Category Archive : Service

Building a customer experience strategy is about more than just meeting user expectations. Instead, it focuses on creating memorable interactions at every touchpoint. This helps users find value in your product or service — and ultimately, helps them become loyal customers.

It’s not easy creating a customer experience strategy, however, and you can quickly grow overwhelmed with so many moving parts. In my experience, breaking it down into necessary elements can make developing your strategy feel more digestible.

Download Now: Free Customer Journey Map Templates

I’m here to help you learn what building out your CX strategy entails, plus customer experience strategy best practices, and how to create it.

Table of Contents

What Is a Customer Experience Strategy?

So, what is customer experience management strategy? I’m glad you asked. Your customer experience strategy is an actionable plan to deliver a positive, meaningful experience across all touchpoints between your customers and your brand.

A successful customer experience strategy should take into account several important factors, such as:

  • Competitive insight.
  • Consumer research.
  • Marketplace data.
  • Mission and vision.

When defining your customer experience strategy, include all departments, not just those in customer-facing roles. By incorporating feedback and insight across the company, you’ll find it easier to align the organization around the intended goal: Improving the customer experience and relationship.

 Customer experience strategy

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Pro tip: Check out HubSpot’s collection of customer experience tools.

Why Is Customer Experience Strategy Important?

I’ve seen organizations make the mistake of believing that customer experience strategy is only relevant for customer-centric roles. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Customer experience impacts a company’s brand, operations, and financials. Here are three key benefits a customer experience strategy brings to the table.

1. Higher Loyalty, Lower Churn

Research shows that 54% of consumers would stop using a brand after just one negative experience. The worse a customer feels about your brand, the more likely they are to jump ship. McKinsey recounts the tale of one of its clients in the telecommunications industry: When it overhauled its customer experience, it cut churn rates by 75%.

2. Higher Revenue

This math isn’t hard, even for me. Longer-lasting customers and less churn equals more revenue. If you operate in an industry with a high customer lifetime value (CLV), one mistake could cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Instead, companies with high customer experience double their revenue growth, according to McKinsey. This isn’t an overnight solution — it can take five or more years of consistent excellence to have a dramatic effect. But the evidence is clear. Consumers are willing to pay more for products or services with a good experience and are also 15-25% more receptive to cross-selling.

 Benefits of a customer experience strategy

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3. Brand Advocacy

Finally, customers who have a good experience are more likely to share on social media or word of mouth about your brand. CX professionals often measure this through the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which asks customers how likely they are to recommend a product or service. Those who had a good experience become promoters and contribute to a positive brand reputation and growth.

You can design your customer experience strategy practically by making a matrix of the state of your current customer journey. Use the template below to get started, and follow along with the rest of this post to complete it.

Featured Resource: Customer Experience Mapping Template

 Customer experience strategy template

Download this Template

Elements of a Customer Experience Strategy

Before I delve into my top tips on how to create a customer experience strategy, I want to share key elements that contribute to a well-rounded CX strategy.

1. Review your current customer service metrics.

Start by reviewing your company‘s customer support baseline. The goal is to determine what’s working well for your business and where you can improve.

If you‘re unsure where to start, try checking your company’s help desk ticket data or call center data for key success metrics such as NPS, customer satisfaction score, and churn rate. If you’re scoring below expectations, dig deeper into the problem and figure out where exactly things are turning sour for your customers.

What I like: Looking at the data gives you firm, objective ground from which to start building (or re-building) your CX strategy.

2. Create a customer journey map.

Another crucial element of your customer experience strategy is a customer journey map. A customer journey map outlines all of the interactions between a customer and your business, including any pain points they encounter along the way. In my experience, this resource not only helps you identify friction within your customer experience, but helps you see how to improve it. It’s also useful to gain internal buy-in.

“A customer journey map is a tool in your toolkit as a CX leader to gain that customer understanding,” explains Jeannie Walters, CEO of Experience Investigator.

“But within your organization, it‘s also a way to invite various leaders to participate, to get them to really understand what’s happening. Journey mapping is a verb, not a noun. This is an action you take to get the insights to move forward.”

Pro tip: Check out examples and templates of customer journey maps for inspiration.

3. Train your customer service staff.

Once you know where you need to improve, the next step is sharing that information with your team and training your staff on new protocols. I know it‘s never fun letting your team know they’re falling short of expectations, especially when other groups in your department are hitting their numbers.

However, transparency reduces pushback against new policies and will encourage reps to improve their performance in the future.

Best for: Employee training has many benefits, including high engagement, great customer service, and more. You can even incentivize employee training.

4. Determine your customers’ expectations.

Some customer expectations are predictable. For instance, your customers will always expect your team to be reliable and have a positive attitude. In addition to this, however, most customers will have multiple needs. In order to meet these needs, it’s essential that your team is flexible.

In some cases, it may be imperative to provide a speedy response. At other times, quality and clarity of support means more. It all depends on how the customer feels when they reach out to your business and how well your team can identify and adapt to their needs.

5. Solve for the customer.

An effective customer experience strategy focuses on solving problems for the customer, whether those problems are anticipated or unexpected.

Customer success teams play a critical role in creating a frictionless customer experience. Not only do they plan for problems down the road but they also check in with customers routinely to ensure everything is going well post-purchase. In my experience, this proactive customer service reduces churn and strengthens your team’s relationship with your customer base.

6. Provide self-service solutions.

Rather than requiring people to call your business whenever they need help, customers should be free to answer questions and solve problems independently with a self-serve support setup.

Self-service tools like knowledge bases and chatbots make it easier for customers to find solutions and reduce case volume for your reps. That saves your team some time to focus on the more complex issues requiring more troubleshooting expertise.

Best for: Fielding customer questions at all times, especially addressing simple, frequently asked questions so your team can focus on more complex customer requests.

7. Routinely collect feedback.

If you want to truly understand what your customers want from your business, you have to ask and — more importantly — listen to them. Your customers are more likely to leave you a review if you ask at the right time, but you must take this feedback into genuine consideration and apply it to your strategy.

I also recommend you routinely collect feedback from your customers. Their needs change constantly, making it important to keep up-to-date information. Use an automated tool like HubSpot’s Customer Feedback software to collect feedback at critical touchpoints in your customer experience.

customer experience strategy: customer experience strategy best practices

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8. Track your team’s performance.

If you get complacent with your customer experience strategy, competitors in your industry will catch up and lure away your customers when you aren’t paying attention. The strategy that works this year may not work in future years as trends and consumer preferences change. Build in feedback to your post-purchase flows and incentivize customers to give feedback so you can track your performance over time.

How to Create a Customer Experience Strategy

Ready to build your customer experience strategy from the ground up? I’ll help you break down the five essential steps to create a frictionless customer experience.

Customer experience design is the process of designing a frictionless experience for the customer anytime they interact with a point of contact at an organization. It centers around improving processes that meet customers’ expectations and are easy and intuitive for them to follow and solve their problems.

1. Create empathy maps for each customer persona.

Every product design process starts with the question, “Who are we designing for?” Turns out, it’s a great starting point for your CX strategy as well.

To chalk out an airtight CX plan, I recommend starting with an empathy map to understand your users. Each persona will have different needs and use cases. An in-depth assessment of these personas will reveal their desires, fears, and expectations.

“Empathy maps are a visualization that capture and communicate our understanding of a set of users,” shared Kate Kaplan, Insights Architect for Nielsen Norman Group. “There’s a traditional structure to empathy maps: four quadrants that capture what the user says, thinks, feels, and does.”

 Use an empathy map matrix for your cx strategy

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Through qualitative or quantitative means, capture your customers’ thoughts and emotions around your brand and product/service.

Conduct user interviews, listening sessions, and surveys to get a pulse of different personas. Translate your research inputs into the empathy map canvas.

Best for: The insights derived from empathy mapping can help in identifying and prioritizing user needs. I suggest creating cross-functional workflows for the design, product, and customer success teams to collaborate on using these insights to improve the CX.

2. Review your customer journey map and identify user needs.

Once you’ve mapped the ideal customer journey, analyze it properly to identify opportunities for enhancing your CX strategy.

Look for points of friction or areas where customer expectations aren‘t fulfilled. I also recommend checking if there’s scope for reducing unnecessary touchpoints to simplify your customer experience. Evaluating the time spent in different stages of the journey is crucial for streamlining the CX plan.

Most importantly, in my opinion, you need to find the crucial moments of truth in the customer journey — when users form a perception of your brand. These are the make-or-break moments in your CX. Optimize them to eliminate potential issues.

Lastly, assess all the transitions within your product when users change settings or switch devices. You’ll want to close the gap to make these transitions seamless.

3. Collect early feedback to make your CX airtight.

Creating and fine-tuning your customer experience strategy is an ongoing process. But one way I’ve found to set solid foundations for your CX strategy is by implementing user feedback early in the process.

Embrace an iterative approach to building your customer experience and involve beta users to test your progress. Encourage and incentivize transparent feedback to make sure you’re moving forward in the right direction of creating a delightful CX.

Here are a few ways to collect feedback early on:

  • Set up automated email behavior-based triggers for beta users to share feedback after every crucial touchpoint.
  • Create focus groups to get qualitative, in-depth feedback on the most critical elements of your CX flow.
  • Use heatmapping tools to monitor in-app user behavior and find blockers, aha moments, and other insights.
  • Add micro surveys within the product to collect quantitative or subjective feedback about different aspects.

The bottom line is that it’s always better to modify your customer experience design as long as it takes your team to create the perfect one instead of deploying a problematic CX flow that frustrates users.

4. Design workflows to quickly iterate the experience.

Given that your CX flow will change constantly, it’s important to set up systems to implement these changes quickly.

I recommend creating smooth workflows to maximize collaboration between all involved stakeholders and speed up the process. Leverage automation and AI tools to streamline the change management part of your customer experience strategy. This will also empower your team to spread enhancements at scale.

I think another critical step here is creating a culture of CX excellence. Train your employees to stay on top of customer expectations, present ideas for improvement, and drive innovation in product development. Enable your employees to support your customers.

Pro tip: Check out these AI tools for customer service to see if any can fit into your tech stack.

5. Track the effectiveness of your CX efforts.

Building a CX strategy isn’t a one-and-done process. You have to constantly measure the ROI of your customer experience and shift gears when necessary.

As you gather insights, I find it best to connect them back to your overarching strategy.

“A lot of customer experience programs actually started with a measurement program or a feedback program, but they weren’t connected to that bigger strategy,” shares Walters. “This isn’t just setting up a customer feedback program or a day in the life of the customer. All of that is great, but it has to be tied back to the strategy.”

Customer success managers can collaborate with marketing and product teams to analyze user behavior, both within and outside the product. Not sure how you can find relevant insights about your customers? HubSpot’s Customer Journey Analytics platform is just the solution you need.

 HubSpot customer journey analytics

With this tool, you‘ll get granular visibility into the entire customer journey with real-time data on which campaigns or touchpoints are driving revenue. This data can also help you make smarter decisions — whether it’s for timing different aspects of your CX or for identifying the most crucial touchpoints.

To help you define a comprehensive, cohesive customer experience strategy, I’ll help you explore some of the best practices to keep in mind for your business.

1. Reach your target audience.

Business communication plays a major role in shaping your customers‘ experience. If you’re not meeting customers where they are, you‘re missing out on an opportunity to engage them when they’re most interested or in need of help.

In my experience, to succeed in this area of customer experience means your business must first determine which channels your customers are most active on so you can adapt your approach and serve them there.

From there, it’s crucial to familiarize yourself with the channel — social, email, live chat, or something similar. Ask yourself: How are my customers communicating on this channel already? And how can I use this information to make my outreach feel more organic?

Reachability, in my opinion, can serve as a helpful competitive advantage if you execute it properly. It‘s important that your business has a handle on your customers’ preferred channels and is providing reliable, consistent service through them.

2. Offer convenient customer service.

As customers become more empowered to discover solutions and information on their own via the internet and social media, the demand for increased service convenience grows. For businesses to remain in good standing with customers, they must prioritize start-to-finish online support.

Think about it: If a customer has a question on the weekend, why should they have to wait until Monday to reach out? Do you have a 24/7 live chat feature enabled to meet their Saturday needs? If you don‘t, you’re making a mistake.

I think something as simple as having a polished, up-to-date knowledge base makes all the difference in allowing customers to help themselves without needing to reach out to your team.

 Benefits of self-service in your customer experience strategy,

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3. Be consistent in your customer service activities.

Customers are interested in building trust with the companies they do business with. Building trust requires consistency in your processes, policies, and actions from every team that influences the customer experience.

To help cultivate this culture of trust with your customers, I recommend you double-check that policies are up-to-date, reasonable, and carried out consistently across every scenario and buyer persona. (If you need help developing your buyer persona, you can use HubSpot’s free tool to do so.) You don’t want to have a situation where something like a return or exchange causes friction with your customers, making it difficult for them to make a purchase in the future.

4. Refine products and services based on customer feedback.

No matter how much work goes into perfecting the back end of your customer experience, it’s important to remember that customers ultimately bought a product or service from your company. As a result, they expect it to be valuable and high-quality.

Refine your products and services based on customer feedback provided by an NPS survey, focus groups, or one-on-one customer calls. Solving the root of the issue with a product or service you sell can create a better customer experience overall. It doesn‘t matter how outstanding your customer experience strategy is if your product isn’t functional.

 Net promoter score (NPS) for customer experience

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5. Provide convenience when purchasing products.

I think Nordstrom, a luxury department store known for its impeccable service, is a great example of offering customer experience tools aimed at improving purchasing convenience. Nordstrom allows their shoppers to order clothing with either curbside or in-store pickup.

