Why Customer Experience Is More Important Than Ever

October 2, 2025

Customer experience marketing for trade suppliers

Customer experience marketing is like the way your fitters leave a home after an install. If they are tidy, clear and helpful, you get loyal customers. If they are messy or rude, you get poor customer experience and lose trust fast.

Customer experience marketing in the customer journey

Customer experience marketing shapes how people think, feel and act across the customer journey. You build brand loyalty, keep customer retention high and attract new customers by linking your message, systems and customer service into one simple, joined-up plan.

• Your message is clear across all digital channels and sales calls.
• Customer interactions feel fair and honest from quote to install.
• Customer support and aftercare is quick and easy to reach.

For manufacturers, fabricators and building product suppliers, this covers the entire customer journey. From a spec sheet for an architect to a credit check for a new installer, your cx strategy should keep the process simple and reliable.

How is customer experience different from customer service?

Customer service is one part of the process, such as a phone call or email with a customer service representative. Customer experience is bigger. It covers every step, from first click on your website to repeat orders and online reviews years later.

Customer experience marketing across the four stages

You can break the customer journey into four stages. This helps you see where customer pain points appear and where you already give a positive customer experience.

1. Consideration

Here, buyers only start to see your brand. They may spot a van, read a case study or see a post on social media. Your aim is to create a great customer experience from the first touch, even before a quote is raised.

• Trade content that answers real customer needs.
• Case studies on windows, doors, glass or roofs that match their work.
• Clear signposting on who you supply and how you work.

If your message is steady, you gain a competitive advantage. You stay on the list when installers, merchants or contractors are ready to change suppliers.

2. Evaluation

Now buyers compare you with other firms. They look at your website, your online reviews, speak to reps and ask others in the trade. Small details in your digital customer experience matter a lot at this stage.

• A fast site with a clean user experience on mobile.
• Up-to-date brochures, spec sheets and fitting guides.
• Simple routes for quotes, samples and technical support.

When you remove long wait times for answers and keep customer expectations clear, you build trust. If you hide information or respond slowly, you create bad customer experience and lose the work.

3. Purchase

In the purchase stage, your systems must support a positive experience. This is where customer satisfaction, customer satisfaction score, net promoter score and customer effort score start to form in the customer’s mind.

• Quotes that are clear, with no hidden extras.
• Orders that match what was agreed with customer support.
• Delivery dates that are realistic and kept.

If buying from you feels harder than from a rival, that is bad cx. If your process is simple, you create great cx and repeat business.

4. Enjoyment

After the sale, your customers judge your overall customer experience. They look at how you deal with faults, late deliveries or changes on site. This is where long-term customer engagement and sustainable growth are won or lost.

• Fast, fair support on damaged units or missing items.
• Clear updates when lead times move.
• Helpful advice when installers are under pressure.

When you fix problems well, customers feel they get a better experience. They stay and refer others, which lifts your business growth without heavy spending on chasing new accounts.

What does customer experience mean today?

Customer experience is the sum of all customer interactions across products, people, systems and digital channels. It includes customer service, customer support, site visits, emails, invoices and more. It is the importance of customer experience as a full system, not one touchpoint.

Companies that invest in customer experience management gain a clear competitive advantage. They see higher customer satisfaction, stronger brand loyalty and a more stable customer base because they remove friction across the entire journey.

How customer experience marketing works in 2025

Customer experience marketing connects your message, website, sales team, customer service teams and systems into one plan. This helps you give a positive cx at every stage, in real life and in real time.

• Understand customer needs and customer expectations.
• Map the customer journey and list key pain points.
• Improve the shopping experience with a clean UX.
• Keep your message steady across all digital channels.
• Use customer feedback and customer data to guide changes.
• Support customer retention and repeat orders.

Good cx strategy does not sit in a slide deck. It shows how easy it is for an installer to get a quote, or for a merchant to fix a delivery issue without a fight.

How is customer experience different from customer service?

Customer service is usually one moment, such as a call or chat. Customer experience is the full path. It includes the quote, the lead time, the fit on site, the invoice and the way you handle customer pain points when they appear.

Why does customer experience have such a big impact on growth?

Brands with strong customer experience keep buyers longer and move them towards loyal customers. They raise customer lifetime value and lower churn. Poor customer experience does the opposite and can damage years of work with a key account.

