What’s a CX Audit?

Customer Experience encompasses every touch a customer has with a brand, from the website’s ease-of-use, to the speed of product fulfillment, to the clarity of the user guide. Without dedicated resources to oversee your customer journey, it’s easy for inconsistencies or pain points to arise. 

If your unboxing experience is mind-blowing, but the customer support staff isn’t trained, the confidence you gave the customer in your brand in the first half of their experience, is now compromised, reducing the likelihood the customer will purchase again.

The Need for a CX Audit

The significance of CX cannot be overstated; research shows that companies with superior customer experiences achieve higher customer loyalty and more revenue growth. This is where the need for a Customer Experience Audit or CX Audit comes into play.

The Purpose of a CX Audit

A CX Audit allows brands to have their customer journey and service operations evaluated by a third party that will then make recommendations for improvement based on findings. 

Because CX Audits are typically completed by a consultant or agency not affiliated with your organization, the journey can be perceived more as your customer would perceive it compared to an internal employee, allowing for new areas of opportunity to be uncovered. 

CX Audits are conducted by customer experience professionals, allowing them to effectively compare your brand experience with other brands, industry standards, and current trends. 

By implementing recommendations suggested in the CX Audit, brands are able to improve their brand reputation, gain more customers, retain more customers, improve agent experience which reduces turnover, potentially save costs, and grow their revenue.

When to Conduct a CX Audit

While brands may choose to conduct a CX Audit at any time, there are some business scenarios that are more likely to prompt the investment.

Business Has New / Renewed CX Focus

CX Audits are common when a brand has awareness that their current customer experience has challenges, and chooses to place heavy emphasis on the experience as part of the organization’s business strategy.

Business Has Change in Leadership

A CX Audit may be conducted after a leader has departed, or when a new leader accepts the role, to better understand the scope of what needs to be achieved. A CX Leader may choose to conduct the audit, or it may be an operations or other executive.

Business is Setting Foundation to IPO or Sell

As brands prepare to go public or sell their business to a new owner, they may conduct a CX Audit and make the recommended changes to increase the value of the business.

How a CX Audit Works

CX Audits may differ depending on the agency and scope. While some audits may focus on the overall customer journey, others may be limited to the customer support experience..

The individual or agency conducting the audit will start by understanding your business and its place in the market. They’ll conduct research, assess your competitors, and interview your leaders and team members.

They’ll review service, sales, and marketing data. They’ll map out your whole customer journey as well as select journeys, highlighting areas where the brand surpasses expectations and where improvements could be made. They may look at your support structure, tech stack, vendor management, data analytics, performance metrics, training documentation, and more!

After they’ve conducted their research, they’ll present their findings, the brand’s strengths and weaknesses, recommended implementations, and suggested priorities. Same agencies may assist in implementation.

It’s not uncommon for a CX Audit to guide the direction of an organization’s customer experience operations for a year or more.

Implementing Recommendations

Solutions required to resolve the issues discovered in a CX Audit can range from taking just a few seconds, to taking months of planning and preparation.  Similarly, the issues discovered can range from being critical, to being nice-to-have. Therefore, it's important to prioritize changes based on potential impact, customer satisfaction, costs saved or gained, and business goals. 

Like any successful change management process, transparency is key. Communicate the changes to everyone - not just the departments you think will be impacted. Create a vision for success to motivate your team members, explain reasons for each change, and listen to feedback during the change process.

After implementing changes, continue monitoring and measuring improvements.

Frequency of CX Audits

Over the next year or more, your industry will shift, your brand will evolve, and customer behaviors will change. Conduct another CX Audit within a few years to ensure you’re still meeting customer needs.

Ready to schedule your first CX Audit? Contact The CX Coach to learn more!