It also notifies customers via optional texts, email, or store app notifications when their order is ready for pickup. Shoppers don’t have to wait and guess when their order is prepared. Instead, they provide a quick-and-easy — and ultimately, painless — customer experience.

 customer experience strategy, pick up your way example from Nordstrom

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This system solves convenience by allowing customers to try on clothes when and where it’s convenient for them. I like that it also gets people in the store, exposing them to thousands of other products they might be interested in purchasing.

But this is just one example of how your brand can leverage and invest in purchasing convenience as part of a customer experience strategy. Something as simple as having accurate pricing and packaging information on your website can effectively eliminate purchasing friction.

At the end of the day, you don’t want to make it difficult for people to give you their money.

6. Create in-person & digital personalization.

Another thing that Nordstrom is using its new customer experience tool for? Data.

By learning about location and style preferences through the Nordstrom Reserve Online & Try On In-Store program, the retailer can incorporate personalization in a scalable way. And customers love personalization.

To provide the best possible customer experience, businesses should collect information throughout the customer relationship that can be used to provide relevant suggestions or more informed support in the future.

In the eyes of the customer, personalization (when done right) can serve as a sign of respect for their loyalty and business. It also signals that your business is interested in strengthening the relationship by continuously working to provide better service, suggestions, support, etc.

While there are many avenues for collecting and leveraging customer data, I think a simple solution such as a shared inbox for your customer success or service department is a great first step. By creating a transparent, universal space where folks can turn up past customer conversations or requests, you’re laying the foundation for more contextual communication and outreach.

7. Focus on simplicity & ease of use.

Ever landed on a website that was a disaster to navigate on mobile? I have, and if you‘re anything like me, you didn’t stick around for very long.

Back in 2015, mobile internet use passed desktop use for the very first time. Since then, mobile usage continues to grow, making mobile optimization a high priority for businesses looking to provide a simple and seamless experience for customers and potential buyers.

In an effort to amp up your business‘s ease of use, I recommend focusing on simplifying website navigation for all browser types. After all, you can’t expect customers to wait until they get to a desktop to uncover the information they need, right?

A great example I’d like to reference here is Amazon. In my opinion, Amazon embodies simplicity and ease of use in its checkout process by enabling Amazon Prime members to buy an item with just one click:

 customer experience strategy, buy now with one click

Even more importantly, it also offers a quick and easy way to uncover product info and answers to common purchasing questions within the same screen:

 Amazon Alexa AI assistant for customer experience

Pro tip: If you need examples of outstanding mobile websites, I’ve got you covered. And if you need help figuring out how to optimize your website for mobile users, I’ve got you covered there, too.

8. Review the flexibility of your communication channels.

When thinking about your approach to channel flexibility, I think “omni-channel” is the term to keep in mind.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, omni-channel is defined as an approach that provides customers with an integrated, seamless experience — even when moving from desktop to mobile or a social media channel to live support.

In an omni-channel world, the customer experience should be the same across platforms and channels — and it should contain proper context when applicable.

If you‘re looking to streamline channel flexibility as a key part of your customer experience strategy, get your team together to talk about what you want the customer experience to look, feel, and sound like across all channels. From there, you’ll have the common ground you need to begin employing a more fluid, contextual experience.

9. Use automation and AI.

No business wants its service to feel robotic. But the truth is, as your business grows its customer base, it will be more difficult to provide the same personalized service that you did when you were only managing a handful of customers. That‘s not to say keeping your standards up is impossible, just that you’ll just need a little help. Luckily, artificial intelligence (AI) can help.

When used correctly, I think AI features add tremendous value to the customer experience and create incredible convenience for your customer support team. Our State of Service Report found that 75% of service leaders already use AI, and 83% say it makes it easier to respond to service requests.

For instance, a chatbot can field customer inquiries on your website when your agents are away. Even if the bot just redirects customers to your knowledge base, it still points them toward a potential solution and allows your company to be accessible 24/7.

AI can also help customer service and support reps to be more effective. In the HubSpot Service Hub, for instance, the software can summarize your voice conversation with suggested action points and allow you to tag a teammate.

Pro tip: HubSpot offers an AI-powered tool called ChatSpot which is free AI-powered assistant to help supercharge your work.

 customer experience strategy, lead qualifying bot

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10. Be proactive.

Proactive customer service doesn‘t just have to be the responsibility of your customer success team. Instead, everyone at your business can play a role in the customer’s experience after they purchase a product.

For customer service teams, reps can alert the customer success manager (CSM) if someone has reached out multiple times with complaints. Rather than expecting the CSM to spot this individual on their own, frontline reps can easily look at the customer‘s ticket history and recognize whether or not they’ve had continued issues with your brand.

11. Engage in social listening.

What better way to learn about the customer experience than from their own social media?

Social listening is the monitoring of your brand’s social platform presence for direct mentions of your business. It can be used to observe trending topics in your industry, your competitors’ behavior, and hear if your customers’ needs are being fulfilled.

Using websites like Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and more, you‘ll see what customers have to say about your company. I’ve found that if you’re attentive enough, you can discover the pain points in the customer journey and other insights that can positively impact the customer experience. You can also choose from several tools to track direct brand mentions for your business.

 customer experience strategy, purposes of social listening

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12. Invest in team training and culture.

Employee training shouldn’t be a one-and-done part of their onboarding. Instead, I think it should happen routinely to make sure your staff is equipped to exceed expectations.

First, start with your culture by giving your employees the same stellar experience as you do your customers.

“We want to embed customer experience throughout the employee journey, blending our CX mission and messaging into the entire journey. If we can connect a great customer experience with an empowered and engaging employee experience, then everybody wins,” says Walters.

“Connecting a great customer experience with an empowered and engaging employee experience creates a virtuous cycle where everybody’s happy.”

I know it’s important to offer knowledge training about your product, but what about preparing them for the face-to-face customer experience? Routine team training can look like conducting role-play scenarios or simulations to see how each employee treats potential customers in different situations. Some role-play scenarios include:

  • Observing how they greet a customer.
  • Solving a unique problem for a customer.
  • Informing or guiding the customer through different options.

What I like: Role-play training workshops give employees a chance to critique each other on what they’ve done well and where they can improve in their communication, attitude, and presentation of your product/service.

How to Measure Your Customer Experience Strategy

Building an excellent CX flow isn’t a game of guesswork or intuition. You have to strategically measure the impact of your customer experience strategy and make enhancements based on data-backed evidence.

That’s why you have to track how users are interacting with your product and analyze the effectiveness of your customer experience. Here are a few essential metrics to achieve this:

  • Customer satisfaction score. Track this as it helps gauge users’ satisfaction with your product and the quality of support.
  • Customer effort score. To assess how difficult or easy it is for new users to navigate your product.
  • Customer lifetime value. To calculate the value you can gain from a customer on average.
  • Retention rate. To measure how many customers will continue using your product.
  • Support tickets. To assess the issues users commonly struggle with.

Tracking these core CX metrics gives you a pulse of your customers and flags any gaps you need to address in your experience.

Quick Tips for Optimizing Your Customer Experience Strategy

You‘ve done the legwork to create a great customer experience. But as user needs evolve, you’ll have to invest more effort in optimizing this CX flow. Constantly evolving your strategy ensures your CX is aligned with expectations.

To optimize your CX, I recommend you establish feedback loops to regularly collect input from users. Whether it’s minor bugs or major inefficiencies in your product, give users a space to share their candid feedback whenever they want.

On top of this, you can also connect with power users to understand how your product is helping them achieve their goals. Use this conversation to identify pain points within the platform and map the scope for improvement.

Finally, remember to pay close attention to user sessions to find real-time insights on where users get stuck or feel confused.

These few tactics will give you much to work with to optimize your customer experience. Work with the design, engineering, and customer service team to eliminate all roadblocks and create a frictionless flow.

Customer Experience Strategy Is a Long-term Play

Rome wasn‘t built in a day — and you shouldn’t expect your customer experience strategy to be either.

My advice? Work on defining and streamlining your customer experience design, but do so under the notion that things will need to evolve as your business and customer base grows.

I’ve discovered that as I learn what it means to communicate with customers on their terms and collect data along the way, I find it’s easier to make informed decisions about my overall customer experience strategy. I hope you discover this, too!

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The 2000s and 2010s were a great time to sell products and services online. Few people know this about me, but I used to sell handmade jewelry through eBay, which helped put me through university.

Back then, there were really only two customer requirements: I needed to guarantee the pieces were unique and provide fast delivery. I wouldn’t have to attract leads. They would find me themselves, send me a quick message, and click “buy.” The competition for certain services and products was so slim — or even non-existent.

This is so different from what I’m seeing today as a full-time freelance marketer. It takes weeks, if not months, to acquire new customers. And you have to be very persistent (and creative) to find and convince leads to choose you over others.

Download Now: Free Customer Journey Map Templates

To win in today’s market, you need all decisions to be well-thought-out — and that’s what creating a customer acquisition funnel will help you with.

Table of Contents

What is a customer acquisition funnel?

A customer acquisition funnel is a path that a potential client goes through from learning about a company’s product or service to becoming (and, ideally, staying) a customer.

It has four main stages: awareness, consideration, conversion, and retention, which I discuss further in this article. By knowing which phase a potential client is in, companies can tailor their marketing strategies, sales processes, and communication tone accordingly.

The reason why it’s called a funnel is because it resembles one. You start off with a broad group of potential clients, which becomes smaller and smaller as leads start learning about your offer and, ultimately, convert into clients.

The Importance of the Customer Acquisition Funnel

As someone who runs a business, here are the top reasons why I believe it’s important to have a customer acquisition funnel.

It helps everyone work towards a common goal.

Most humans understand things better if we can visualize them (I know I do). This is one of the perks of creating a customer acquisition funnel.

You can map out the different stages, explain their key characteristics, and create a code of conduct for your entire team. For example, they’ll know that they shouldn’t push for a sale when a lead is still familiarizing themselves with your brand — and, conversely, will know when it’s time to act.

You can spot and act on opportunities faster.

Part of creating a customer acquisition funnel is about deciding on the criteria of when a lead is deemed ready to pass to the next stage. You’ll have a scoring system which will let you alert sales reps that a person is finally ready to talk business.

Think of potential clients taking certain actions like visiting pricing pages, using a free trial heavily day after day, participating in a webinar, etc.

You can identify obstacles in the customer journey — and remove them.

If leads drop out at a certain stage or even after viewing a specific asset, you can examine the reasons.

For example, let’s say that you speak to leads who drop out from the pricing page. You find out that they decided to buy from competitors because it was hard to tell what was included in your offer. Knowing this, you could work on a more transparent pricing strategy.

Allows you to forecast revenue more accurately.

Having a customer acquisition funnel gives you the comfort of some predictability in an economy that has been all but predictable these past few years.

Over time, you’ll be able to see how many leads you’ve generated in the previous quarter (or any other relevant period), how many of them went on to each consecutive stage, and who eventually converted.

Additionally, since the customer acquisition funnel also covers post-purchase activities, you’ll see how much you currently make from return buyers and what potential there is to generate sales through cross-selling and upselling to existing customers.

Customer Acquisition Funnel Stages

If you search online, you’ll see that there are different versions of customer acquisition funnels. The reason for this is that some businesses adjust it to fit their unique circumstances or industry.

For the sake of this piece, I decided to show you universal categorization, which all these variations come from.

customer acquisition funnel stages

1. Awareness

This stage begins when someone first learns about your product or service and ends once you’ve been able to make them consider buying from you.

It takes a variety of tactics to generate that genuine interest, which is why some sources break the awareness stage into two smaller phases: discovery and interest.

The “discovery” part is like getting your foot in the door. Your goal is to make them notice your offer through channels like traditional or social media, content marketing, or paid ads, to name a few options.

Once they’ve interacted with your message and want to find out more, you’re in the “interest” substage. Your goal here is to build their engagement through relevant (and non-salesy!) content, for example, by having them sign up for a newsletter or follow you on social media.

2. Consideration

Just like the first stage, this one is also commonly broken down into smaller ones, i.e., “research” and “intent.”

In the first substage, your potential client begins looking for more information about your offer. They might start off by reading testimonials on your page or looking at comparisons, like this Hootsuite vs. Loomly example.

customer acquisition funnel, example of a comparison page

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But, after that, they’ll want to turn to third parties for a 100% non-biased opinion, too. They might search for opinions through branded hashtags on social media or on comparison sites like G2 if you’re in B2B. If the opinions are flattering, this will propel them into the “intent” phase.

This late-consideration stage is when things get particularly interesting. How so? It’s a make-it-or-break-it moment, where the lead is almost certain that you’re a good fit for their needs. But the ‘almost’ part means that they need that final argument to take action.

Companies that identify this critical moment correctly usually reach out with a great proposal like a free demo (or free samples) to convince leads to give the product a try. I was surprised to see that only 4% of SaaS businesses don’t offer a free tryout — it certainly hints at something!

3. Conversion

This is where your leads are ready to become customers. It can take them just a few seconds if you’re an ecommerce store, and all it takes is to finalize their purchase.

But, if you offer B2B services, it could be a bit more complex, like adjusting the offer to your client’s needs. Here’s where your sales team should be proactive and show their dedication to making the clients happy.

4. Retention

Yes, retention is an integral part of the acquisition funnel, which makes it different from the classic, three-stage sales funnel which ends with the conversion itself.

This is the end of the sales process but the start of the (hopefully long-term) post-purchase phase. You want to keep your clients satisfied and engaged with your product to secure recurring revenue for your business. Think of offering special discounts and superb customer service. Many businesses also introduce a referral program to get new clients through recommendations and keep customer acquisition costs low.

Now that we’re clear on the theory, it’s time for some practice.

