Five things a startup must do to prioritize CX

In the early stages of a business, personalized customer service is the critical differentiator from larger legacy organizations. As your startup gains traction, you may find more of your resources leveraged to accommodate your higher transaction volume at the expense of a satisfying customer experience. A well-honed CX strategy supports growth without compromising your human-centric values.

In this thoughtful article, Teddy Albayero, XtendOps VP of Operations and Strategy for Latin America highlights the importance of a thoughtful CX strategy for startups, laying out a series of achievable steps for any business seeking to make the customer experience their priority.

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In my career, I’ve touched on all aspects of the startup, from the creation on the legal front, infrastructure, and networking all the way to sunsetting and shutting down. Through all that experience, I’ve learned that customer experience and growth go hand in hand; you can’t have one without the other.

In contrast to larger organizations with established customer service protocols, startups have energy and flexibility on their side. This agility enables a newer business to recognize customer needs and behaviors and adapt quickly to provide the kind of responsive attention that adds up to a world-class customer experience.

A startup must focus on the customer experience if it’s going to grow. At XtendOps, we hold a customer-centric culture as a core value because it creates a winning feedback loop. An excellent customer experience creates loyal brand ambassadors who spend more and are willing to recommend you to others. These profits can then be invested into an even better experience for our customers to keep that vital loyalty cycle going.

If you run a startup, vying for your spot in the market means constantly innovating with limited resources and data. Your challenge is to deliver seamless CX without the resource base of more established organizations, which means striking a healthy balance between quality control and growth. In an environment of ever-changing customer needs, you must be able to adapt while ensuring essential brand and service consistency.

Here’s my take on the value of customer centricity in a nutshell: returning customers keep the business going, and referrals keep the business growing. Here are five ways to place customer experience front and center in your startup, even with limited resources.

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Focus on quick wins

Identify one or several simple initiatives that deliver high impact on the customer experience. Could the interface on your website benefit from a CX update? Is there a way to streamline your customer service process?

Revisiting your customer journey map—or creating one for the first time—will give you critical information on opportunities for CX improvements. Even if you don’t have the capacity to eliminate all friction points at once, you can create a blueprint to help you target achievable CX adaptations.

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Use data to make informed decisions

That personal touch is the core of CX for many small businesses, and anecdotal feedback can be a compelling driver for decision-making. For your startup to thrive and grow in the long term, however, subjective customer feedback must align with or translate into objective metrics like statistics and KPIs.

Of course, you want your customers to have a positive experience and tell others about it. But don’t underestimate the value of feedback that points out pain points in the customer journey. This data shows you your best opportunities for improvement.

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Optimize your existing resources

Follow the “work smarter, not harder” principle. Look for ways to improve outcomes without adding needless organizational bulk. Consider which processes along the customer journey can be reworked to provide a more streamlined experience.

For example, you can maintain your current helpdesk team but introduce an AI chatbot to give quick solutions for tier-one customer questions. It provides a frictionless experience for your customer and increases your team’s capacity to deal with more complex questions.

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Collaborate with your team

This one may be a challenge for you if you’re the leader at a startup. You trust your vision—it’s gotten you this far—but you must also be open to the perspectives of the people on your team. Resist the urge to control every aspect of your business and seek input from the individuals working day-in-day-out at the different phases of the customer service process. With your guidance and vision, your team members can help you spot impactful initiatives.

And don’t forget: happy employees make happy customers. Here at XtendOps, we have an internal slogan: “A customer experience cannot exceed the employee experience.” Demonstrating your appreciation and respect for your team always pays off.  

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Measure, measure, measure

Monitor your company’s performance on every new CX initiative, with every adjustment you make to the process. Take a responsive approach, adapting as you go. If you see a change that works well, explore possibilities to replicate that change.

Be prepared for seasonality. A strategy may work for a while, but don’t be afraid to pivot when you see that it’s no longer delivering desirable results. Innovation is what built your company, and now it becomes a key driver in your customer-centric culture. Take every opportunity to learn from your customers and your team and implement these learnings.

At XtendOps, optimizing customer experience involves more than advanced technology. We believe engaging support is best achieved through thoughtfully deployed AI solutions in support of human agents. Our flexible approach to personalized, proactive CX puts you, your employees, and your customers front and center. We offer innovative solutions that meet you where you are right now on your startup journey and adapt to your evolving needs.

Ready to explore our flexible, scalable BPO solutions? Connect with us today.