In a tight trade network, one poor customer experience can move across the sector quickly. A run of positive experiences does the same and feeds your business growth.

Customer experience, SEO, PPC, UX and CRM

Customer experience marketing sits at the core of your digital work. SEO, PPC, user experience and CRM all affect the way people feel when they deal with you. They are key elements of your cx strategy.

SEO and content for the entire journey

Good SEO supports the customer journey from first search to repeat order. Clear content helps buyers understand options and reduces customer pain points before they even speak to your team.

PPC and landing pages that respect time

PPC brings in new customers. Landing pages and forms then decide if you give a great customer experience or cause drop off. Short forms, clear offers and honest next steps all help.

UX and digital customer experience

Your website is a core part of your digital customer experience. Clean menus, fast load times and easy access to technical data all support customer satisfaction and reduce effort for busy trade users.

CRM, data and customer experience management

A strong CRM and live trade data support customer experience management. It helps track customer interactions, spot risks and support continuous improvement.

• Segment by product, region and customer type.
• Track complaints and fixes in one place.
• Measure key performance indicators such as repeat orders.

What role does empathy play in shaping modern customer experience?

Empathy means you try to feel what your customer feels. In practice, it means you think about the fitter on site, the merchant at a busy counter or the buyer under pressure. You shape your customer service to make their day easier, not harder.

How leading brands measure the quality of their customer experience

Leading brands use simple scores and clear measures. They track customer satisfaction score, net promoter and net promoter score. They also watch repeat orders, complaint rates and how fast customer service teams close tickets.

• Surveys after key touchpoints to gather customer feedback.
• Tracking of customer effort score on service tasks.
• Use of key performance indicators tied to service, not only sales.

These measures give valuable insights into the overall customer experience and show where to focus your next round of changes.

What changes can businesses expect in the future of customer experience?

Customer experience is becoming faster, more joined-up and more digital. Buyers expect responses in real time, clean business models, clear pricing and honest communication. The firms that shape customer experience marketing around this will grow, while others fall behind.

Customer experience tools that help trade suppliers

You do not need every tool on the market. Start with simple tools that give clear data and help your customer service teams act quickly.

• Analytics for drop-off points and long response times.
• Heat maps and session records for user experience issues.
• Basic survey tools to track customer satisfaction and customer feedback.

Pick tools that staff actually use. A small set that supports continuous improvement beats a long list nobody has time to learn.

Next steps to keep growth moving

Customer experience marketing is like regular service on a busy production line. If you look after it, your line runs smoothly, and profits stay steady. If you ignore it, small faults build and the whole line stops at the worst time.

• Pick one part of the customer journey to improve this quarter.
• Talk to real customers about customer pain points.
• Give one person clear ownership of customer experience marketing.

Small, steady changes across your entire journey will do more for business growth and sustainable growth than any one big campaign.

Ready to improve your customer experience marketing?

If your website feels busy but your customer experience and enquiries are flat, our team can help. From customer journey mapping and UX audits to CRM backed campaigns, we support a better experience across every channel.

You can contact our customer experience marketing team to talk through your goals, or email grow@purplexmarketing.com with a short outline of your current challenges. If you prefer to speak to someone, call 01934 808132, and we will discuss the next steps.

You might also like to read

If you found this article on customer experience marketing helpful, these guides go deeper into trust, digital strategy and content that supports long term customer relationships.

• Why brand trust is so important – how stronger brand trust supports customer loyalty, repeat purchases and long term value in competitive markets.
• What is Digital PR and how can it boost your brand’s reach? – using PR to build authority, gain quality coverage and support a better customer experience online.
• Digital marketing for home improvement companies that works – practical SEO, PPC and content tactics that attract the right customers and support a stronger customer path.
• Marketing ideas for home improvement companies – simple marketing ideas to keep your pipeline full and improve the experience from first click to final install.

About the author – Martyn East

As an SEO Executive at Purplex, I focus on customer experience marketing for construction and home improvement firms. My work connects SEO, content, UX audits and CRM integration so your website attracts better traffic, converts more enquiries and keeps customers coming back. If you want practical gains from search and CX, talk to our SEO services team. Connect with me on LinkedIn or read more of my articles: view all posts by Martyn.

This entry was posted in Digital Marketing