How to Create a Customer Acquisition Funnel

Here are the steps I recommend taking, along with examples of actions you could set up to keep leads moving through the funnel.

How to Create a Customer Acquisition Funnel

Step 1. Define your target audience.

Before you ideate your acquisition strategy, you need to identify your buyer personas and segment them into groups (that is, if you haven’t done that already).

Think of who your ideal customers are based on data like demographics, psychographics, and their common goals and pain points. I recommend looking at your existing clients, if possible, and checking what common traits your long-term, high-value customers share.

You need to be clear on whom you’re targeting (and where they can be found) as you’ll tailor your entire funnel for these different potential customer groups.

Step 2. Awareness stage — get discovered by your ideal customers.

Consider different channels, both online and offline, where you could cast your net and generate leads. The exact channels will vary based on whether you’re in B2B or B2C, but you could consider:

  • Content marketing and SEO. Create SEO-optimized articles, social media posts, webinars, and videos to educate and engage audiences.
  • Paid advertising. Use Google and social media ads to reach a wider audience.
  • Influencer marketing and user-generated content (UGC). Collaborate with influencers or microinfluencers who fit your buyer persona profile, to increase brand visibility.
  • Participating in offline events. This is particularly applicable to B2B businesses. Think of showcasing your services or product at trade shows or being a conference speaker.

Step 3. Awareness stage — build interest.

Once you have the audience’s attention, focus on deepening their interest. What works for your buyer persona? Try answering the following, to the best of your knowledge:

  • Do your leads like receiving newsletters? Or, maybe, they prefer to get all their content on social media in video format?
  • What types of content formats work best?
  • Which channels do they spend most time on?

This will help you decide whether you would be better off sending personalized tips via email, sharing free assets, or maybe building social proof by sharing user reviews in your content. If you do the latter, just make sure you don’t push for a sale.

Step 4. Consideration stage — convince leads you’re the right choice.

Think of how you can make your competitors pale in comparison to what you offer. Remember how I said you should give customers a gentle nudge at this point? Give the following tactics a thought:

  • Offer a free trial, product demo, or even a free consultation to showcase value. The latter is something a company I used to work for did to win “big” clients over, offering an hourly call with the company’s head of growth. Given that they were a digital transformation consultancy, it worked very well, as leads could see how partnering up could help their business thrive.
  • Run retargeting campaigns. That’s especially helpful if you’re seeing that a lot of leads are losing interest at this point. Sometimes, it’s just about reminding them of an abandoned journey; other times, you can sweeten the deal with a discount code.
  • Links to comparison resources. This works; I’ve seen it both as a marketer creating such assets, as well as a buyer who needed to see Option A was, in fact, better than Option B.

Step 5. Conversion stage — close the sale.

Now that you’ve encouraged leads to become customers, your main priority is to make it as easy as possible. Be sure to add a clear, visible CTA: “buy now,” followed by a simple checkout process. Remove any unnecessary steps or information to create an enjoyable checkout experience and avoid anything coming in the way.

Step 6. Retention stage keep clients happy.

Now’s the time to keep your customers engaged to retain them. This part is where your customer service and product teams will have the most influence. For starters, make sure to:

  • Build a simple onboarding process. Guide customers either through an in-app onboarding flow (if you offer a digital product) or an email onboarding sequence to ensure they see value quickly.
  • Offer perks. Whether that be a full-on loyalty program or occasional discounts, rewards, or exclusive deals, show clients that you appreciate their business.
  • Ensure great customer service. This is two-fold. Firstly, it’s about making your real-life or automated support helpful and easily available. Secondly, it’s about considering clients’ unique needs to maintain satisfaction and build loyalty.

Now, let’s see how this could play out in a realistic scenario. We’re going to put ourselves in the shoes of an online fitness coaching business.

Example: Customer Acquisition Funnel for an Online Fitness Business

Step 1. Define your target audience.

Your buyer persona is someone between 30-55 years, who leads a sedentary lifestyle and suffers from a — quite literal — pain point, i.e., back problems. These individuals want to strengthen their core with an at-home routine.

Step 2. Get discovered by the customer.

You publish a blog post titled, “10 Best At-Home, Zero Equipment Exercises to Alleviate Back Pain.” You run a short video ad on Instagram, referring to their struggle, and redirect them to the article for a solution. It’s the first time they’ve ever visited your site — or heard about you.

Step 3. Build interest from the lead.

On the blog, a pop-up appears offering a free “7-Day At-Home Workout Plan” in exchange for the visitor’s email address. After signing up, the person receives a series of emails, one per day, with valuable content such as daily workout tips and nutrition advice. The lead becomes convinced that you’re trustworthy.

Step 4. Convince leads you’re the right choice

On the 8th day, the potential customer gets an offer to join a free webinar with a Q&A session, titled “How to stay motivated in your workouts.” To secure more participants, you run retargeting ads on social media. This way, you remind those who clicked on the webinar page but didn’t sign up for the free, no-strings-attached event.

During the webinar, the fitness coach answers all questions and explains how their premium fitness program works.

At the end, attendees get a limited-time 20% discount for a 12-week personalized fitness coaching program, along with a link. This creates a sense of urgency.

Step 5. Close the sale.

Leads are taken to a simple checkout process. It’s free of any distractions like banners or competing CTAs that could stop them from converting.

Step 6. Keep clients happy.

New clients receive an onboarding email with a video from their coach, introducing them to a private Slack community and a personalized workout dashboard. They also get a link to a calendar where they can schedule their first 1:1 session with the coach.

After completing the first month of the training, they get a 50% discount for a meal plan and a discount code for supplements from partner brands, which complements their fitness journey.

They are also encouraged to join a referral program where they earn $50 for every friend they refer who signs up for the program.

And there it is — just one of the routes leads could take to become happy customers.

If you want to ideate your potential acquisition journeys, HubSpot’s free customer journey map templates will be a great starting point.

Tips to Optimize Your Customer Acquisition Funnel

Your work on the funnel doesn’t end with the stages I’ve mentioned above. As customers’ needs change and new competitors appear on the market, what works today might not work in a few months. That’s why you need to constantly refine your funnel.

How? Here is a list of some great tactics from customer acquisition experts and my own experiences.

Tips to Optimize Your Customer Acquisition Funnel

1. Make it easy to try your product with no signup.

I’ll start off with one of my personal favorites, which some customer acquisition specialists refer to as “hinting at the promised land.” It’s about figuring out how you can give a taste of your product, whether digital or physical, to someone who is still far from putting it in their basket.

I believe that Ahrefs can be a perfect source of inspiration. A few years ago, the SaaS company decided to make some of its features free to use on their website, without any opt-in.

The company lets you check three things: How many backlinks your website has, its authority score, and if you have any broken links. All you have to do is enter your website’s URL. Ahrefs shows you the information and tells you that there’s much more on a paid plan, encouraging you to give it a try.

customer acquisition funnel strategy, examples from Ahrefs free tools

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This lets them build leads’ confidence in their product’s value, increasing the likelihood that visitors will eventually become customers.

Pro tip: If you offer a physical product, I recommend taking a look at Sephora’s virtual try-on feature. Like Ahrefs, it lets you see a real-life product applied to you.

customer acquisition strategy, Sephora as an of using AR to give an option to try out a product

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2. Double down on endorsements.

Getting testimonials from real (unpaid) users is a tip I recommend to all businesses. Yet, I believe there are three groups that can benefit in particular, i.e., those who offer a product that:

  • Costly.
  • Requires a big-time investment.
  • Relates to a big life or business decision.

Leads searching for such solutions don’t want to take any chances that what they buy won’t work for their goals.

Greta Maiocchi, head of marketing and admissions at Open Institute of Technology (OPIT), says that their organization knew this and decided to take endorsements to a higher level. They not only display testimonials on their site but also let potential clients get in touch with alumni.

But how did they get there? Maiocchi says that OPIT first reorganized its customer engagement strategy. “We discovered that our rich learning environment, with benefits like weekly professor meetings and access to tutors, was our rewarding differentiator,” she says.

OPIT started accentuating these perks right from the first interaction with leads, effectively addressing the online learning apprehensions of their target group. “Additionally, we gave a personalized touch by connecting potential students with alumni to give them a real-life glimpse into OPIT.”

This resulted in a 30% rise in conversion rate for the institute, and this happened during the initial inquiry stage itself, Maiocchi adds.

Based on her experiences, Maiocchi sums up: “It’s not about overhauling the entire funnel structure; sometimes, nuanced changes can provide exceptional results.”

3. Run A/B tests and watch session recordings.

I recommend using user analytics and usability testing tools because they will shorten the time it takes to understand what’s behind your conversion numbers. You’ll see which parts of your website, emails, or other assets get the most clicks and reads and where they drop out.

This is something I’ve experienced first-hand.

Several years ago, I worked as a content marketer at a SaaS company that decided to include free assets to encourage signups to a freemium plan.

There was a library of 25 free templates, traffic looked great, and the average user session duration was quite long, which hinted that they interacted with the page content. But, for some reason, conversions weren’t impressive.

To figure out the reason, we set up a session recording tool and saw that the reason was rather prosaic.

There was a pop-up that was set up cross-site by sales, which activated halfway through the page. This drew the leads’ attention away from the templates. After excluding these pages from the ongoing campaign, leads began clicking on relevant CTAs and signing up for the freemium plan.

4. Collect customer feedback.

Did you know that, while 81% of brands believe that they have a “good” or “excellent” customer engagement strategy, only 62% of consumers agree?

I think this number is a wake-up call, and companies should make it a habit of asking clients for their opinions.

Sergey Taver, marketing manager of Precision Watches, agrees with me. As a company offering premium products, the brand is very proactive in gathering feedback that would help them maintain the highest customer experience standards.

“One unique strategy we’ve implemented is utilizing customer feedback effectively to enhance our service offerings,” Taver says. “We actively seek feedback and recommendations through email follow-ups after purchases. This procedure demonstrates our dedication to client satisfaction and points out areas in which we may improve.”

Taver told me that Precision Watches implemented quite a few changes based on their customer feedback, including virtual one-on-one consultations with their watch specialists.

“This change in our practices has resulted in a 25% rise in client engagement and a 15% increase in repeat business. Clients value the customized experience because it builds confidence and loyalty,” he concludes.

5. Consider creating separate onboarding experiences.

The more diverse your conversion strategies and user acquisition channels, the more likely your clients are to have different expectations of what onboarding should look like.

Simon Lee, CEO at Glance, told me that they’ve created personalized onboarding sequences using behavioral segmentation as a response to this expectation.

“Instead of sending all new leads through the same general funnel, we first divided users by their engagement with our platform.

For instance, people who enrolled through a product demo got a highly visual, feature-centric onboarding sequence,” Lee says. “In contrast, users enrolled through an educational piece got a benefits-oriented onboarding sequence.”

Lee told me that the approach led to a 27% activation rate uplift and an 18% churn reduction in the first three months of the intervention.

“The lesson here is that onboarding has a material impact on user learning and retention. When customized, users learn and engage more quickly and stick around longer,” he explains.

6. Don’t overcomplicate the funnel.

With so many options to try out, it can be tempting to keep adding new strategies or tactics into your funnel. That’s fine, as long as they don’t accidentally introduce user confusion or contradict one another. Sometimes, you can find more value in cutting steps.

Rain Yang, founder and CEO at WoodenAve, told me how they’ve been able to boost conversions by simplifying their user acquisition process.

He says that the brand turned to a “frictionless onboarding and value-first follow-up strategy to fix lead drop-offs happening right before they completed signup.”

Instead of adding new steps to improve the funnel, WoddenAve focused on removing unnecessary friction by simplifying the application process. Yang told me that, following this change, the brand saw a 20% increase in completed sign-ups within 30 days.

But it didn’t end there. Yang says that the company also worked to improve the post-onboarding experience to prevent customers from falling into the “post-sign-up abyss.”

“We employed a value-first follow-up strategy, sending personalized insights, like projected credit score improvements, based on their data. We built trust early on by focusing on their current needs instead of trying to sell them things. This led to a 15% rise in first-time loan applications,” Yang says.

Yang concluded with a piece of advice that stuck with me: “Don’t just invite customers into the door; show them why they should stay.”

Your Customer Acquisition Funnel Must Keep Evolving

Building an effective customer acquisition funnel can feel complex at first. The good news is once you and the entire organization understand its purpose and learn to put the customer’s perspective in the front seat, you might see a great return.

My advice is to stay inquisitive about your clients needs and about the purpose of each and every action your business takes to win customers. Review each stage of the funnel regularly, organize brainstorming sessions, and track data through the entire process.

Here’s to seeing more conversions and long-lasting relationships with clients.

 

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Your click helps us gather results. We’ll learn what other service professionals think and let you know just as soon as we’re done crunching the numbers.

This Week’s Poll

If you’re still wondering what the answer to this week’s poll is, check back next week for the results. But if you just can’t wait until then, you might be able to find an answer in this blog post.

Results From the Last Poll Question of the Week True or False 107

 

“How likely are you to recommend this product or service to a friend or colleague?”

You’ve seen the question in post-purchase emails, pop-up surveys, and at the bottom of receipts. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey is one of the most common customer surveys used by marketers and data teams — and for good reason. The question is simple, but the insights can be rich.

I’ve found the NPS survey to be one of the most powerful tools a marketing or sales team can use to resonate more with their target market. It doesn’t have to be another item on your to-do list, either. You can use AI for every step of the process.

→ Download Now: Customer Service Metrics Calculator [Free Tool]

By leveraging AI to prioritize NPS collection and analysis, companies can improve the experience for their customers without draining time or budget. I’ll share the types of NPS analysis, the reasons to conduct it (and why you should be using AI), and how to run an AI-powered NPS analysis.

