Improving Customer Experience with an Advisory Board

A customer advisory board provides your company with valuable information that can overhaul how you do business. The experiences they have can overhaul their relationship with you, as significant improvements can be seen when you listen and apply their ideas to your business model. Numerous surveys support this conclusion, one of the more exciting revenue areas, can be gained from listening to customers. 

Most companies begin with online surveys, however it can be argued that an advisory board that adds input about how your customers can help you, is far more preferable.

Using your Customers Opinions

Using customer opinion in your organization’s strategy is valuable. Most executives agree with this however they often find difficulty in getting it started leading to the initiative never happening. Common excuses for this include “we know what our customers think” and “ we’re far too busy to implement something like that”.

Though it can be said you have a good idea of what your customers like and dislike, and your organization may have a lot of work that needs to be completed. However, everyone has a lot of work that needs to be done, your customers included. These excuses are exactly the reason why your organization needs to take a closer look at the following article.

When companies think of crucial areas where they can compete, they usually focus on product features, price, and customer experience.  You can continue your same pattern of dedication to product and service, guessing at promotional and pressure around your pricing. Or you can customize your customer experience to align enhancements and ensure customer loyalty. Organizations that genuinely understand their customers needs are organizations who are successful.

Creating a Roadmap

When you analyze your customer experience do it broadly. You will want to cover these four critical phases:

Awareness- Customers may know nothing about you then suddenly they do, once customers become aware of you they may begin progressing towards you, or alternatively they may detract.

Buy- The next phase involves the customer being interested in you. They might be on your website, you may not be exactly sure about why there taking interest in you, but they are. They continue to learn what they like or what they do not like about organization.

Tryout – They try your product, this phase naturally gets the most focus due to the company’s effort to experience what happens.

Support – they decide if they want to continue using your product. At this point they may form an emotional attachment, indifference or a resistance to work with your organization again.

Forming a Customer Advisory Board

Creating this board allows your organization to review, evaluate, and get vital feedback on all the aforementioned points. Ideally you will also learn more about certain points that may have sealed or harmed their overall experience. This may board may also teach your organization more about other themes present in the industry, that certain customers may know that your organization may not. Your goal is to get direct feedback on how they see the company going in the future and if we fulfill their specific needs.

When done properly this advisory board can help guide your company, and will give valuable insight for your marketing efforts, furthermore it will cement a loyal customer base. Accomplishing these insights is extremely helpful. When planning do those three things even if you are burdened with tasks, the customer experience is well worth the expense.