What is Customer Experience Research

One of the best ways to increase customer loyalty is to research customer experience (CX), identify weaknesses, and use this information to improve marketing policy. 

Read on to learn the essence of such research, its advantages and challenges, and the methods used for such studies.

What Does Customer Experience Research Mean

Customer experience research is the collection of information about all customers' contact points with the product, brand, and company. According to Zendesk, in 2023, customer experience was the decisive factor in product choice for 70% of consumers. 

It is important to know that the concept of CX is much broader than UX. It includes not only online communications but also interactions through all possible channels. 

Examples of interactions include:

• communication with a company employee;
• cold calls;
• outdoor advertising;
• sponsored events;
• radio and TV ads;
• using coupons;
• contacting technical support.

Some experts also consider hidden influencers in market customer experience research—for example, rumors that arise spontaneously or as a part of a "guerrilla marketing" campaign.

Why is Customer Experience Research Important

Customer experience research is the first step to build a customer-centric marketing strategy. 

According to CX Index surveys, the choice of development strategy not only increases customer loyalty and helps to create long-term relationships with customers but also increases company profits by an average of 60%! The information collected will help you make management decisions that will positively impact your business's financial results.

By investing in customer experience market research, a company also gains the following benefits:

• Retain more customers and increase the longevity of consumer engagement. ChainStorage data shows that 49% of customers choose an alternative supplier because of a problematic CX.
• Build a loyal audience. According to Twilio statistics, 60% of online store users return for repeat purchases if they have a generally positive perception of a brand image.
• Reduce the cost of attracting new customers. According to experts at Qualtrics XM Institute, good CX increases the likelihood that customers will recommend a brand or a company to their acquaintances by 38%.
• Increase business profitability. The Emplifi report indicates that 61% of people are willing to buy a product for 5% more than the average market price if they are given a good customer experience in return.

Usernap summarized all these effects in their study and found that companies that focus on CX and choose a customer-centric marketing policy increase their revenue annually by 9% on average. Their competitors with an alternative business model performed much worse, with only a 3% annual increase.

Benefits of Customer Experience Research 

The benefits of customer experience research are not limited to management decisions that improve the financial results of a business. Read on to learn how else CX helps a company's marketing policy.

Customer satisfaction

During a customer’s journey, problems can emerge. You can significantly increase satisfaction by addressing these deficiencies with a high level of service. In turn, this will positively impact conversion rates, help build a loyal audience, and reduce the burden on the support team.

Close acquaintance with consumers

Customer experience market research involves studying patterns and scenarios of interaction with your company. By summarizing them, you can create unique customer segments by choosing specific communication strategies. This will make advertising more effective, reducing costs and increasing ROI.

Product line expansion

Many customer experience studies focus on customers’ needs, wants, and preferences. By comparing them with your current product range, you can learn what other products may interest customers and generate additional profit. This will also positively impact financial results, customer satisfaction, and loyalty.

Better brand positioning

Research often reveals that the main problem is not the quality of service itself but the difference between the expected and actual customer experience. If you position your brand as premium but offer average service, customers are unlikely to be satisfied. You can correct this by adjusting brand positioning or developing a comprehensive rebranding.

Challenges of Customer Experience Research

The main obstacle to a perfect understanding of customers is their individuality. There are no two research methods that can be identical. Even if you implement a ready-made scheme, you will have to adapt it to the specifics of a particular business. There are other challenges, too, which we will discuss in more detail.

Analysis of qualitative information

Not all data collected through customer experience research can be expressed in numbers. Sometimes, these are just answers to questions, complaints, thanks, support calls, and other forms of expression of personal opinion. 

Only small companies that deal with dozens or hundreds of consumers can process them manually. Larger businesses must invest in text analytics tools that highlight keywords, categorize communications, and even determine the urgency of issues.

Lack of communication with customers

According to Market Connections Inc., 91% of people simply change goods and services suppliers when CX is bad, without leaving complaints or contacting customer service. This is a very dangerous situation: a company not only loses a customer but also stays in an information vacuum. 