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Here are three reasons why I think NPS is a great metric to analyze.

1. Increase customer retention.

NPS gives you an opportunity to address — and lower — churn rates. When you know why your customers are dissatisfied, it’s easier to make changes to keep future customers on the line. Not to mention, studies show that 70% of detractors will return if you fix a problem they’ve complained about.

NPS also gives you some insight on what makes customers loyal to your company. Analyzing positive feedback helps you understand what delights your customers so you can double-down on retention-increasing behaviors.

2. Drive business growth.

Promoters, by definition, are advocates for your brand. When you take time to learn about what makes a promoter at your company, you can expect growth by referral and advocacy. And you want referrals — people are four times more likely to purchase when a friend has referred them.

3. Benchmark against competitors.

NPS is a widely used metric on a global scale across industries. This makes it easy to benchmark your success against competitors. By comparing your NPS with industry standards, you can gauge how well you are doing in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty, and predict your growth in comparison to your competitors.

Types of NPS Analysis

There are three main types of net promoter analysis: survey, sentiment, and score. To get the best use out of your NPS collection, I recommend analyzing your results using each of the three methods.

NPS Survey Analysis

The focus of survey analysis is about quantitative data. In a net promoter survey, customers respond to their experience with your organization on a scale of 0-10. They are generally answering the question, “How likely are you to recommend our product or service to a friend or colleague?”

The responses are then sorted into three categories:

  • Promoters. Customers who marked a score of 9-10.
  • Passives. Neutral customers who marked a score between 7-8.
  • Detractors. Unhappy customers who marked a score of 6 or below.

Once you’ve received your survey responses, you can use this information to find average customer satisfaction. You can also relate the scores to other variables from your survey, like the product they ordered, their demographics, their time as a customer, and more.

NPS Sentiment Analysis

NPS surveys usually include opportunities for customers to leave written feedback. In sentiment analysis, you’ll also take a look at the qualitative feedback to identify key themes or topics mentioned. Sentiment analysis is a far more in-depth way of making sense of NPS surveys and, most often, you’ll need an AI tool to assist you.

Sentiment analysis is a type of text analysis that categorizes feedback from the comments and makes sense of the intention, or “sentiment,” of the customer. Some takeaways from sentiment analysis might include:

  • A sentiment score that may or may not be the same as the NPS (for example, an individual may have a passive NPS but leave more negative comments, resulting in a lower sentiment score than NPS).
  • Natural language processing, which highlights key emotional language from written feedback and provides more insight on the weight and connotation of comments.
  • Thematic analysis, which looks at NPS feedback on an aggregated level and identifies key themes that appear repeatedly across customer responses.

Janet Gehrmann, the co-founder of Scoop Analytics, shed some light on the value of sentiment analysis.

“One of the advantages of AI is the sheer amount of data it can process, including sentiment data,” said Gehrmann. “I know several companies that have used different AI tools to analyze customer feedback sentiment and identify positive, neutral, and negative responses. It’s not only quicker than manual methods — it’s also more accurate.”

Net Promoter Score Analysis

The Net Promoter Score is a single quantitative measure that represents overall customer loyalty and satisfaction within your organization. Rather than averaging all the net promoter scores you collect, the final score is a result of subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. This is the score you’ll use for competitive benchmarking.

nps analysis showing nps score calcuation

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Pro tip: HubSpot makes it easy to find your net promoter score with the Customer Service Metrics Calculator. This free Excel template helps you calculate your Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), your NPS, and more.

Can AI Help With NPS Analysis?

Absolutely it can! AI can be used in quite a few different ways — to facilitate NPS collection, to analyze results, and to make recommendations. I’ll walk you through all the use cases.

  • Create NPS surveys. You can use AI to help build NPS surveys from scratch. Lots of survey builders use AI to incorporate survey best practices into either templates or fully formed, complete surveys.
  • Analyze data. Once you’ve received results back from your NPS surveys, AI tools can make sense of the data for you. Plug your survey data into an AI-augmented analytics tool and gather results about customer satisfaction trends.
  • Automate follow-ups. Once your customer has completed the NPS survey, you can use AI to automate follow-ups to thank them for their feedback and provide guidance for issues they raised in their survey.
  • Make personalized recommendations. Your NPS tool can make recommendations to users based on their response. For example, if a customer responded with a glowing review and a high NPS score, AI may send them a recommendation for a product that the customer is likely to enjoy.
  • Speed time to resolution. AI-powered virtual assistants can detect keywords in customer queries and route them to agents to handle their needs. In the case of feedback, you can easily adapt this tool to send negative surveys along to the right department who can respond.

Caleb Gonsalves, a customer success leader and consultant, leverages AI to send thoughtful follow-ups to customers who interact with his surveys.

“For anyone that responds to my survey, I always ensure they get a thank you tailored to the level of response,” he shared.

“If they’re a detractor, they’ll get personal outreach in an earnest attempt to document and remediate any issues they might be having. AI has dramatically improved the speed in which I can craft and tailor responses. It’s not a game changer per se (yet) but those incremental minutes sure do add up.”

How to Conduct an NPS Analysis Using AI

1. Choose the right AI NPS tool.

Before you can jump into your AI-powered NPS surveys, you’ll have to narrow down what you’re looking for in an NPS tool. I recommend defining what you need for the following qualities prior to shopping around for the right software:

  • Capabilities. AI NPS tools can support users at a few parts of the survey journey. Some tools help to create the survey while others are focused on analysis. Even within analytics tools, there will be significant variation in capabilities, so be sure to outline what you’re looking for.
  • Usability. As with any tool, you want to make sure the tool’s complexity matches the technological comfort of the team using it. If your data team is in charge of sending surveys along, they’re likely pretty comfortable with high-tech tools. But if your marketing team is in charge and less comfortable with AI, they may need a tool that prioritizes easy use.
  • Reporting. To get the most use out of your net promoter surveys, you’ll want to turn the data into reports and visuals you can present to stakeholders in your organization. Some survey tools have lots of data visualization built in, while others are more limited in reporting features.

If you’re not sure what you’re looking for in a tool, I suggest leveraging a generative AI tool like ChatGPT to help you narrow down the right tool for your organization.

2. Create and send your survey.

To gather NPS scores, you’ll need a survey in place. Instead of wasting hours creating questions, selecting answer formats, and sending surveys by hand, you can use your AI tool to streamline the process.

HubSpot’s Customer Feedback Software can help you create the most effective NPS survey. Incorporate a variety of question types to measure multiple KPIs about customer experience. Then, send your survey via web link or email to start gathering your data.

3. Upload your data to the model.

In order to use AI to interpret your results, you’ll have to sync your survey results with the model. This can happen in real-time or after collection, depending on the survey tool you’re using and the analytics tool you’re integrating.

Your AI model may be built into your survey tool or it could be a separate software. If you are using different tools, I recommend you ensure your survey and analytics tools integrate with each other before you send out your surveys.

4. Calculate NPS.

Now that you have your data, start by calculating the net promoter score with the following formula:

NPS = % Promoters – % Detractors

This will give you the baseline to understand overall customer satisfaction. You can use this number for benchmarking against competitors or historical analysis of your own company’s performance.

5. Use AI for deeper analytics.

While the net promoter score gives some valuable insight on its own, I think the most effective way to take advantage of your NPS data is by using AI for deeper analytics. Use an AI model for:

  • Predictive analysis. Predict future net promoter scores based on historical data.
  • Text analysis. Process the scores and written feedback to identify specific customer sentiments and overarching themes in your survey results.
  • Discover connections. Answer basic questions about NPS correlations. Are people in a specific sales region reporting a negative experience more often than others? Are there certain industries that are very satisfied and others that are not?

6. Visualize and report data.

Once you’ve done your analysis, you’ll want to convert the facts and figures into something that your team can make sense of. Use your AI tool’s dashboard to display NPS trends, sentiment distribution, and key topics discussed in feedback.

7. Act on the insights.

Use your analysis to identify pain points and present your findings to your team, highlighting what needs to change within your organization to improve overall customer satisfaction. For example, if one region is less satisfied than another, I might consider reallocating additional customer success team members to that region.

8. Continuously monitor.

In my experience, data is the most useful when you’re continuously monitoring it. I recommend paying attention to the impact of any changes that you’re making, asking, “What do the NPS scores look like over time and have the changes we’ve made had an impact?” Make sure to add your data into your AI models on a regular basis for the most accurate, updated output.

Takeaways

As a marketer, I’m still amazed at the way AI is integrating itself into my daily life. The availability of AI means that I can gain valuable, deep insights about an organization without having to spend days preparing surveys. I don’t need to be a survey expert and I don’t have to bring in data teams to make sense of the results. The tool does it for me.

But this doesn’t frighten me — I’m not worried about getting replaced or booted out because of a robot. AI tools can speed up so many parts of my job so I can get to the important work faster: improving the experience for my customers.

The first time I discovered the true power of a solid customer acquisition strategy, my freelance business was struggling to attract the right leads. I knew something had to change.

After countless hours of research and trying different approaches, I found a way to bring in new customers and keep them coming back. The solution? Investing in the right customer acquisition strategy.

→ Download Now: Customer Service Metrics Calculator [Free Tool]

In this guide, I‘ll show you how to build a flexible and effective acquisition strategy. You’ll learn the basics of customer acquisition, how to reduce the cost of gaining new customers, and how to make the most of your loyal ones.

Keep reading or use the chapter links below to jump ahead.

Why is customer acquisition important?

Customer acquisition is important for businesses of any age and size. It allows your business to:

  • Make money to meet costs, pay employees, and reinvest in growth.
  • Show evidence of traction for outside parties such as investors, partners, and influencers.

Being able to systematically attract and convert new customers keeps companies healthy and growing — and investors happy.

What is the purpose of customer acquisition?

The purpose of customer acquisition is to find a repeatable, methodical way of attracting customers to your business. Sure, you can wait for customers to naturally come to you, but that won’t guarantee you can increase — or even maintain — profits over time.

Instead, I use specific techniques to get potential customers to take action. My goal is to create a systematic, sustainable strategy to acquire new customers and grow revenue for my business.

In many respects, this process sounds like marketing: you’re looking for ways to showcase your brand and connect with customers. But there’s a difference between the two.

What is customer acquisition vs. marketing?

Marketing aims to build awareness, while customer acquisition looks to drive action. For example, let’s say you run a Facebook ad aimed at your target market. Metrics will help determine if your effort is working — you can track how many people have shared your ad, commented on it, etc. That’s marketing.

Meanwhile, acquisition speaks to what happens after potential customers click through to your page or receive your emails. If they’re willing to take action by purchasing your products or services, that’s acquisition. Put simply?

Marketing drives recognition. Acquisition drives revenue.

Now, you might be wondering, “What’s the difference between lead generation and customer acquisition?”

Let’s break it down.

The Customer Acquisition Funnel

In the business world, we typically visualize the customer journey with a funnel or a similar graphic that highlights the stages in the buying process and the prospect’s mindset.

Customer journey funnel

As consumers move through the funnel to become buyers, they:

  • Gain awareness about your brand.
  • Add your product or service to their consideration pool.
  • Decide to become a paying customer of your business.

To simplify the process, lead generation typically happens at the top of the funnel, lead acquisition happens in the middle, and lead conversion happens at the bottom.

And customer acquisition typically refers to the funnel as a whole.

Here’s another way to visualize it, in a less funnel-like fashion:

Picture this process as moving through phases like “attract,” “convert,” and “close.” Here, strangers become visitors, morph into leads, and finally, transform into customers.

Take it further: For a more in-depth dive, I recommend checking out this free course from HubSpot Academy to better understand conversion strategies.

In some organizations, when we talk about customer acquisition, we‘re really focusing on the top and middle of the funnel, blending lead generation and acquisition. The reason? The bottom of the funnel — where conversion happens — often demands more tailored strategies like lead scoring and closing techniques. That’s why I recommend tracking everything with a robust marketing analytics tool.

Pro tip: By monitoring marketing efforts across all channels, I can pinpoint my top revenue sources and identify the strategies for drawing the most qualified leads. This enables me to fine-tune my approach, optimizing the cost of acquiring customers.

For the sake of this post, let’s assume customer acquisition encompasses the whole funnel.

Acquisition marketing is different from other marketing because it specifically targets those consumers who have become aware of your brand and are considering making a purchase.

Digital Acquisition Marketing

Digital acquisition marketing uses online channels — like organic search, social media, and display ads — to reel in new customers. A killer digital acquisition strategy needs your marketing and customer service teams to be on the same wavelength.

Your marketing team is responsible for developing and releasing new promotional materials that may spark interest in new customers. But it’s your customer service team that has a direct line to your current customers—and your current customers can be some of your best marketers.

When visitors land on your website, they‘ll passively browse the content your marketing team crafted and might decide to buy. But if they hop onto your live chat, they’ll chat directly with your service team. The same goes for social media inquiries, where your customer support reps take the reins.

In short, your customer service team can attract and retain customers just as well as your marketing team. That’s why acquisition marketing isn’t just about the marketing team.

Before we discuss retention through your customer service team, however, let’s talk about some customer acquisition channels that your marketing team can use to capture potential customers’ interest and convert them.

Customer acquisition methods can be broken up into a variety of different types: paid and free, inbound and outbound, etc.

Below, I’ll review some common methods of acquiring new customers. You can employ all of them — some at smaller scales, some at larger scales.

1. Organic Search

Search engine optimization graphic

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Organic search is all about showing up on search engine results pages (SERPs) like Google or Bing. Organic search marketing aims to get you high up on these lists.

To leverage organic search as a customer acquisition channel, you must invest in search engine optimization (SEO). SEO, like social media, complements content marketing efforts by optimizing your content so it’s more easily found by your target audience.

