Jules Brim Says Customer Experience is Your Competitive Edge, And It Starts Sooner Than You Think

Customer experience (CX) is often misunderstood. It’s not just about how efficiently you deliver your service or how quickly you solve a problem. It’s about how your customer feels from the moment they first search for a solution, right through to the final invoice or follow-up call.

If you’re serious about retention, referrals, and long-term reputation, CX needs to be at the heart of your strategy not an afterthought.

Because here’s the truth, customer experience doesn’t start with onboarding.

The Experience Begins Before the Sale

For many businesses, the CX lens gets applied after a contract is signed focusing on delivery, support, and service standards. But the modern customer journey starts much earlier.

It begins with their first impression: the moment they land on your website, see your brand on social media, or search for a solution online.

If your messaging resonates, if your tone feels aligned, if your content answers their unspoken questions, you’ve already begun building trust. You’ve already started delivering an experience. When businesses shift their focus from “How do we serve customers well?” to “How do we connect with them at every stage?” that’s where the magic happens.

Know Your Customers Inside and Out

Exceptional customer experience isn’t about ticking boxes, it’s about empathy, insight, and foresight. It’s not enough to know your customer’s job title or purchase history. You need to understand:

What’s driving their decision making?
What problems are they really trying to solve?
What internal or emotional pressures are they under?

When your team understands the true context behind a customer’s actions, they can tailor every interaction to be relevant, reassuring, and results driven. It’s this depth of insight is what turns first-time clients into long-term advocates.

Customer Experience is Everyone’s Job

CX isn’t a single department, it’s a business-wide commitment. From marketing and sales to delivery, finance, and admin, every touchpoint influences how a customer feels about working with you.

It’s the language on your invoices. The clarity of your proposals. The way your reception team answers the phone. These micro-moments add up to a macro-impression. And when they’re aligned, the experience feels seamless. When they’re not it shows.

Map your entire customer journey and bring together teams from every corner of the business. Identify the pain points, celebrate the strong spots, and eliminate the friction. Only then can you build a consistent and confident customer journey that matches your brand promise.

Feelings Drive Loyalty

No matter how technical your service or how big the client’s budget, emotion drives decisions. A service delivered efficiently but without care is forgettable. But even when things don’t go to plan, a customer who feels seen, heard, and respected will stick with you.

Customer experience is, at its core, about how you make people feel. It’s not just what you do it’s the emotional impact of how you do it. That’s what drives loyalty, word-of-mouth referrals, and glowing testimonials.

Investing in CX is Investing in Growth

If you want to grow through referrals, retain high-value clients, and stand out in a saturated market, you must prioritise CX at a strategic level. That means:

Auditing the full customer journey regularly, not just looking at your post-sale processes.
Empowering every department to own their role in CX delivery.
Listening to feedback and acting on it with agility.
Training for empathy, not just process.
Designing consistency, not leaving it to chance.

Customer experience isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s your brand in action. It’s your reputation at scale. And it’s one of the most powerful, sustainable growth tools you have, if you take the time to get it right.

Ready to Refine Your Customer Experience Strategy?

If you’re looking to map your customer journey, align your internal teams, and create an experience that truly delivers and feels good doing it I’d love to help. I work with ambitious businesses ready to elevate their marketing and CX from the inside out.

Get in touch via www.julesbrim.co.uk or connect on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-brim/) to explore getting your CX on track.