When was the last time you had an experience as a customer that was so unbelievably great, that you felt compelled to tell your friends about it?
This is a question I always ask during workshops and lectures, and the response is pretty much the same every time around, irrespective of the people I am addressing: First they go through the ceiling and shoelace inspector routine. Then somebody will ask, usually looking around at the others in the room, “You mean…”, pause/look around, “…in a shop or…” I then encourage participation by saying, “Anywhere! A shop, a restaurant, a zoo, a bank; anywhere! Where was your experience so positive that you went home and told your family about it, recounting every little detail!”.
It is disappointing, if unsurprising, that there are not that many great stories out there. And if they are, they usually gravitate around particular brands and for a given market or audience you will usually hear similar stories about the same two or three companies.
I then ask, “OK, what about negative experiences?” Again, disappointingly but predictably, the response is much livelier and there are several stories that people in the audience are more than willing to share with everybody present and have most probably already shared on their favorite social media. Recounting every little detail.
For me, this is what customer experience management is about: creating stories. Let’s say your customer sets out to make a routine purchase, for argument’s sake a pair of shoes. It’s possibly on a Saturday morning “things to do” checklist. If they walk into your premises to tick off an item on a checklist and walk out with an amazing story, then your customer experience is on the right track. If all they take away is a pair of shoes and another tick on the list, you are losing money. If they walk out with a horror story, you are in trouble. And more companies are in trouble than actually realize it. Otherwise we wouldn’t all have so many negative customer experience stories to tell.
An emotional process
If you have customers, you are already providing them with a customer experience. If you are not taking steps to make sure that you are in control of this experience, it is most probably an indifferent or, even worse, a negative one. Having said this, there are serendipitous cases of excellent service that apparently just happens. In such cases the reason is, usually, a conscientious employee with a talent for communication and customer service. I use the term talent because in these instances it is more likely than not that the employee has not been trained. Rest assured: consistently positive customer experience does not just happen. Ever. Which brings us to the inherent antithesis of the customer experience. Although customer experience is by nature emotional, it is process and number driven. Great customer experience is the result of careful design. It is the outcome of processes executed with near religious zeal. A characteristic of robust processes is that they leave nothing to chance and have built-in controls. This is the basis of great customer experience and most certainly the main ingredient of a branded experience. Then all you need are the right people to execute.