Here’s how I think about it:

When I Google something, I usually click on one of the first results. That’s the power of SEO — creating content that lands high on the SERPs and draws clicks.

What’s more, I don’t have to guess how to use organic search for my customer acquisition plans. I can use tools like Semrush, Moz, and Ahrefs to find the best keywords for my business and create content that attracts potential new customers.

2. Paid Search

Paid search marketing, pay-per-click, or PPC, is advertising on search engines themselves. Plus, with platforms like Google Ads, I can place ads directly in search results and even on partner websites.

Instead of waiting for my content to climb the organic ranks, I can pay for it to appear alongside the top search results, increasing my chances of being seen. To make sure my content and ads perform their best, I rely on tools like Google Keyword Planner and Microsoft Advertising.

3. Organic Social Media

When it comes to social media marketing, I have two paths: organic and paid.

Organic social media is my go-to for boosting brand awareness, shaping my company’s personality, and sharing content I’ve published elsewhere, like blog posts or videos. It also lets me capitalize on the “virality” factor, encouraging my customers and followers to help spread the word about my business.

4. Paid Social Media

If I have the budget and know where my audience hangs out, paid social media can be a great option. It’s a surefire way to get my content in front of the right people without waiting to build a huge following. (But don’t get me wrong — that’s important, too!

For example, sponsored posts on Facebook, X, or Instagram get my content seen by more people. Like this one:

Sponsored Facebook post example

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Plus, Facebook Lead Ads allow me to gather valuable customer information like email addresses and names. This can make the difference between a casual follower and a lead. So, if building my list is a priority, this method might be perfect for me.

Pro tip: To keep everything organized, I use a social media content calendar. Download a free guide and template from HubSpot to get started with yours!

5. Email

I love how email turns all that customer info we gather into a powerful tool. Building an email list lets us connect with our customers directly, making it easier to convert them.

Email marketing might seem old-fashioned, but it’s still a highly effective way to stay in front of your customers and promote quality content, product information, and discounts and events.

Whether it’s a birthday wish or a valuable promo, email is a great way to connect with our audience. It’s a direct line to their inbox, bypassing the noise of social media and search engines. Outside of direct sales, I believe nothing beats email marketing for getting personal with our customers.

Pro tip: Download our free beginner’s guide to email marketing to learn how to execute and measure successful email marketing campaigns.

6. Referrals

I’ve found that tapping into an existing customer base is a goldmine for new leads. Customer referrals are incredibly powerful for acquiring new clients. And while I can’t force referrals, I can certainly encourage them.

Creating a referral program is a surefire way to bring in new business through your customers. Offering incentives — whether credit, physical gifts, or monetary rewards — is usually the best way to motivate a customer to share about your company (and compensate them in return). If a referral is valuable to me, offering something valuable in return makes sense.

For B2C companies, I’ve seen that a structured, incentive-based program works wonders. B2B businesses might find more success asking for direct referrals. Whatever referral strategy you choose, I always make sure to provide value first. When customers are delighted with our service, they can’t help but share it.

7. Events

I love using events like conferences, webinars, and trade shows to connect with potential customers.

Most events these days are virtual, making customer acquisition a breeze since attendees register with their email addresses. Plus, virtual events are fun and convenient — I can connect with prospects and sponsors from my couch. If you’re new to this channel, I recommend starting with a small webinar or virtual summit or renting a booth at a larger event.

8. Traditional Advertising

I’ve also learned not to underestimate traditional advertising channels like TV, radio, and print media. They’re particularly great if you’re a local business or a large company with the budget for multi-city campaigns.

I always make sure to target ads carefully and understand the audience of each publisher. You can usually get this info from the publisher’s media buying guide, which will also outline the ad dimensions and other requirements.

Now that I’ve covered the various channels you can use for your customer acquisition plan, let’s discuss specific strategies for each one.

When creating a customer acquisition plan, I mix various strategies to get my desired result.

1. SEO

Customer acquisition channel: Organic Search

SEO isn’t an exact science, but there are some tried-and-true methods to help your content rank better. The goal is to make your content indexable — easily readable and understandable by search engines.

Here’s how you can boost your content’s “indexability”:

  • ​​Use your main keyword in the post title.
  • Add alt text to your images.
  • Upload transcripts for video and audio content.
  • Link internally within your site.

Of course, there’s much more to SEO, but these basics will get you started.

According to HubSpot’s The State of Marketing Report, having direct experience is extremely valuable for SEO. This knowledge allows you to offer practical tools and gather useful data. Such tools and firsthand data are effective for generating leads — you can easily use and adjust them to fit your own needs.

2. Content Marketing

Customer acquisition channel: Organic search

Content marketing is an effective customer acquisition method for all types of businesses. Creating new, exciting, and relevant content is a highly effective way to snag your audience’s attention and send them to your website.

In a world of false advertising and diminishing trust, content marketing offers a genuine approach: “I love what I do and want to share my expertise with you — for free.”

And who doesn’t like that?

The beauty of content marketing is that there’s no wrong type of content. The core is to connect with and convert your audience. Each piece should be relevant and include a clear call to action. Remember, content marketing is as much about content promotion as it is about content creation.

3. Blogging

Customer acquisition channel: Organic search

Blogging is a highly recommended acquisition method for businesses of all sizes, industries, and audience types.

It lets you explore different topics, showcase your industry knowledge, and build authority with your readers. Blogging also provides ongoing opportunities to engage your audience — whether through a bookmarkable graphic, a question in the comments, or a compelling call-to-action.

Pro tip: Make sure you have the resources to sustain your blog. Writers can be employees, freelancers, or guest contributors. A graphic designer and editor can help optimize your content for both search engines and readers. Adding a blog to your website is usually straightforward, depending on your hosting platform.

Free resource: Save time creating blog posts with six free templates.

4. Social Media Marketing

Customer acquisition channel: Organic social media, Paid social media

Social media can be a powerful tool, but it requires a solid strategy.

Here are some key questions to consider:

  • Which networks will you use, and which will you avoid?
  • What will your social brand voice be?
  • Who will manage your social content?
  • Do you have a crisis plan?

If these questions seem intimidating, don’t fret. Posting organically on social media may seem like shouting into a void. The key is accessing the right networks — and this all comes back to a well-defined audience.

For example, Pinterest isn’t useful if your target is mainly men, as only 22% of men use it. But if you’re targeting millennials, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat should be part of your strategy.

Pro tip: Consider using HubSpot’s social media management tools to curate and post content on your networks.

5. Video Marketing

Customer acquisition channel: Paid search, Organic social media, Paid social media

Video content is complex to produce, but with affordable high-quality cameras and plenty of freelancers, it’s easier than ever.

Video marketing, when done right, focuses on quality content. The production process involves script writing, editing, production, and sometimes animation. You can outsource these tasks to freelancers or agencies. While video tends to be more expensive, it’s worth it for your best content ideas.

Video content is highly versatile. Promote it through search display ads, organic social posts, and paid social ads. Embed videos in blog posts and web pages to engage readers and increase conversion chances.

If you don’t have a video budget, consider creating a Slideshare as a visual alternative.

Free resource: Download this ultimate video starter pack to get resources and tips to kickstart your video marketing strategy.

6. Email Retargeting

Customer acquisition channel: Email

Graph showing the benefits of email marketing

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What you send isn’t the only important part of email marketing. It’s also helpful to keep an eye on list behavior and retarget your emails accordingly.

For example, when you get a new subscriber, it’s safe to assume that the consumer is interested in your company and wants to learn more. If they don’t respond to the first few emails you send, however, you’ll want to adjust your strategy and A/B test different calls-to-action.

Notice which links get the most clicks to understand what grabs your subscribers‘ attention. And if someone unsubscribes, that’s valuable feedback on your email content.

7. Sponsored Content

Customer acquisition channel: Paid search, Paid social media, Traditional advertising

Sponsored advertising can run the gamut from paid ads on the SERPs to influencer posts on social media.

No matter the channel you choose, these ads help you generate awareness about your products and services and attract new audiences to your brand. You can play with different types of sponsored content, such as sponsored search results, sponsored product mentions, and paid blog posts on related publications.

8. Customer Spotlights

Customer acquisition channel: Customer referrals

One powerful customer acquisition tactic? Turning your satisfied customers into promoters.

Here’s how you can empower your customers to promote your business and help you save time and money on other acquisition methods.

  • Ask for customer stories. Turn your happy customers into brand promoters. Invite them to share their stories through case studies, interviews, reviews, or user-generated content. Let your customers’ voices sing your praises instead of doing it yourself.
  • Make content easily shareable. While a happy sentiment can get the message across, wouldn’t it be even better if your customers were equipped to directly share content you’ve created, like social posts, blog posts, or graphics?

I call this the viral loop — it’s when your customers share content that leads their followers back to your business. Create Click to Tweet links so your customers can easily share social posts, and ensure each piece of published content has options to share via email or social media.

Pro tip: The more convenient promotion is for your customers, the more likely they’ll engage.

9. Gated Content

Customer acquisition channel: All

Gated content, like ebooks, guides, templates, and white papers, is a clever way to gather leads. By offering valuable resources, you ask readers to exchange their emails and names to access the content. This tactic fits seamlessly with any customer acquisition channel. You can optimize the content’s landing page for search engines or promote it on social media ads.

This strategy walks the line between SEO, content marketing, and conversion rate optimization, helping you turn your blog into a lead-generation machine. Just remember, the content must stay gated — don’t let it be indexed and found online for free. Otherwise, potential leads might just search for it without giving you their email.

10. Product Pricing

Customer acquisition channel: All

Your product’s pricing strategy is another powerhouse for customer acquisition. Whether you push it through TV ads, customer referrals, or let it shine on its own, pricing can be a magnet for new customers. If your competitors‘ prices are sky-high or they don’t match your model, you’re in a sweet spot.

Freemium software, for example, draws in budget-conscious users who might later upgrade to a paid plan. Free tools attract anyone looking to try before they buy. If you sell consumer products, “Buy One, Get One Free” will have a horde of customers clicking “Add to cart,” expanding your customer base without much work.

Consider the following specific pricing strategies:

I’ve found that these customer acquisition methods work best when combined. For example, I can use social media to promote SEO-optimized content that includes a call-to-action for joining an email list. That might sound a bit long-winded, but you get the idea.

By mixing and experimenting with various customer acquisition strategies, I can learn more about my audience and introduce new tactics to my current strategy. No matter which strategies I choose, I always leave room for analysis, improvement, and change — because I never know when customers might stop responding to my methods or leave altogether.

How to Measure Customer Acquisition

You’ve heard the buzzword: customer acquisition cost.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the cost associated with bringing a new customer or client to your business, such as marketing costs, events, and advertising. It’s typically calculated for a specific campaign or window of time.

CAC is important because it assigns real value to your marketing efforts and allows you to measure your ROI — a metric inquired about by CEOs, managers, and investors alike.

How to Calculate Customer Acquisition Cost

High-level customer acquisition cost is calculated by dividing marketing costs associated with a specific campaign or effort by the number of customers acquired from that campaign.

Featured Resource: Free Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator

Download for Free

CAC Formula

CAC = MC / CA

Here:

  • CAC is customer acquisition cost
  • MC is marketing costs
  • CA is customers acquired

To get a precise look at CAC, include all marketing-related costs. Think beyond just campaign spend — add marketing salaries, software, and even the cost of the office supplies used to create those lengthy contracts.

CAC Formula Example

This CAC formula looks like this: CAC = (MC + W + S + OS + OH) / CA.

Here:

  • CAC is customer acquisition cost
  • MC is marketing costs
  • W is wages for marketing and sales
  • S is marketing and sales software
  • OS is outsourced services
  • OH is overhead for marketing and sales
  • CA is customers acquired

A simple CAC metric might apply to a single campaign, but for a deeper analysis, use this formula over a specific time frame, like a month or a fiscal year. For example, if Company A spent $10,000 on customer acquisition in Q4 2021 and gained 100 customers, the CAC would be $100.

Use this free CAC calculator template to determine your business’s key metrics and KPIs for customer support, service, and success.

I’ve found that CAC can be a fickle metric and shouldn’t be the only number I use to evaluate my marketing efforts. Why? Well, here are a few things that could throw off the value and application of my CAC:

  • On average, how often do your customers make purchases? There’s a major difference between the CAC of an Audi dealership and a Starbucks.
  • Does/did your company spend money on marketing efforts slated to pay off in the far future? Say you invest in a Q3 campaign but pay for it in Q1. You aren’t necessarily going to see new customers right away from that investment, and that might skew your Q1 CAC.

Regardless, I also know that CAC is a critical number to calculate—and recalculate—when acquiring new customers and employing new acquisition methods.

How to Minimize Customer Acquisition Cost

Here’s the simple truth I know about marketing: You can always do better. You can always reach new audiences, market with better messages, and reduce associated costs.

Now, depending on your outlook, this could be good or bad news.

There’s always something to learn and always something to improve upon. Better yet, you aren’t stuck with a subpar metric that your executives or investors aren’t quite happy about.

If you’re looking to improve your CAC, here are a few ways to minimize the cost of acquiring new customers:

  • Improve your website conversion efforts. Enhance your calls-to-action, ensure your site is mobile and tablet responsive, optimize your landing pages, and clean up your copywriting. Consider A/B testing a landing page or shopping cart to see if a certain design or copywriting angle works best. These will make sure any customer acquisition methods you’re already employing are working as perfectly as possible.
  • Boost the value of your current customers. This may involve releasing a new product or upgrade in which your customers can also invest in. User value can also skyrocket when they refer other customers or simply act as promoters for your business.
  • Adjust and optimize your customer acquisition strategy. Take a good look at your acquisition blueprint and break down what each method is costing you. Are there areas where you can cut back on marketing spend or manpower? Marketing costs for specific channels can creep up over time. Exploring newer, cheaper channels could help keep your CAC down. This step ensures your strategy stays fresh and flexible, adapting to the latest marketing trends.

