The COVID-19 pandemic sent consumers into lockdown and shuttered brick-and-mortar stores for a relatively brief period. Many jurisdictions maintained stay-at-home orders for just a few months over the spring and summer of 2020. But the pandemic’s impact on the retail sector may have been permanent.

Retail was already swinging decisively toward e-commerce, and the pandemic helped accelerate that trend, possibly forever. Most directly, consumers were forced to spend more time shopping remotely in early 2020, and brick-and-mortar operations found it difficult to pay the bills. The pandemic also had indirect consequences for retail. With more people working from home, for example, fewer people ran errands during their commutes. This trend persisted even when stay-at-home orders were lifted, and retail operations that depended on foot traffic or off-highway access continued to suffer, to the benefit of e-retail.

One segment of the retail sector has resisted the trend toward e-commerce, and is thriving in many regions. Smaller, local businesses have rebounded more quickly than large brick-and-mortar operations. In some cases, this comes down to simple economics: a large chain retailer might close a dozen locations as a cost-saving measure, but a small business must find a way through difficult times or shut down altogether.

But local businesses have at least one significant advantage over larger retailers: their roots in the local community. In the wake of the pandemic, consumers took heart in re-establishing their mutual ties by shopping locally. Local businesses who made the best use of this sentiment did so not because they offered by-the-books customer service. They thrived because they created a compelling customer experience that no online retailer could match. In doing so, they offered a model of retail success that companies of any size can learn from.

Before we examine some ways that retailers can shift their focus from customer service to customer experience — CS and CX, for short — let’s define our terms a bit.

Customer service is transactional: it describes the quality and nature of the interactions between a business and its customers. When customers ask questions about a product or service or report post-purchase issues, a business’s customer-service operation is put to the test. Many larger retailers handle customer service efficiently and adequately.

Customer experience, on the other hand, encompasses the entire customer journey, from the first encounter with a brand to their exploration of a particular online or brick-and-mortar store, and straight through to post-purchase support and follow-up. If CS is transactional, CX is immersive.

Smaller businesses often find it easier to build memorable experiences for their customers. On the other hand, many medium- and large-size retailers trade efficiency and uniformity for the kinds of distinctive touches that make for great CX.

Regardless of your company’s size, here are five ways that you can emphasize CX now when it matters most.

Analytics aren’t just for big corporations. Any business that relies on customer retention—and that’s roughly every company out there—can use quantitative analysis to uncover trends, identify target customers, and gain the insights needed to personalize the customer experience to the consumers likeliest to become long-term brand loyalists.

With a sharper idea of what appeals to your ideal customers, you can focus your marketing efforts all the more effectively on attracting the right kinds of new customers. Analytics also help reveal where your company is falling short of customers’ expectations, and what you can do to better meet their needs.Also read our article on how to deliver a personalized customer experience with data.Don’t mistake CX for an alternative to great customer service. When you set high standards of customer service for your team and they follow through, your brand gets a little bit of extra polish each time a customer interacts with your staff. Whether online or in person, nothing supports the best of your brand messaging like consistently friendly, responsive answers to customers’ needs and questions.

To make the most of the insights you’ve gleaned from your data analysis, and to ensure that every employee represents your brand at its best, you’ll need to make sure that every one of your employees puts your company’s best face forward. This might mean a bit of a boost to your training budget, since you’ll need to continue to work with your employees after onboarding.

It might even mean an adjustment or two to your personnel. Whatever it takes to ensure that customers receive exactly the kind of experience you yourself would want, make it happen. Every minute and dollar you spend on training can translate into untold future sales when happy customers tell their friends about the experience they had at your location.

We just touched on the most powerful form of marketing, and one that you might be under-supporting: simple word of mouth. Every time a customer leaves your store or closes a browser window after visiting your website, they’re left with an impression of their experience. CX is affecting your business right now, even if you haven’t thought about it before.

Recognizing this fact can be the first step toward improving the experience you deliver to your customers. From there, consider the customer experience across all channels, from department to department and in your company’s online and physical presences. One negative experience can undo years of good work, so be sure that your CX protocols are detailed and firm, and that everyone’s on the same page.

By the time a customer interacts with your employees, they have already formed a broad impression of your brand. A combination of analytical insights, employee training, and investment in the customer experience can ensure that each customer’s journey is progressively more reassuring and happily memorable.

That doesn’t happen by accident, and it doesn’t happen by simply doing the right thing at the right time. It’s not reactive, in other words, but proactive. Great CX is a holistic effort that begins with a clear understanding of your customers and builds on that understanding with branding, messaging, and employee culture that carry the best of your brand forward at all times. You can’t handle those elements individually and present a coherent customer experience.

Shifting your focus from CS to CX doesn’t just happen. To gain the sort of holistic view of your customers needed to improve CX at scale, you’ll need software tools designed for that purpose. To bring everything together, you’ll need to revisit your operating procedures and reorient them toward your vision of the experience you’d like your customers to enjoy. For many companies, that means sitting down with an expert who knows exactly how to implement a CS-to-CX strategy.Your customers build an impression of your brand every time they interact with it. To discover how improved CX can lead to a healthier bottom line, chat with us for a consultation today.