The Correlation with Customer Experience and Profit

by Anna Farmery

Peer Insight did a 3 year study of 40 Fortune 500 companies – the results show that companies that focused upon customer experience design outperformed the S&P 500 by a 10-1 margin from 2000 to 2005.

The test would be whether these companies are STILL focused on customer experience. For instance, I love Amazon…they took the pain out of much of my shopping for me….last night I tried to order some stuff ready for Xmas. Order process great…but delivery for products in stock, ordered now…Dec15? What??…if they are in stock why would the delivery be so long…large order canceled as the delivery date is far too near Xmas. This is now the 3rd time I have canceled orders based on the delivery dates they have given me in the last 3 months. Amazon was the ultimate experience for me…but over the last months the delivery element is falling way behind my expectations.

My customer experience is on the decline and it reminds me of something my maverick Uncle used to say…my Uncle was a multi-millionaire several times….bankrupt several times!!!…he said “Anna, it is easy making a million, hard part is holding on to it”

When a brand connects with their customer, that in some ways is the easy part, the hard part is keeping the customer at the centre after the success/profits comes flooding in. Success can breed complacency, success can breed arrogance.

I was once in a meeting with a marketing person who said “The customer feedback is irrelevant, they don’t understand marketing”

I would argue …that marketer is irrelevant, as they don’t understand customers!

This article was originally posted on The Engaging Brand and is licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 license.