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Buyer’s Experience: A Changing Landscape

By NoviHome

With consumers spending increasing amounts of time on their mobile phones and marketers across all industries focusing intensely on their buyers’ experience, the need for an app-based, customer-centric experience has never been greater.

During a CXPA (Customer Experience Professionals Association) webinar, then President & CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, Steve Cannon remarked that, “customer experience is the new marketing” and urged listeners to put customer experience at the top of their lists when it comes to organizational priorities.  He then went on to explain that through social media and in today’s connected environment, “a good experience has the possibility of thousands of connections and a negative experience can lead to potentially more than that.” 

It’s clear that the customer experience has a direct correlation on our bottom line—and that deserves our attention.  Based on that fact and in a recent Gartner survey 89% of companies reported they now expect to compete mostly on the basis of customer experience, we must realize that to stay competitive some amount of our innovation spending must be tied to buyer experience. The logical next questions would be: Where can we, as companies, focus our efforts to increase buyer experience?  With ever more demanding customers, how can we keep up and stay competitive? It’s true customers expect more than ever, but if there is one thing that is keeping up with (and sometimes driving) buyer expectations, it is the speed of technological innovation.

Technology—and more importantly the mobile app market—is the solution. A decade ago, buyers would search newspapers or contact real estate agent offices to inquire about homes, then came the online solutions that changed the way individuals shop for homes.  Now, again, the landscape in which buyers shop for homes is changing. 

eMarketer solutions reported last summer that US adults spend on average of 2 hours and 55 minutes on a smartphone daily. And of that time, 90% of it is spent in mobile apps. We all know that smartphones have become essential and no one is surprised that the average daily usage is expected to grow.  The question is, how do we take advantage of this fact to improve our buyer’s experience, and ultimately our business? 

The answer is simple: you must first offer an app-based experience.  You must be on the leading edge of that changing landscape. Apps are convenient and powerful in many ways, but at their core, in order to increase buyer experience, the app should immerse the user in your “world.”  It should give them access to a personalized experience that is curated by the expert of your business—you.  The power of these apps makes their worth evident when you think about the critical insights they can give you into your business and into your buyers’ preferences and needs. 

About NoviHome 

NoviHome is a sales and marketing solution created to solve common problems in the home buying process.  We’ve worked with experts across the industry to create a simple, all-in-one solution designed to enhance the buyer’s experience and to give sales teams powerful tools for followup. Learn more atnovihome.com.