Something all marketers try to do is make themselves and their businesses stand out from the competition. Differentiating your business is key to attracting new customers and keeping current ones coming back.?

One way to make your business stand out is to create an awesome customer experience.?

The customer experience is the interaction between a business and their customers. Many mistakenly think that the customer experience begins when the customer walks into their place of business or calls for service. But the customer experience actually begins when a potential or current customer interacts with any piece of marketing that you share.?

Think about that for a moment.?

You purchase a Facebook ad to attract new customers. When a potential customer clicks on that ad, they are interacting with your business. If the link in the ad sends them to the wrong webpage or, worse, does not work, that is a bad experience. That person is unlikely to search you out for your services, which means you lost out on a customer without even knowing about it.?

The same applies to current or past customers. If you are running a promotional campaign targeting previous or current customers and the campaign is not designed properly, you could actually turn a loyal customer into a former one.?

Designing a great customer experience starts with your marketing efforts. Let?s examine how this can be done.

Understand Your Audience

The first step in designing a customer experience is to actually understand your audience. This first step is not about their needs; we’ll get that in the next step.?

No, this first step is actually more strategic and tactical. You need to understand who your ideal customer is, where they get their information, and what types of content they will most likely engage in.?

Answering those questions will allow you to plan on which marketing channels to focus your efforts and the forms of marketing content you should develop.?

Understanding who your ideal client(s) are will allow you to speak directly to them and their needs.?

Focus on the Needs of the Customer

Focusing on the needs of your customer may be the most important step. If you are unable to address your target audience?s most important needs, chances are that you won?t even give potential customers the opportunity to discover you because you are not doing what is necessary to earn their attention.?

Addressing the needs of your audience is how you get them to stop what they are doing and pay attention to you. As you design the experience you would like your audience to have, make sure that you are focused on solving their problems.

Doing this will ensure a greater likelihood that your audience not only takes notice, but also takes action.?

Understand Your Mission

Next, you want to make sure that you understand what you are trying to accomplish as an organization. What are your goals? What sets you apart from your competition?

As we mentioned above, designing an exceptional customer experience is part of making your business stand out from your competitors. But how else do you stand out? What do your customers get from you that they cannot get elsewhere??

These details will help you stay on track while creating content that is authentic to your brand and allows your audience to better connect with your organization.?

Work Backward

You may find it hard to know where to start. That is okay.?

If you?re finding it difficult to begin, work backwards from the sale. After all, that is where you ultimately want to be.?

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the process for closing a sale?
• How was the sale closed? (by a salesperson, online shopping cart, etc.)
• What information is key to closing a sale?
• How many touch points do you think it will take to get a person from discovery to sale?
• How will a person get into the funnel?

These are just some basic questions to get you started. Based on your situation, they may or may not apply to you. What other questions might??

The point of this exercise is for you to envision the path your customers will take from discovery to sale and making that path as smooth as possible.?

Customer Service is Key

Delivering excellent customer service is essential to making your current and potential customers feel comfortable with your brand and organization.

As you design your customer experience, detail potential touchpoints where a customer may have a question. You can set up automated responses using chatbots or auto-responder emails. Or you can actually have a live person available to address any questions or concerns.?

Whatever your solution is, you must design it to move the potential customer down the funnel.?

Act on Customer Feedback

Finally, make sure to listen to your customers. If you see or hear customers express concerns or flat out complain about a part of the process, then you must decide what, if any, actions need to be taken.

Remember, the whole point of this exercise is to create a great experience for your CUSTOMERS. If they do not like a part of the experience, you have to address their concerns.?

The great thing about designing an awesome customer experience is that you are giving your customers a taste of what they can expect from your services and products. No matter your business, you can craft an exceptional experience via your marketing efforts that will leave your audience wanting more. Most importantly, they are more likely to share an experience like that with their friends and family.