According to an article published on the Customer Think blog, many people don't leave any feedback simply because a business they deal with doesn't ask for it. Therefore, proactively collecting feedback is essential to identify problems early and retain customers. 

Using Claspo, you can conduct surveys directly on your website by placing them in pop-ups. Claspo offers many different display options so that these pop-ups are guaranteed to attract a user's attention. For example, you can display them if a user remains inactive on a page for a specific time or is about to leave the site and ask them what went wrong.

Out-of-date data

Many companies bet on customer experience research strategies that rely on numbers and qualitative data from previous periods. This is a failing strategy. 

Markets are constantly changing - new trends are emerging, unique consumption patterns are forming, and technological frameworks are expanding. Yesterday's advantage can become today's disadvantage and vice versa. To cope with this disadvantage, you must establish a system for collecting and analyzing information in real-time. Netomi, Zendesk Sunshine, Adobe Experience Manager, Sprinklr, and HubSpot can help.

ТOP-10 Customer Experience Research Methods

We have already mentioned that each company has to develop its own customer experience research methodology based on the specifics of its business. It is also essential to understand that results should not be in a vacuum - they should analyzed against other key performance indicators, periods of advertising campaign activities, and changes in marketing policy. 

The following 10 basic tools can help you learn more about interactions between customers and the company.

1. Surveys

Well-structured questionnaires allow you to assess the quality of a product, service, or customer support. They are easily quantifiable and can be used for data-driven decision-making.

2. Loyalty index (NPS)

Ask your customers a single question: "What is the probability that you will recommend our product to someone you know?". This method of customer experience research is considered the gold standard of marketing. It has been used for decades with minimal changes.

3. Interviews and focus groups

A long, meaningful conversation helps identify underlying issues you will hardly see using a superficial analysis. However, it is important to remember that the results of such research are subjective and do not always reflect the views of the entire target audience.

4. Response analysis

Analysis allows you to obtain valuable insights and statistically significant information from customer reviews. By conducting surveys with Claspo pop-ups, you can track how many visitors responded to your survey and download the results in CSV format to see the responses of each visitor individually. You can also integrate Claspo with various ESPs and CRMs to follow up with customers based on their responses.

5. Social media monitoring

Track reactions on official company pages and search for social brand mentions on other profiles. Hootsuite, Nexalogy, and Mentionlytics can help with the digital customer journey and user experience research.

6. Reputation assessment

You can determine the general attitude towards the business by analyzing the tone of appeals, comments, and communication with company employees. In an online business, natural language processing (NLP) tools are used for this purpose.

7. Analysis of customer outflow

By tracking customer paths, you can identify patterns that lead to disengagement. This allows you to find problems and pain points that significantly degrade CX.

8. Customer base segmentation

Customer experience is very subjective and differs for people from different socio-demographic groups. Therefore, it is important to relate it to the main characteristics of customers when conducting research.

9. Usability testing

Before changing a product, website, application interface, or advertising message, it is worth testing it in a closed environment. This will help reveal the most evident mistakes and assess the expected impact of the innovation on customer satisfaction.

10. Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs

This is another type of survey where consumers are asked to give honest opinions about a company to improve the quality of service. It helps transform negative reactions into a positive customer experience and, ultimately, a positive financial result.

Customer Experience Research: How Can Claspo Help You

Claspo is a simple and effective pop-up builder. Its intuitive editor, many ready-made templates, and flexible display rules allow you to create high-conversion widgets in minutes without coding or design skills. You can use it in customer experience research in the following ways:

• find out what stops users from purchasing;
• ask users about their reasons for leaving the site;
• collect feedback after the transaction is completed;
• offer to share opinions on social networks and review aggregators;
• collect contact info for interviews and focus groups.

Ready to take your marketing strategy to the next level by gaining valuable insights into your customers' experiences? Try Claspo for free, see how effective it is, and choose the plan that best suits your business.