How to Improve Your Customer Acquisition Strategy

Every business needs new customers to grow and succeed. Whether you’re a company of five or 5,000, having a roadmap for customer acquisition is a smart move.

Here are a few steps I take to build a strong customer acquisition roadmap:

1. Make your strategy sustainable.

I always think long-term. A sustainable customer acquisition strategy is one that works in the long run. This means the investments I make — whether money, time, or human resources — can be maintained for the foreseeable future.

For example, if I plan to acquire new customers through a blog, I ensure I have the tools and resources to keep producing content beyond just a few posts. This continuous effort brings in organic traffic for months or even years.

Inbound marketing excels here because it creates sustainable traffic, offering a steady source of new customers. Compare this to ads, which are effective only as long as they’re live.

2. Build in flexibility.

I‘m also adaptable. Marketing and sales are constantly evolving, as are customer behaviors. Salespeople were once the gatekeepers of product information, but that’s changed.

Today, consumers trust advice from family and friends over businesses. If my acquisition strategy relies solely on salespeople, I could be in trouble. Keeping my strategy flexible ensures I’m ready to pivot with market trends.

3. Find your target market.

I‘ve realized not all consumers are my best consumers, and targeting the wrong people will only waste precious resources. That’s why, before investing in any acquisition methods, I define my target audience.

This helps me eliminate unnecessary or wasted efforts and highlights specific needs or desires that certain channels can meet. For example, if I’m targeting Gen Z, creating videos might be key, given that 1 in 6 teens use YouTube and TikTok almost every day.

For a targeted strategy, I take a step back and figure out what’s best for my business, resources, and audience. This approach leads to real responses to my customer acquisition efforts.

4. Diversify your approach.

I’ve found that diversifying my customer acquisition strategy is crucial.

When I mix things up and use different acquisition methods, I reach new audiences and generate fresh leads more effectively. Plus, having multiple channels balances the risk. If one starts to flop (for instance, the salespeople example from before), I can reallocate my funds to what’s working better.

5. Track your customer lifetime value.

While acquiring new customers is great, keeping them around is even better.

Knowing which types of customers stick with me the longest helps refine my strategy. Customer lifetime value (LTV) gives me the net profit I can expect from a customer over their lifetime. This metric is gold for understanding my customers and how they interact with my business. It also helps gauge the effectiveness of my marketing and support efforts, influencing decisions across the board.

Sure, customers with high LTV might cost more to acquire, but they bring in more revenue, give valuable feedback, and are likely to refer others. The good news is that calculating customer LTV isn’t that difficult. I start by defining metrics like average purchase value and frequency. Even rough estimates can help predict the revenue a customer will bring over time.

Pairing LTV with CAC tells me how long it takes to recover my investment in new customers and how to allocate my budget more effectively.

6. Prioritize decreasing customer churn, not making up for it.

No matter how hard I try, sometimes customers leave. It‘s just part of the business. But let’s dive into something crucial: Churn.

Customer churn represents the percentage of customers that peel away from your business and opt-out of your products or services. It’s also referred to as customer attrition or turnover.

When I lose customers, my instinct before was to go out and find new ones. This has led me to spend more on acquiring customers as churn rates rise, which is when I thought of flipping the script?

Instead of using new customer acquisition to patch up the churn problem, I started focusing on reducing churn itself. By addressing the root cause — unsatisfied customers — I can now avoid the “band-aid” solution of constantly seeking new ones.

Think about it: happy, retained customers can actually help attract new ones. Instead of always looking outward for replacements, I can look inward, improving customer service and retention.

7. Switch from an acquisition funnel to an acquisition flywheel.

Funnel vs. Flywheel graphic

Remember how I discussed the marketing funnel in the first section?

While it’s great for visualizing how customers come to know and buy from us, it misses one key element: the role of my current (and past) customers in driving future business.

Enter the “flywheel,” a concept popularized by HubSpot.

It illustrates how a business gains momentum when everyone is focused on delivering a remarkable customer experience. Happy customers bring in referrals and repeat sales, creating a self-sustaining cycle.

This is customer retention in action. Instead of spending big bucks to replace lost customers, I invest in keeping them happy. It’s a cost-effective strategy.

Note that customer retention strategies will vary depending on your business model, audience, and resources. But the goal remains the same: to keep your customers delighted so they keep coming back — and bring others with them.

Now that you know what makes an amazing customer acquisition strategy, let’s talk about some companies that are doing it well.

Customer Acquisition Strategy Examples

1. Product Pricing Acquisition: Otter.ai

customer acquisition model, product pricing acquisition

Who doesn’t love a freebie? Many top brands, like Dropbox, Slack, and HubSpot, lure in customers with a freemium model. One of my go-tos is Otter.ai, an AI transcription tool I use for capturing ideas, stories, and meeting notes. Otter’s free plan is pretty generous — 300 monthly transcription minutes and 30 minutes per conversation.

Honestly, I don’t see myself upgrading anytime soon. More importantly, by getting a taste of the Otter product, I can now better explain it to other people and companies — folks who may upgrade after hearing about it from me. So, Otter’s freemium model not only tempts me to upgrade but also turns me into a walking, talking advertisement for them.

2. Email Acquisition: Kaleigh Moore

email acquisition example from Kaleigh Moore

Email marketing is a valuable way to routinely engage with leads and keep your brand and product top-of-mind. This applies whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or an individual freelance writer, like Kaleigh Moore.

Kaleigh has also been sending a bi-monthly email newsletter for five years, full of freelancing and writing tips and stories for her audience. Recently, she developed some high-value digital products based on her own experiences, and guess what channel she tapped to get them in front of potential buyers? Email.

By converting her website visitors and blog readers to email subscribers, Kaleigh successfully acquired new leads — and, now, customers for her new products.

3. Gated Content Acquisition: HubSpot

gated content acquisition example

Okay, I might be a little biased here, but HubSpot is a pro at using gated content for customer acquisition. We churn out tons of new content offers every year—e-books, templates, worksheets, you name it. This “gated content” requires users to enter their emails to access it.

Another interesting example of this is interactive content acquisition, such as HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool. By “gamifying” the persona creation process, HubSpot successfully captures the information of people interested in making their own buyer personas.

4. Organic Search Acquisition: Chima Mmeje

organic search acquisition example

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SEO is growing in popularity among marketers, and it makes sense. 29% of marketers actively use content marketing, and 50% of marketers plan on increasing their investment in content marketing in 2024.

The key is smart resource allocation, whether you build an in-house content team or outsource. Freelance SEO copywriter Chima Mmeje is a pro at this. She helps SaaS clients like Skillshare and Wix climb the search engine ranks by creating topic clusters, conducting keyword research,

Smart Customer Acquisition Helps You Grow Better

Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of any company, big or small. Giving up on marketing to new customers is never an option, no matter the cost. But I’ve learned that the key to growth isn’t just with the marketing or sales team — it’s with the customer service team and the customers themselves.

The companies that succeed put their customers in the spotlight, focusing on both acquisition and retention. When I set up my acquisition strategy correctly, I saw not only a lower customer acquisition cost but also an increase in customer lifetime value.

For me, customer acquisition is about finding the right customers who stick around and help bring in more. I stopped seeing customer acquisition as a one-way funnel and started picturing it as a flywheel — constantly working to bring new customers on board and ensuring they succeed once they’ve joined. When customers thrive, they naturally go to work on your behalf.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

I hate to break it to you, but your brand’s customer service can make or break your company. To me, there is nothing worse than being put on hold when I need help with something — only for a support agent to drop the ball on responding or a chatbot to fail to connect me to a live agent.

Logically, I know there are other customer inquiries than just mine. I also know that customer support representatives are busy people. That’s why I think it’s a great idea that more and more companies are opting to use generative AI to streamline and improve the quality of customer service.

→ Download Now: The State of Customer Service [Free Report]

In this post, we’ll define AI customer support, discuss its uses in customer support processes, and share tips from customer services experts on how to implement AI into your workflows.

Table of Contents

What is AI Customer Support?

AI customer support uses artificial intelligence, such as natural language processing and machine learning, to automate certain support-related tasks, like responding to customer inquiries and scheduling appointments.

AI can vastly improve customer service response times, helping to improve the customer experience and create brand loyalty. In fact, 79% of customer service professionals say AI and automation improve their support strategy.

While some aspects of the customer support role require human-to-human interaction, AI-enabled software can provide better analytics so you and your team can improve your workflows and support services based on how your customers interact with and feel about your brand.

Types of AI Customer Support

AI can be integrated into nearly every aspect of customer support. Not sold yet? I’ll show you a few use cases of generative AI to improve customer service so you can learn what might be a good fit for you and your team.

Chatbots

Chatbots might just be one of the most popular applications of AI in customer service, and you’ve likely had personal experience with them. AI-powered chatbots are trained using company and industry data. This means when a customer interacts with the bot, the bot can anticipate and provide the best possible response to their query.

Screenshot of Mongoose’s homepage with Otto, a chatbot

Image Source

Mongoose, an engagement platform for higher education, uses a chatbot, Otto, to engage with customers and potential leads. Otto starts the conversation by asking if the visitor uses the platform and, depending on the answer, offers suggestions for new conversation topics.

I like to use chatbots like this to guide conversations, convert leads, or start initial support tickets.

Virtual Assistants

I think of virtual assistants as the cool cousins of a chatbot. Some AI-powered chatbots are limited in features, meaning they can only suggest new learning topics for users. AI virtual assistants step it up a notch and aid in customer support by providing customers assistance with things like scheduling appointments, placing orders, or providing tracking information.

screenshot of Dom, Domino’s virtual assistant

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Dom, Domino’s ordering assistant, is a perfect example of using a virtual assistant to help customers. Using Dom, pizza lovers can quickly order their favorite pie or easily browse the menu for new ordering ideas. I’m one of those people who eat with her eyes, so being able to see a cooked dish while using Dom also helps in my decision-making.

Voice Assistants

If you’re an iPhone user like me, you know all about the usefulness of Siri. Siri and Alexa are AI-powered voice assistants that every day users can use to complete certain tasks, like sending text messages or setting reminders. When it comes to customer support, businesses can use the same kind of technology to support callers, especially if all other phone lines are busy.

Screenshot of Xfinity's homepage

Image Source

Voice assistants aid in customer service by helping customers do certain tasks like setting up service appointments, paying their bills, or checking the status of their orders. I use Xfinity as an internet service provider.

The few times I have had to call and report a problem, I’ve noticed Xfinity uses a voice assistant to greet their customers initially, and depending on their inquiry, it will connect them to a live agent who can further assist them.

Email Responders

If you’re part of a customer support team, you know your inbox is constantly flooded with customer support requests. It can take some time to sort through emails to find high-priority messages. Even though your team is on top of responding to all customer requests, some important tickets can fall through the cracks.

AI email responders help solve that issue. Email responders analyze customer communications, sort them based on priority, and can suggest replies to help you and your team automate responses.

Analytics for Customer Insight

Generative AI can improve customer service in many ways, but one of the best uses of this technology is uncovering customer insights. Adding AI to your CRM, like HubSpot AI, can help you understand your customers’ behaviors and how they interact with your brand. When you know how and why they interact with your brand, you’re better able to provide targeted support.

screenshot of HubSpot AI

Plus, if your support agents understand customer sentiment before interacting and troubleshooting with a customer, they’re better able to tailor their delivery to ease tensions and maintain a positive customer-brand relationship.

Now that you know how AI can be used in customer support, let’s look at the best way to implement it.

Because there are various uses for AI in customer support, you need to make a plan and do a little research before implementing new software into your customer support processes. The wrong tool can cause a headache for your support team — or worse, cause issues for your clients.

To get a better idea of how to implement an AI tool into customer support, I talked with some customer service experts. Here’s what they suggest you do if you want to use generative AI to improve customer service.

Step 1: Define your goals.

Before I start anything new, whether that’s an exercise program or a business initiative, I find it helpful to define my goals. The same goes for using AI customer support tools. You need to define which of your customer support processes you can streamline with AI and which should be handled by a customer service rep.

Lasandra Barksdale, founder and principal of Kompass Customer Solutions, says to ask yourself this question: “Does this technology enhance our connection to our customers or increase the gap?”

Take some time to reflect on this question, brainstorm ideas, and ask for input from your team. Your team members can provide valuable insight into which of their job functions you can use AI to automate. From there, establish a timeline to implement new software.

Step 2: Gather and analyze customer support data.

Next, you’ll want to gather and analyze customer support data. You should look at things like:

  • The volume of support tickets received
  • Response times
  • Satisfaction ratings
  • Service logs

If you have the ability to conduct sentiment analysis, you should do that during this step, too. Be sure to also ask your team about any common customer pain points and complaints.

Step 3: Pick your AI tool.

By now, you should have a good idea of areas of improvement within your customer service processes. Take some time to research the various tools on the market that can help alleviate some of your customer service challenges.

For example if you need to work on faster response times, consider implementing an AI autoresponder tool for emails and support tickets. Or, if you’re losing visitors on your website, consider adding an AI chatbot to increase engagement.

Step 4: Train your tool.

Once you’ve chosen your AI tool and paid for a subscription to the service, you’ll need to spend some time training your bot. This means you’ll upload your company and customer data to the tool.

Barksdales also told me, “You have to feed your AI the right data. You have to train it with real customer interactions by feeding it diverse datasets that reflect the real questions and concerns our customers have, not just the ideal ones. To do this well, you have to make sure you have feedback loops set up to make sure learning is ongoing. This will keep your AI put to date on customer needs and ensure that it evolves as your customers do.”

