{"id":1596,"date":"2013-02-10T15:40:06","date_gmt":"2013-02-10T15:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/csm210469\/?p=1596"},"modified":"2022-10-21T16:23:28","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T16:23:28","slug":"customer-service-roi-the-financial-impact-of-customer-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/customer-service-roi-the-financial-impact-of-customer-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer Service ROI: The Financial Impact of the Customer Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019d like to have a better return on your money, you have to focus on the customer experience. If you do, customers will spend money with you and will come back more often.<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Customer\n

If your company thinks “customer service” is limited to greeting a customer and dealing with their complaints, you\u2019re missing the big picture — and tremendous profits.<\/p>\n

The reason most companies are weak on customer services is because they don\u2019t understand the financial impact a strategic customer service plan can have on the bottom line.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake about it: The customer experience is the one true way you can dominate the market, crush your competitors and have money flow from the sky.<\/p>\n

It is the only strategic weapon that cannot be copied \u2013 and you\u2019ll have a 10-year lead time before your competitors figure out how to duplicate your success.<\/p>\n

For example, many companies overlook customer service and take the easy way out. They might discount their product by 50 percent for the month. But their competitors will copy that within hours or days.<\/p>\n

If you have a new store design that works, your competitors will copy that within 12 months.<\/p>\n

But if you have a strategic customer service plan, you can dominate your competitors for years to come. The customer service strategy is the only tool you can use to dramatically undermine your competition and create a brand that is hard to compete against.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the numbers:<\/p>\n

\"appleAmazon is ranked number 1 in customer satisfaction. Company president Jeff Bezos is obsessed with customer service. That\u2019s one reason the company had a 27 percent increase in sales last year.<\/p>\n

Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world, not just because they have great products, but because they created a great customer experience.<\/p>\n

Their products and technology might be under attack from competitors, but they lead every retailer in sales per square foot. The average sales per square foot is dramatically larger than other retailers. The average Apple store sells $7,000 per square foot. Compare that to JCPenny\u2019s $156 per square foot, Macy\u2019s $171 per square foot and Kohl\u2019s $194 per square foot.<\/p>\n

In fact, Apple\u2019s store on Fifth Avenue in New York generates an astounding $35,000 per square foot – the highest in the world! Some people joke it is harder to get a job at that Apple store than it is to get into Harvard.<\/p>\n

Apple understands the customer experience. Everything in the store is built around the customer experience. They make it easy to buy. A sales associate has an iPad to check you in, track you and capture your name. They use the technology. They don\u2019t have a cash register.<\/p>\n

They slide a credit card onto the iPhone. They email the receipt to the customer. They get technology.<\/p>\n

Apple faces competition on products, but they are light years ahead of their competitors on customer experience.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another way to look at how customer service impacts the financial well-being of a company.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at stock price as a metric to show the true value of the customer service experience.<\/p>\n

If you invested $1,000 in Amazon in May 2003, you\u2019d have $9,129!<\/p>\n

If you invested $1000 in Costco, you\u2019d have $3,838. But if you invested in their direct competitor Sam\u2019s Club, owned by WalMart, you\u2019d have only $1,569.<\/p>\n

What do these companies have in common?<\/p>\n

They provide an exceptional customer experience.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, most companies don\u2019t look at customer service as a strategic issue. The few companies that do might focus on it for 60 days or maybe 6 months.<\/p>\n

That won\u2019t cut it.<\/p>\n

Creating and implementing a customer service strategic plan that increases sales requires focus by top management.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to have a better return on your money, you have to focus on the customer experience. If you do, customers will spend money with you and will come back more often.<\/p>\n

If you want to lead the market, outshine your competitors and reap financial rewards, then you must create a strategic plan to improve your customer service and enhance the customer experience.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Tschohl, the internationally recognized service strategist, is founder and president of the Service Quality Institute<\/a> in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Described by USA Today, Time, and Entrepreneur as “customer service guru,” he has written several books on customer service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019d like to have a better return on your money, you have to focus on the customer experience. If you do, customers will spend money with you and will come back more often.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[138],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1596"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36057,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions\/36057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}