How Your Business Can Master the Customer Experience

Successfully mastering the customer experience can make a business of any size stand out amongst its competitors. As more businesses look to create the best customer experience possible, consumers have come to expect an elevated level of service and won’t settle for less.

During a Start. Run. Grow. session hosted by CO— by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, industry leaders discussed what an innovative customer experience looks like. Roy Rivera, the CEO of Crom Rehabilitation, Barry Moltz, a small business expert at Shafran Moltz Group LLC, and Saeju Jeong, the CEO and Co-Founder of Noom, discussed how they are elevating their customers’ experiences.

Create an Emotional Experience for Your Clients

Rivera started his outpatient physical therapy practice, which prides itself on creating a positive customer experience, after leaving his job within a large hospital system — taking with him notes on the ideal customer experience. 

“A great customer experience is from the moment of engagement … all the way to the very end,” Rivera said. “Having a consistent flow and follow-through throughout all of the cogs in your system is going to be critical to having a good customer service experience.”

Rivera explained his practice, which recently won the 2022 Dream Big LGBTQ-Owned Business Achievement Award, goes above and beyond for each client to ensure they feel like they matter – rather than being just another transaction.

“Whether you play a role that is custodial, administrative, or clinical, there’s an opportunity to engage with the client beyond just the basic ... business interaction,” Rivera said. “If it's just a transaction, that's where you lose your customers or clients because they can go somewhere else.”

Personalize Each Customer’s Experience to Establish Long-Standing Relationships With Clients

While oftentimes larger businesses have the upper hand, Moltz sees the advantages available to small businesses. 

“If you can form a personal relationship with the customer, then you're going to be able to retain them,” Moltz said. 

Small businesses have the opportunity to individualize their service to retain customers in a way larger businesses can’t. With technological help, Moltz believes businesses can benefit from integrating customer relationship management (CRM) software into their workflow. 

“Technology is there to … put your notes in about what the last contact with the customer was, and then also to automatically send texts or emails so you stay in touch with them,” he explained. “Too many people are so focused on getting new customers in the front door that they forget about their existing customers, [who] escape through the back door.”

However, he warns a CRM is only beneficial to small business owners who choose one based on their size and needs. 

“If you spend a small amount of time setting up the processes within your business, it's going to pay off in the long run,” Moltz said.

Guide Your Customers and Be Willing to Learn From Them 

Jeong has taken time to understand his clients and improve the customer experience — becoming customer-obsessed in the process. As a leader in the weight management industry, Noom found its distinguished value by guiding customers and changing behaviors through the four pillars of lifestyle: diet, exercise, stress management, and sleep.

“We guide our users to learn about ‘why,’ and we provide ‘how,’” Jeong said. “To get there, we provide psychology, behavior change approach, … a lot of technology, … [and] passionate, empathetic human coaches right there to guide our end users.” 

However, the path to success hasn’t been easy for Noom — Jeong and his team dealt with much trial and error. However, by understanding that things don’t always work out, he has gained insight from his customers’ feedback and learned from their interactions — making improvements to and changing his product as necessary.

“If the customer contacts us … they are so charged with emotion,” Jeong said. “Either they're happy or unhappy, and they have a lot to say about our product experience. Whether good or bad …  it is an excellent opportunity [to] learn from our user.”