To get the best, most accurate responses from your AI software, be sure to clean your data and remove any junk parameters before uploading it to the software. Bad data could lead to inappropriate responses. Take some time to train it using various tones and interaction styles — this way, you can be sure your AI tool can pick up on various sentiments.

Step 5: Test it.

After you’ve trained your tool using your company and customer data, it’s time to test it. Listen to me when I say this: you do not want to prematurely launch your AI tool. Launching your tool before your team fully understands how to best use it is a recipe for disaster.

Instead, assign members of your support team to be superusers. Give them early access to the tool and ask them to test it according to how they plan to use it in their everyday role.

Be sure to track appropriate performance metrics,too. Smitha Baliga, CEO and COO of TeleDirect Communications, told me that measuring effectiveness can vary by organization, but it’s generally accepted as best practice to measure the following data points:

  • Any customer feedback
  • Resolution rate
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Average handling time
  • Escalation rate”

Tracking these metrics while testing can ensure your AI tool supports your customer service efforts, not hinder them.

Step 6: Launch and ask customer feedback.

If your AI tool is customer-facing, you might need to announce the launch of your AI tool. This could be an email or a social media post to let your customers know they might see a new chatbot or a virtual assistant on your website. Be sure to set up a user experience survey, so you can gather customer feedback and opinions.

And, for good measure, if the tool is not customer-facing but is rep-facing, like an analytics tool or an autoresponder, you’ll want to ask your team for feedback, too.

Use the feedback from your customers and team members to make changes to continue to improve your workflows.

Tips for Using AI Customer Support

Adding AI to your support processes can be a game-changer for your customers and your support team. Depending on the tool, you can increase response rates, decrease negative interactions, and mitigate tense situations by gaining a deeper understanding of the customer and their concerns through analytical insights.

I asked a few customer support experts for their best tips on using AI in customer support. Here’s what they told me.

Tips for Using AI Customer Support

1. Understand your customer.

Understanding your customers and their needs is a top priority for your business, but especially for your customer support reps who are looking to implement an AI tool.

Bobby Hakimi, chief product officer and co-founder of Convoso, told me, “Review everyday customer needs, pain points, and expectations at each stage, and identify critical touchpoints where the AI will interact with customers. Train the model to recognize customer segments and tailor responses to those segments.”

2. Plan for challenges.

With the launch of any new software, there will be challenges to overcome. It’s inevitable.

Edward Tian, CEO of GTPZero, said the biggest challenge with using AI in customer support is that AI simply can’t handle every single inquiry.

“When you use it in place of real customer support agents, there will be times in which the technology can’t help the customer,” he explained. “That can then increase frustration on the customer’s end because now they’ve wasted time trying to use this tech service, when they could have just contacted a customer support agent directly. So, when AI for customer service works, it’s really great, but when it doesn’t work, the outcome is worse.”

3. Train your AI for situations that are too complex.

AI is good, but it can’t properly handle every customer inquiry or interaction. Some customers need specialized support, and you need to train your AI tool to recognize these situations.

Hakimi suggested, “Train the AI on when to escalate by recognizing when a query is too complex or sensitive and needs to be routed to a human agent. Build a path to a seamless transfer of the conversion, delivering the context and relevant information to the agent.”

4. Ensure seamless transitions between AI and humans.

Speaking of delivering content and information to a live agent, Barksdale had a tip for that, too. She said to ensure seamless transitions between AI and human agents you should consider the customer journey.

Barksdale said, “There‘s a big difference in needing to call a life insurance company because you can’t access the website versus after a family member has passed. Identify the moments that matter in each journey and make sure that high-emotion interactions are handled by a human. This requires well-defined triggers and a clear understanding of when AI should pass the baton to a human.”

5. Measure the success of AI in customer support.

Barksdale’s last tip is to measure the success of AI in customer support.

Barksdale told me, “You have to measure more than just response times, but also focus on CSAT scores and resolution rates of complex issues. Make sure to do A/B testing and pre- and post-implementation analysis to understand whether AI is directly impacting metrics or if other factors are influencing the results. At the end of the day, it’s about how well AI complements your customer support team.”

Maximize the Full Potential of Generative AI to Improve Customer Service

Generative AI in customer support is more than just adding a chatbot to your website to catch customer interactions. Sure, chatbots are a great use of generative AI, but there are other ways to use it to support your customer support initiatives — especially if you want to improve every aspect of your customer experience.

AI tools can help your team better understand your customers and their feelings, while also filtering out higher priority support tickets. That helps you can ensure you’re taking care of customer needs when they arise. Just be sure to follow the advice of our experts when implementing an AI tool, so you know it helps improve your processes, not make them worse.

When I go to the grocery store, I‘m a bit of an in-and-out type of customer. I’m usually running in after a workout, grabbing exactly what’s on my list aisle by aisle (with the occasional sweet treat), and typically opt for self-checkout over a traditional cashier to speed up the process.

I never paid any mind to my checkout experience until this recent blurb on TikTok started popping up on my FYP last week: “Do cashiers not talk anymore?”

→ Download Now: 45 Customer Service Scripting Templates

While controversial takes and debates are not new to the app, I found it interesting that something as simple as the customer’s frequency of chatting was next on the algorithm.

why don't cashiers talk anymore customer service discourse

Luckily, I‘m feeling pretty chatty myself today, and in this article, I’ll discuss the evolving expectations placed on cashiers for social interaction. I’ll explore both sides of the argument regarding their obligations, limitations, and what businesses should prioritize for an ideal and realistic customer experience.

Table of Contents

The Problem: Customers are complaining about cashiers not speaking enough.

It’s understandable that customers desire more personable interaction while shopping, but often they feel disappointed by the limited conversation from service workers.

To grasp why customers might feel this way, let‘s start by defining what a cashier’s role entails.

Historically, the role of a cashier has always been the same, to handle transactions and keep up with accounting. But there has always been an unspoken rule (which was always inferred through various service onboarding role-play videos) that it should all be done with a smile and casual conversation.

But over the years, I‘d argue that cashiers have faced increasing pressure to perform in more ways than before. Not only do they have their company’s eyes on them via security, but the rising trend to single out and film cashiers over product costs, item shortages, attitudes, or misunderstandings that add another layer of stress to an essential worker’s plate.

And this isn’t even counting if a customer is hangry.

the role of the cashier is often met with challenges like angry customers meme

Image Source

Expectations of Cashiers to Engage in Conversation

There are many different reasons why customers would want — or even look forward to — conversation while they’re out running errands.

1. Feelings that conversational interactions can enhance the shopping experience.

Marketing thought leader and best-selling author Paul Greenberg once said, “If a customer likes you — and continues to like you — they will continue to do business with you. If they don’t, they won’t.”

80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its product or services. So perhaps the power of friendly greetings and small talk is a necessary part of good customer service.

2. Cashiers have an opportunity to make a memorable interaction.

One of the most timeless forms of positive company marketing is real-life, organic stories from customers who appreciated engaging with personable cashiers. The opportunity to interview and share customer testimonials of how their expectations were exceeded is music to a business’s ears.

These stories go beyond just attracting new customers, too. 88% of customers say good customer service makes them more likely to purchase again, emphasizing the impact of these interactions on brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.

Challenges Faced by Cashiers

1. Overwork based on foot traffic and staff headcount.

During college, I worked at a local pharmacy between classes. I was actually a pharmacy technician, but because of rush hour and being short-staffed, I’d have to help check out at the front desk and still manage to tend to the drive-thru.

Situations like this impact a cashier’s ability to engage in extra social interactions. It can go beyond small businesses to grocery stores, restaurants, and more, as any business can get congested and leave employees in a tizzy.

2. Invisible disabilities or personal limitations can hinder communication.

Respecting cashiers’ diverse capabilities, including their physical, emotional, and psychological constraints, is key to running a successful business.

While staff may be aware of invisible disabilities or other considerations among their colleagues, they often face angry customers when “excellent” customer service expectations aren’t met.

Not everyone excels at on-the-fly communication or is always in the best mood, but these factors do not undermine their ability to perform their job well.

The Solution: Mutual Respect and Understanding

The desire for a pleasant shopping experience is the result of both employees and customers. And while there may not be a one-size-fits-all approach, there are some good takeaways to share for more friendly interactions.

The Customer’s Role: Lead with politeness, but temper expectations.

Customers can contribute to a positive interaction by being polite and considerate. Yes, it’s not their job to do so, but entering the checkout with a smile increases the chances of a more positive interaction.

Expectations should be tempered with an understanding of the cashier‘s situation. Most of us have worked a service role at some point in our careers, meaning we all know what it’s like to come to work and give what you can, instead of giving “your all.”

The Company’s Role: Support your cashier’s work environment.

Creating a positive work environment lays a foundation for energetic, enthusiastic employees.

Take actions to support employees, such as guaranteeing fair pay and reasonable workloads. If your team is supported and able to, they can provide good service from more than just the checkout.

And lastly, encouraging a culture where cashiers feel empowered to be pleasant without feeling pressured.

In conclusion, yes. Cashiers still talk.

You might catch a super extroverted Kyle who‘s just as stoked as you are to speak, but if you instead get Carrie, who’s about to clock out and worked a double shift, then I think a quieter checkout process is just fine if you ask me.

While conversational cashiers add value, it’s crucial to recognize the limitations and challenges they face. Instead of demanding more than the job entails, advocate for balanced expectations and greater empathy from customers, and encourage your business or others to create supportive environments for their cashiers to enable them to go above and beyond.

With all the focus on customer acquisition these days, it’s easy to overlook one of the biggest potential sources of new revenue out there: your existing customer base.

The existing customers you’ve retained may be the key to your company’s massive growth, and customer surveys are one of the best tools for driving these future wins.

Data gathered by Invesp’s Khalid Saleh suggests that it’s five times more expensive to attract a new customer than to sell again to an existing one. But despite this, he claims, “44% of companies have a greater focus on customer acquisition vs. 18% that focus on retention.”→ Free Download: 5 Customer Survey Templates [Access Now]

But if you’ve never sent a survey before, how do you know what to send? What types of surveys will be most effective, and when should they be sent?

In this post we’ll cover:

The Goals of Using a Customer Survey

The development of digital survey technology has made it easier than ever before to poll your customers. But with this great power comes great responsibility.

Send too few surveys, and you’ll miss valuable feedback. Send too often, and you risk alienating the customers you’re counting on for future growth. Developing a survey strategy that’s informative, but not intrusive, requires an understanding of what you’re hoping to achieve with your customer surveys.

A few possible survey types to consider include:

  • Post-purchase surveys to measure satisfaction with the product or service purchased, the delivery, or the onboarding experience.
  • Net Promoter Score® (NPS) surveys to determine customers’ likelihood of recommending your brand to others.
  • Product or service development surveys intended to capture customers’ desires for future launches (for example, asking for advance feedback on a possible line extension).

Customer Survey Questions

Asking the right questions in a customer survey is key to getting the information you need to make informed decisions. Here are some typical customer survey questions and what information their answers reveal.

1. On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend [PRODUCT/SERVICE] to your friends and colleagues?

This is an NPS survey question that measures customer loyalty. If the customer responds with a 9 or a 10, they’re loyal customers who may be willing to serve as your advocate.

But if their score is between 0 and 8, you need to do some more work to make them happier. Reach out to them proactively to ask for feedback.

2. How satisfied were you with your experience?

This is a customer satisfaction survey question that measures how happy, or unhappy, a customer is with your product or service, or a one-off customer service experience.

3. How easy was it to solve your problem with [PRODUCT/SERVICE]?

This is a customer effort score (CES) survey question that measures how easy or difficult it was for a customer to use your product or service.

4. How would you rate your experience with [PRODUCT/SERVICE]?

This is a semantic differential survey question used to measure customer sentiment about your product or service.

Each of these survey questions can be used in different ways to gather important customer feedback that will help you improve and fine-tune your customer experience.

3 Customer Survey Examples to Drive Growth and Measure Loyalty

1. Post-Purchase Surveys

Since a post-purchase survey is asking for feedback on a transaction that’s already occurred, it doesn’t necessarily drive growth by stimulating additional purchases (though offering a coupon or discount code for survey completion can have this effect).

Instead, post-purchase surveys allow you to do several things:

  • Improve brand sentiment by positioning your company as one that cares about customers’ outcomes.
  • Identify problems with the ordering process – or your products and services themselves – that can be corrected before they lead to bad reviews.
  • Gather additional information about your customers in order to send more targeted promotions in the future.
  • Deepen the relationship you have with new customers.

The specific questions you’ll ask on your post-purchase survey will depend on which of these goals you’re trying to achieve.

To get started, check out this sample from SurveyMonkey, or Square’s post-transaction feedback survey, shared by Joshua Porter on his Bokardo blog:

If you’re using a marketing automation tool, create a workflow or campaign so that this message is sent out automatically upon purchase. But you may want to incorporate a delay so that this survey request isn’t sent out immediately, but instead is delayed for a few days so that customers have a chance to get up and running with your product.

If it makes sense to do so, you can also include a request to take your post-purchase feedback survey in a more traditional welcome email.

Test different message contents and sequences to find the combination that spurs the most survey completions among your new customers.

2. Net Promoter Score (NPS) Surveys

Adding a post-purchase survey to your checkout flow is a good way to capture valuable business-building feedback from new buyers. But what about customers that are already in your system? What if you want to turn them into advocates for your company?

Again, customer surveys can be your new best friend.

In this specific case, you’ll want to use what’s known as a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey. The goal of an NPS survey is to determine which of your past customers like your brand enough to refer you to others.

