A new year brings fresh challenges for teams striving to ensure their digital platforms achieve business goals. Organisations often overlook how investing in customer experience (CX) can uncover gaps and identify the best opportunities for investment to ensure continued success.
In this blog, we discuss how to build a business case for investing in CX, with real-life examples of how it has helped organisations elevate their platforms. Whether you're looking to increase sales, boost donations, enhance customer and stakeholder engagement, or streamline processes, this blog will help you understand the importance of CX before further investing in your digital solutions.
The ROI of customer experience investment
Before the new financial year and budgets are set, one of the most compelling tools for building a business case is ROI (return on investment). Demonstrating ROI helps teams prove the value of CX investment to stakeholders.
Metrics that can showcase ROI include:
- Customer retention rates: A small increase in retention can significantly impact profitability.
- Conversion rates: Optimised platforms often see higher engagement and revenue.
- Employee efficiency: Well-designed internal systems can reduce training time and increase productivity.
Research highlights:
To effectively showcase ROI, let’s look at compelling research highlighting how CX improvements translate to tangible business outcomes. These data points can strengthen your argument and help you gain stakeholder buy-in.
- Boost profits: Satisfying users enough to increase customer retention by just 5% can lead to at least a 25% increase in profits. (Intechnic)
- Cost savings: McAfee reduced expenses by 90% after integrating usability testing to understand customer needs better. (Intechnic)
- Revenue growth: 84% of companies improving their customer experience report increased revenue. (Forbes)
Case study: BANES Carers’ Centre website
To see how these principles come to life, here’s an example of how we helped a client transform their digital platform with CX-driven insights.
The BANES Carers’ Centre provides respite services, advice, and information for the carers’ community in Bath and North East Somerset. To meet carers’ needs and leverage digital solutions, we conducted multiple user workshops and 1:1 sessions with young carers, adult carers, and the parents of young carers. This allowed us to create an engaging and accessible website, placing carers at the centre of every design and development stage.
Results:
- New users: Increased by 20% year-on-year.
- Members area views: Up by 102% year-on-year.
- Donation page engagement: Active users increased by 377% year-on-year.
View the full BANES Carers’ Centre case study here.
The cost of poor CX
When budgets are tight, CX investments are often the first to be cut. Why is this a problem? This means research and data-driven decisions are forfeited. Companies lose $62 billion every year due to poor customer service (intechnic), and 32% of all customers would stop doing business with a brand they loved after one bad experience (PWC). Organisations that take the time to review how users interact with your platforms and share this information with stakeholders are better placed to make informed decisions.
Neglecting CX can lead to:
- High bounce rates and cart abandonment: Users abandon platforms that are difficult to navigate or slow.
- Increased complaints and support costs: Poor design creates frustrations, driving up customer support demand.
- Damaged brand reputation: Bad experiences lead to negative word-of-mouth and lost trust.
So, how do we address these problems? Sometimes, the simplest changes can have the biggest impact on the performance of your digital platforms. Highlighting pain points in customer journeys and barriers to adoption or engagement ensures you maximise the success of your solutions.
How to address CX problems:
- Minimise checkout steps: Reduce abandonment by simplifying the purchase process.
- Streamline navigation: Help users find resources and FAQs faster, reducing support enquiries.
- Data-driven insights: Identify pain points and optimise journeys using:
- Usability testing
- Heatmaps
- A/B testing
- Customer journey mapping
Aligning CX with business goals
Investing in customer experience (CX) goes far beyond enhancing user interactions; it plays a vital role in achieving critical business objectives. CX can drive increased revenue, improve customer retention, and enhance operational efficiency—all essential components of sustainable growth.
Just as test-driving a car ensures it meets your expectations, businesses should validate that their digital platforms align with both user and organisational needs before making significant investments. By prioritising CX, organisations can create optimised digital experiences that result in higher conversion rates, upselling opportunities, and long-term customer loyalty.
For leadership teams, CX investment isn’t just a tactical decision—it’s a strategic one. Companies that prioritise CX are better equipped to adapt to market changes, outperform competitors, and foster sustained growth.
How CX supports high-level business priorities:
· Increasing market share: A seamless customer experience attracts and retains more customers, giving businesses a competitive edge.
· Strengthening customer trust and loyalty: Positive interactions build brand credibility, encourage repeat business, and turn customers into advocates.
· Reducing risks: CX reduces the likelihood of dissatisfied customers and mitigates the operational inefficiencies that lead to complaints or churn.
By aligning CX initiatives with overarching business goals, organisations position themselves to achieve measurable results that extend beyond immediate gains, laying the groundwork for long-term success.
Crafting the business case: a step-by-step guide
If you’ve made it this far you clearly understand the importance of CX, but how can you now build a business case to help influence others?
- Define the problem: Identify challenges stemming from poor CX, such as low engagement or inefficiencies.
- Set objectives: Link CX goals to business outcomes, like revenue growth, efficiency improvements, or enhanced satisfaction.
- Highlight cost and benefits: Present a detailed cost analysis alongside anticipated benefits, such as increased conversions or reduced complaints.
- Present supporting evidence: Use case studies, research, and testimonials to strengthen your case.
- Address risks: Show how CX investments can mitigate risks or improve scalability.
With budget planning in full swing, now is the perfect time to explore how CX can transform your digital strategy. As an award-winning UX agency, we always design with users in mind. If you are looking for a partner to help maximise the success of your website, app or processes, we’re here to help. For more information, please reach out.
As an award-winning UX agency, we specialise in designing user-centred solutions that deliver measurable results. Whether you’re looking to maximise your website’s performance, build an app that engages customers, or streamline your internal processes, our team is here to help you achieve your goals. Reach out to our experts today to start making a difference.
