Unlock Exceptional Customer Experiences: Ask the Expert with Nikhil Chauhan

Hi Nikhil

For a small to medium-sized business with limited resources, what's the most impactful first step they can take to start building stronger customer centricity?

This is very topical for me either now as starting to work with just such a client. 

Thank you! 

John

Hi John,

Great question. The best first step really depends on the CX maturity of the business. Assuming they’re fairly new to customer experience, the most impactful initial move is to actively listen to and understand their customers’ needs and feedback.

For small to medium-sized businesses, the key is to leverage existing resources to gather insights quickly and secure early wins that build momentum. From my experience, companies have gained traction by:

• Collecting direct feedback through simple, low-cost methods, for example:

  • Digital-first businesses: Short surveys on key digital properties like websites, apps, or portals.
  • B2C companies: Brief surveys during 1-3 critical customer interactions that significantly impact the business.
  • B2B companies: Embedded feedback forms during important sales or renewal touchpoints.
  • Frontline employees: Capturing informal customer feedback from conversations to gain unfiltered insights.

• Engaging customers on existing channels like social media (Google entity, facebook, twitter, etc), email, or in-person interactions to learn what truly matters to them. This approach not only improves listening but also builds brand presence and credibility—crucial factors for acquisition and long-term growth in SMBs. I would argue that this step in some ways is becoming increasingly more important than the first step as this fuels the customer growth flywheel and shows quick business impact.

To summarize, here are key tactics for small and medium businesses to adopt:

1. Focus on low-cost, resource-friendly strategies that generate actionable insights to guide future CX initiatives.
2. Deeply understand customer pain points and preferences, so products, services, and communications can be tailored to resonate authentically.
3. Align CX efforts with core business outcomes to frame customer experience not as a cost but as a growth driver—building trust, strengthening brand reputation, and demonstrating to customers that their opinions matter, thereby boosting loyalty.

Starting with these foundational steps will create a strong platform for sustainable, customer-centric growth. 

Let me know if this is helpful or what do you think about it. 

Nikhil

This is really helpful, thank you for the detailed answer and I'm going to take your points directly into my thinking. 

Thanks again.