This is done by asking them to rate the likelihood that they’d advocate for your company on a scale of 0 to 10. According to the official Net Promoter Score definition, those who score your company as a “9” or “10” are “promoters.”

Those who give you a “7” or an “8” can be considered “passive customers,” while those who rate you below a “6” may actively be detractors.

Most email marketing providers offer templates for these types of surveys (whether they call them NPS surveys or not).

So what do you do with this information?

Certainly, if you receive a “detractor” score from a customer, you’ll want to investigate further to determine what went wrong. Again, this can lead to the kind of information needed to grow sales by improving the satisfaction and experience of future customers.

“Passive” respondents can be followed up with in much the same way. Rather than ask what went wrong, ask what could have made their experience even better to capture process- or product-improvement information.

Finally, identifying the “promoters” among your customer ranks is the first step in implementing a formal referral-marketing program.

According to Extole, referral marketing is “a method of spontaneously promoting a business’s products and services to new customers by word of mouth. This can happen through a variety of channels such as email, mobile, and social media.”

Referral marketing programs can be formal or informal. An informal referral marketing program might involve asking customers who have identified themselves as “promoters” to suggest your brand to family members or friends.

A more formal program might involve the creation of a one-way or two-way incentive program through which customers earn cash or credit towards future purchases for successfully recruiting new customers.

There are plenty of reasons to implement a referral marketing program, according to Nielsen data gathered by AnnexCloud:

  • 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know
  • People are 4 times more likely to buy when referred by a friend
  • 77% of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when learning about it from friends or family

Effective referral marketing programs come in all shapes and sizes, but they all allow you to drive more sales from your existing customers.

Set yours up manually or using a marketing automation campaign so that customers who respond positively to your NPS survey are sent invitations to join your program, as well as instructions on how to participate.

I’ve personally found that the best time to send the NPS survey is after the customer has reached the “aha moment” where the value of your brand becomes clear to them.

For ecommerce companies, this can occur after the first purchase (assuming you’ve created a positive delivery experience).

For SaaS companies, or those with greater onboarding and activation requirements, this may be later in the game, after new customers have carried out their first major project or campaign using your tool.

For more on finding your own “aha moment,” check out the following resources:

3. Product or Service Development Surveys

View of the analytics of HubSpot's feedback tool.

You can create surveys with HubSpot’s Customer Feedback Software

The potential of customer surveys to drive future sales is really limitless. But because covering all of them would take an entire book, one last survey type I want to cover is the product or service development survey.

Let’s say you’re thinking about adding a new product or service to your company’s existing offering. Who better to advise you on whether your new addition will be a home run or a strikeout than your current customers?

Surveying them in advance on what they’d like to see and how they’d respond to future offerings minimizes your risk of serving up duds.

In an article on For Entrepreneurs, Brent Chudoba, VP at SurveyMonkey and General Manager of the SurveyMonkey Audience business, shared the example of Modify Watches — a young start-up that was having trouble building an audience.

To determine how to allocate its limited resources, Chudoba helped Modify develop a survey intended to measure how future customers would respond to different price points or delivery models. For instance, one of the questions asked was whether or not respondents would be likely to purchase through a subscription model (roughly 60% of participants were at least slightly likely to do so).

Because this 60% was high compared to the 70% that indicated they’d be likely to purchase a Modify watch at all, the company could confidently make the decision to pursue subscriptions as a pricing model.

According to Chudoba, “If you want to talk to your own customers, and understand product satisfaction, feature requests or anything else, a survey can be a great tool. You most likely have email addresses for your customers, or can provide a feedback link on your site, or even embed a survey in-product.”

You can create surveys using HubSpot’s Customer Feedback Software and analyze the results.

Customer Survey Templates

Here are a few basic templates for common customer surveys you might implement in your own customer surveys:

1. NPS Survey

NPS survey

2. Customer Satisfaction Survey

satisfaction survey

3. Customer Effort Score

customer effort score

4. Semantic Differential

semantic differential

How to Design Your Customer Surveys

If putting all of these different surveys into place sounds overwhelming, don’t worry — you don’t have to do it all at once.

Instead, start with the survey type that makes the most sense, given the particulars of your business:

  • If you’re a new company, start with post-purchase surveys so that you identify any problems with your processes early on.
  • If you’ve built a customer base, but they’ve grown dormant, pair an NPS survey with a new referral marketing program to jumpstart sales.
  • If you’re approaching a new product or service launch, focus first on a survey that’ll give you the information needed to maximize its financial impact.

Expand as you go, keeping your customers’ needs at the forefront.

With a little effort, these surveys will make it possible to drive massive growth based on the engagement of your existing customers alone.

Are you using customer surveys to drive growth? If so, share any other tips you’d add to this guide with me on Twitter.

Want more? Learn how to create a survey on Facebook, using Google Forms, or with Excel.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

Click me

In 2023, it’s clear that AI and other technologies are transforming the way we work, search, and learn about new things. But, in a shocking turn of events, humans — real, live humans — are being called upon to satisfy consumers.

And, if consumers don’t get what they want, they’ll use their free will, sentience, and emotions to go straight to a review page and give you a rating that they see fit.

Download Now: 20 Review Response Templates

Think your 3.5-star review doesn’t truly matter because it “can’t possibly tell the whole story?”

Oh, it matters.

Higher product ratings result in higher purchases

Image Source

Through digging into the customer experience industry, I recently learned that trust drops an astonishing 67% when reviews drop from four stars to three.;

Conversely, trust spikes up to 95% at the five-star level.

These are some pretty good reasons to keep your customers happy.

Still not convinced customer service is a worthy investment? New research shows that when customer experience is part of your overall brand strategy:

  • Revenue increases by 2%-7%
  • Profitability expands 1%-2%
  • Satisfaction and engagement blast up 20%-30%

Despite all the technological growth out there, my team at Trends is betting that there’s money in human-centric customer experience solutions.

Boosting Five-Star Ratings

Leveraging Tech to Empower Humans

For the tech-savvy Trendster or customer service innovator, there’s an opportunity to develop or invest in affordable, automated, AI-powered software to support the humans tasked with making consumers happy.

For example, you could develop, test, or invest in tools that streamlines you or your service team tasks, enabling a friendly, engaging, but simplified intake process. You can also explore features that humanize the service team with realistic photos and video chat options.

Or, leverage platforms that aggregate and analyze interactions with customer service teams, and pairs it with AI to suggest streamlined service processes for businesses in real-time.

In the name of excellent CX, you should also go above and beyond by making an inclusive interface so that all customers feel comfortable accessing support.

Learning from Lucrative Customer-First Brands

While getting reviews up definitely won’t hurt, providing a great customer experience also results in returning customers, upgrades, or retained customers in tougher times because they’ve developed trust for your brand.

And, on the Trends team, we’ve covered countless examples of how brands have driven financial growth by prioritizing their customer — beyond the ratings.

From 2021 to 2023, HubSpot’s Trends team has done deep dives into the lucrative business opportunities in customer reviews. As the workplace landscape shifted, customer interactions didn’t lose importance. In fact, many affordable customer experience startups, like Freshworks, reported a 20% revenue increase in Q1.

This demonstrated that even though businesses are cutting costs, they’re not willing to skimp on CX.

Need more examples?

  • Baby monitor brand Nanit made national news after they 10x’d conversions when they prioritized CX by adding human customer-service reps to calm the fears of new parents.
  • Meanwhile, bigger brands like Apple have begun to offer video chats with live product specialists to enhance the online shopping experience.

Not Avoiding Negatives

Negative reviews can actually build trust by showing consumers that the brand values transparency and honest feedback.

Use in-app tools to handle negative comments: For example, respond to an Instagram Reel with another Reel,politelysetting the customer straight and offering solutions or new knowledge.

Added bonus: It’s just more positive brand content working to combat the unavoidable, occasional negative comment.

Google is the best place for tackling small to medium local business reviews. But, these businesses can be especially vulnerable to negative reviews because they are so niche. Still, you shouldn’t avoid or ignore them as they come in.

Sure, Google’s less glossy than Instagram and TikTok — but there is money to be made by mastering Google Business Profile.

Rather than just thinking about these reviews as feedback and customer service, think of them as free promotional content where you have a great chance to present the transparent, thoughtful humans behind your business. Reply to every comment and review to keep the human connection alive and engaged.

Taking Your Customer Experience Beyond Five Stars

While these are all just a few examples of how to maintain or innovate a great customer experience — as well as a great customer rating, you shouldn’t stop there. To learn more about the latest consumer preferences or customer experience trends, check out this post.

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published in our Trends Newsletter and later edited and adapted to publish on the HubSpot Blog.

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Henry Ford once said, “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” 

Ford was a revolutionary in many ways, but his empathetic leadership style was undoubtedly before its time. He was a “people person,” well-known for the loyalty he inspired in his workforce and the high productivity that came as a result.

→ Click here to download leadership lessons from HubSpot founder, Dharmesh  Shah [Free Guide].

While Ford’s approach may have been a rarity in the early 1900s, today’s visionaries are making empathy the cornerstone of their leadership models. Take Jacinda Ardern, for example, the prime minister of New Zealand whose party won re-election in a rare landslide victory last autumn. For Ardern, empathy is a key aspect of leadership that in no way reduces her efficacy.

“One of the criticisms I’ve faced over the years is that I’m not aggressive enough or assertive enough, or maybe somehow, because I’m empathetic, it means I’m weak,” Ardern told the New York Times. “I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you can not be both compassionate and strong.”

leadership empathy Jacinda ardern

Although some professionals continue to see empathy as more of a “soft skill,” many are learning it’s crucial to building an aligned, inspired team. In this post, we’ll explain how treating employees with compassion fosters a stronger bond with your workforce and increases productivity on your marketing, sales, and customer service teams.

Why Empathy Is the Key to Strong Leadership

It’s easy to get confused about what empathetic leadership is and what it is not. Empathy is the ability to understand and share another person’s feelings and perspective, and in no way should it be confined to our personal lives.

Empathy motivates employees by making them feel valued.

It’s a common misconception that if you show empathy in a leadership role, your team will lose focus and stray away from short- and long-term goals. In reality, empathy is an acquired skill that you should flex in moments of need to help you reach your organization’s objectives. It doesn’t decrease your drive to achieve, nor does it put yourself in a position of weakness. Rather, it shows employees that you recognize their value and you want them to perform to the best of their abilities.

A recent survey found that 80% of CEOs believe empathy is a key driver of success. Why? Empathetic leadership increases trust in management, prevents toxic work culture, and helps companies retain their best employees. People need to feel valued if you want them to be engaged in the workplace and aligned with your organization’s mission. Strong business leaders know that when employees are happy and motivated, their teams are much more likely to succeed.

Maureen Zimmerman, CEO of The Edge Ideas, learned this lesson while managing her company.

Leadership empathy maureen zimmerman

Empathy generates goodwill with your business partners.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented incredible challenges for countries all over the world. Some places have been more successful at combating the virus, while others continue to face uncertainty until a vaccine is widely available.

In April 2020, Taiwan had the lowest incident rate per capita out of the 100 countries affected by COVID-19. Tsai Ing-Wen, the country’s first female president, demonstrated a remarkable amount of empathy when she launched the “Taiwan Can Help” campaign as a way to assist countries that were severely impacted by the pandemic. As part of this effort, Taiwan would donate 10 million masks to places like Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and other countries that were the most-affected by COVID-19.

President Tsai said in a press conference, “Over the past months, we have seen countless acts of bravery and sacrifice from medical workers around the world. It’s our duty as global citizens to give them our full support.”

This act of empathy didn’t go unnoticed by other countries. Shortly after President Tsai’s announcement, world leaders like Ursula von der Leyen took to Twitter to voice their appreciation.

So, what does this mean if you’re a business owner?

This teaches us that empathy creates value both inside and outside your organization. When you ingrain empathy into everything that you do, you can help a lot more people than you may think. And, when you do, this generates good karma for your business. More partners will want to work with you, customers will take notice of your good deeds, and a positive reputation will follow your brand.

Empathy aids career advancement.

No matter what department you’re working in, you’ll need to embrace empathy if you want to take on a leadership role.

For sales teams, there’s a clear benefit to understanding empathy because if you can recognize customer needs, it’s much easier to sell to them.

For marketing professionals, the value of developing an “empathetic muscle” is more subtle. But, if you can uncover what people want and need from your brand, you can create content and campaigns that are much more eye-catching and effective.;

Lastly, the benefit of empathy is quite clear for customer service teams. If you don’t understand why customers are upset, you’ll never fully solve their problems. As a result, people will be quick to turn to your competitors when they realize your agents can’t meet their needs.

Even if you’re in a leadership position, without empathy you won’t know whether your management style is effective until it’s too late. Because empathy puts yourself in another person’s shoes, it gives you real-time insight into whether your approach is being received positively. This kind of awareness is paramount for managers, whose job is to align their team around a central vision, inspire others, and build employee loyalty.

Empathy fosters a productive work culture.

A positive work culture leads to higher productivity because it gives team members a safe space to express their concerns, removes barriers for growth, and makes your employees more agile and resilient.

One way you can build this type of culture is to create a forum that encourages open conversations and active listening. Active listening not only increases emotional intelligence but also encourages others to train their own empathetic muscle. This includes withholding judgment, which isn’t always easy for some people. You need to consciously initiate conversations with people who have different backgrounds, talent sets, and experiences to elicit their unique perspectives. Then, you have to compare their views against your own before you react.

This takes more than practice; it also requires patience, self-management, and self-awareness—all of which takes time and reflection to develop. Having an open forum where employees can practice these skills helps you develop a positive and productive work culture.

For more leadership tips, check out this guide to customer service and support management.

Customer First Templates