In reality, businesses don’t sit there thinking about customer experience.
They’re thinking about how to get more leads, how to convert them, how to get paid, how to deliver the work, and how to keep everything running.
That’s the reality.
But when you look at what actually makes those things work well, it nearly always comes back to how well you understand your customer.
Take marketing as an obvious one. If you don’t really know who you’re talking to, what they need, what they care about, what’s going on in their world, it’s very hard to create anything that really lands with them. You end up saying the right sort of things, but it doesn’t quite connect.
The same applies once someone becomes a customer.
Your systems either make it easy for someone to move forward with you, or they don’t. If they’re clunky, unclear or rely on too much back and forth, people slow down or drop off. Not because they’ve made a conscious decision, but because it’s just not that easy to keep going.
Finance is another good example. Payment terms, options and how you handle that part of the relationship can either make things straightforward or create friction. If it’s not clear or feels harder than it should, it can delay decisions or slow things down.
And if you’re a business that relies on renewals, this becomes even more important.
Because renewal doesn’t really happen at the end of a contract. It’s shaped by everything that happens leading up to that point. How easy you are to work with, how well you understand your customers, how consistent things feel.
If that experience hasn’t been right along the way, you’re relying on a conversation at the end to fix something that’s been building over time.
And then there’s your people.
How they communicate, how confident they feel, how well they understand the customer and what matters to them, all of that shapes the experience day to day. It’s what your customers are actually experiencing, not your process documents or your plans.
What I see quite a often is businesses doing all of these things, but doing them slightly separately.
Marketing is being worked on over here. Systems are being looked at over there. Finance is doing its thing. The team are just trying to keep everything moving.
Nothing is “wrong”, but it’s not always joined up. And importantly, the needs of the customer aren't always considered at each point.
And that’s when things feel harder than they need to. You end up spending more time answering questions, chasing things, or stepping in to keep things moving. And your customers don't feel great either.
When you bring your customer into those decisions, even in a simple way, things start to line up.
Marketing becomes clearer because you know exactly who you’re talking to. Systems are set up to support how people actually move through working with you. Payments are easier because they’ve been thought about from the customer’s side, not just internally. And your team have more context, so they’re not having to figure things out as they go.
It doesn’t mean everything is perfect, but it does mean it works.
If you wanted to take a simple look at this in your own business, you don’t need to overcomplicate it. Pick one area and ask yourself how well it’s working from your customer’s point of view.
If it’s your marketing, ask how clear it is who you’re talking to and whether it really reflects what matters to them.
If it’s your systems, think about how easy it is for someone to get started or move forward without needing lots of follow-up.
If it’s payments, look at whether it’s straightforward and easy to understand.
If it’s your team, think about how well they understand your customers and how confident they feel handling situations.
And if you don't know, speak to some of your customers, they'll tell you.
Because when your customer becomes part of how you think about decisions across the business, things tend to become simpler, more consistent, and easier to manage.
And that’s when you start to see the difference, not just in how things feel, but in how your business performs.
If this is something you’re starting to think about, or you’ve got a sense that things aren’t working as well as they could be, this is exactly the kind of thing I help businesses work through. Always happy to chat.
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