick the brand that is known to have a better customer experience.

The Power of Reviews

If you’ve worked hard to satisfy customers at multiple stages of their journey with you, make sure that prospects know about it. Encourage your customers to write reviews and social media posts about you.

Dialogue with your customers. Solve their problems. Build trusting relationships that will get your brand through both good and bad times. You’ll be very satisfied with the results.