We are living in a customer-centric world today more than ever. Customers dictate the market, and thanks to the internet, they have the power to make or break your business with a loud and influential voice.

According to statistics from BrightLocal, 84 percent of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and 90 percent of consumers will read less than 10 reviews before deciding their opinion on a business. If reviews of a business are negative, customers may think twice about purchasing from you.

One of the most common reasons that people leave negative reviews is because they have less-than-savory customer experiences brought on by bad customer service. Unfortunately, these reviews and occurrences can lead people to paint an undesirable picture of an entire industry. This can be especially detrimental to the independent side of service industries, where every interaction matters and causes customers to form an opinion about your business.

As an example, customer experience plays a large role in the insurance industry. Customers must be comfortable speaking with their independent agent and trust their agents’ recommendations. If one independent agent doesn’t provide a stellar customer experience, it may leave a bad taste in the customer’s mouth, causing them to not want to work with independent agents anymore. On the other hand, if a customer has a great experience, the agent will retain the customer, and they may want to only work with independent agents in the future.

Let’s take a look at some ideas your business can implement to give your customers a superior customer experience.
 

Figure out what you need to do for your customers.

Great customer service — being polite with customers — is a good baseline for your business. However, you have to take it one step further and offer an excellent customer experience as well. This means you need to go beyond doing what you feel like doing for your customers; you figure out what you need to do for them, too. That means paying attention to what the customer wants and doing whatever it takes to make them happy. If they request text reminders, you set up a text reminder program. You constantly adapt your business to the needs of your customer.

Ask your customer what their preferences are, and then implement those preferences. That way, your customers will be comfortable and want to share more, which helps you do your job better.

It’s the people that de-commoditize insurance and other service-based industries, making the customer experience an extremely important differentiator. Price might attract new insurance prospects, but focusing on the customer experience and humanizing your customer interactions are the key components to consumer satisfaction.
 

Keep customers’ expectations in mind.

Customer expectations are not what they used to be. Customers want to educate themselves before they talk to a customer service representative and purchase from a business. There must be easily attainable information about the business, as well as online product details and customer reviews.

Customers also want customer service representatives to be available when they are, and information they can access online once they’re a customer or have spoken with a rep. This may include a self-service online portal with their policy information or email newsletter.

Unlike buying a new piece of technology, the customer experience is not static: It’s always evolving according to the needs of the customer.

In Bill Gates’ book The Road Ahead, he says, “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next 10." With the speed of technology continuing to commoditize industries today, only providing good customer service can prove to be a significant setback for your business.

Developing a great customer experience is hard work, but the people that win at it will continue to adapt their customer experience forever and keep customers coming back for more.
 

Ryan Hanley is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at TrustedChoice.com and the Managing Editor of Agency Nation. He is also a speaker, podcaster and author of the Amazon best-seller, "Content Warfare." Ryan has over 12 years of insurance expertise and blogs frequently to help consumers understand complicated insurance topics.