I was speaking to a colleague who runs operations for a large service provider that serves the hospitality industry last week. He lamented “now that our business is coming back, I feel like we are in catch up mode. I wish we took the time to fix some of our clunky processes that make our customer onboarding processes really awkward. Now we need to deal with more service tickets than we ever have.” So how do you design intentional customer experience processes amongst the chaos of running a business day-to-day?
Five years ago, we reported that according to Gartner, “89% of companies surveyed plan to compete primarily on the basis of the customer experience”. According to Oracle, the percentage is even higher.
Since our pandemic started in March of 2020 in the US, the need to pay attention to how we are serving our customers from the time we begin in the business development areas – contracting, “getting to a yes“, service and/or product delivery, invoicing, customer support and on – has never been more critical. Few professionals would argue that the emphasis on an organization’s Customer Experience, (i.e., CX is the product of interaction, including the resulting perceptions, between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship) is not simply a fad, but an important tool to achieve what industry leaders like Seth Godin and Clay Hebert (among many others), recommend connecting to those vital to that organization.
As Ian Altman says in Forbes:
“it has become clear that we are in a Connection Economy.“
As we say at TSI, “the Customer Experience is the manifestation of your processes, technology, organizational chart, staffing levels, and culture. Whether it is good or not, it all comes out in the customer experience.”
Recently, it seems that there is something incongruent with the articles and statistics I read and the experiences we have with our clients and other organizations contemplating new strategies in this area. Perhaps it is just what we are seeing here, as I would posit that it appears many companies and higher education institutions are simply going through the motions in this area.
A few key questions to ask:
- Is your organization at 89% or 11%?
- How are you approaching this change?
- How are you truly enhancing your customer experience?
Here are three points that will have a big impact on your organization in enhancing your customer experience:
1. Start by honing your CX awareness skills. You will see a payoff if you are planning to enhance or improve the customer experience within your organization.
2. Rather than simply going through the motions, use CX to create a real, legit, unfair advantage for your organization.
3. Expect the journey to be difficult, but prepare to persevere.
Hone your CX awareness skills
I challenge you to book your next business trip, make a doctor’s appointment, plan a vacation, buy a car, take out a mortgage (or refinance your existing one), drive a car in Mexico (that’s a story for another day), or enroll in a college course.
After completing one of these, reflect and assess how these experiences were in terms of the following:
1. How easy to do business with was this organization or process? What best reflects the impression the vendor left on you? To further understand, ask yourself the following:
- Do they care about your business?
- Would they rather maximize profit on one transaction, or have you become a loyal customer for a lifetime?
- Does your time matter to them?
- How would you rate the experience overall?
2. Aside from the efficiency and effectiveness aspect of the transaction, did the transaction have any emotional connection that left you with a memory that was more positive, neutral, or negative in nature?
Many of the readers of this likely saw the video from a United flight when a ticketed passenger was removed against his will, simply because the plane was over-booked, and members of the United crew had no room to board. Based on the reaction by United’s CEO, that was not the intended emotional connection the organization was hoping to achieve. Although this example can be seen as an outlier, both in terms of how ridiculous the situation and how publicized the customer’s ‘experience’ was, consider the financial effects alone. Fortune reports that United Airlines’ stock dropped $1.4 Billion shortly after this controversy took place!
In each of these examples, the business or higher education institution on the other end of the transaction would accurately tell you that they are in a very competitive industry. Yet, at the risk of generalizing, each of these examples is opportunity-rich concerning how they often fail to create a memorable, meaningful, and intentional moment that matters to the customer. Or in the United Airlines’ example, just the opposite.
So what should you do? Become a CX Jedi warrior and develop awareness skills that you can apply in your organization.
Consider Your Actual Unfair Advantage
When we consult with our clients or lead CX training workshops on the topic of developing an improved customer experience, we emphasize the notion of creating the organization’s unfair advantage (UA). Yes, it sounds like defining your own superpower. Organizationally, this is exactly what it is. What do you want to be known for? What will you be famous for?
We look at it this way – your UA is a function of your organization’s:
Quality x Originality/Uniqueness x Service x Convenience/Comfort/Location x Price
There is a lot to unpack in this formula and you and your colleagues could easily spend a few focused work sessions on this topic. Do not expect to nail it the first time. However, if you can understand what the moments that matter is – from your customer’s perspective – and define your unfair advantage, that provides a unique and memorable customer experience.
Yes, it’s hard, but Worth it!
In short, a positively memorable customer experience matters! It is a logical leap to think that a customer who has an excellent experience remembers it. Because of one positive experience, they can tell others about it; sometimes even becoming mini marketers for that product or service. Along with this, those who are loyal and have a positive experience are retained: becoming much more likely to buy a product or service over and over.
Consider the following: Studies[1] by Bain & Company, along with Earl Sasser of the Harvard Business School, have shown that even a 5 percent increase in customer retention can lead to an increase in profits of between 25 and 95 percent.
There are several reasons why this small increase in retention can have such a substantial impact on profits:
1. Customers are likely to spend more time (and spend more $) with companies they’ve already done business with. Particularly with small businesses that do not have a lot of brand recognition, a customer’s first purchase or two can be considered somewhat of a risk. These individuals are more likely to keep spending relatively small and then increase it as the relationship grows.
2. Repeat customers are more likely to refer others. Bain & Company’s research showed that after just one purchase from an online apparel retailer, an average shopper was likely to refer three other people to the site. But a customer that made ten purchases from an online apparel retailer was likely to refer seven different people to the site.
Creating a positively memorable experience is difficult! Especially for an organization that has any degree of complexity around the following:
- The types of products/services your customers want
- How easy or hard, fast or slow, manual or automated, simple or cumbersome it is for you to quote/price the right products/services
- How easy or hard, fast or slow, manual or automated, simple or cumbersome it is for them to order it, receive it, process the invoice, and actually pay for it
- What about the delivery, set up/configuration, training, etc., how seamless are these processes?
- Do you have numerous people involved, sometimes with “less than ideal” coordination when you think about those involved from contracting, pricing, order processing/execution, set up, training, implementation touchpoints?
Closing Thoughts on Customer Experience
I urge you to start this journey today. Waiting for tomorrow only lets your competition gain ground on you.
Start your journey today by following these three steps:
1. Hone your CX awareness skills – these will pay off for you as you can be the CX Jedi that designs amazing and enhanced customer experiences for your organization.
2. Use CX to create a real, legit unfair advantage for your organization – consider how your organization can effectively compete largely on the basis of experience.
3. Expect the journey to be difficult and prepare to persevere – consider TSI’s Change Readiness Survey as a tool to assess your organization’s readiness to change.
As you know, TSI is always happy to discuss your situation, should you need any assistance enhancing your Customer Experience. Regardless, please give us feedback; we love hearing from you! Contact us via our website, or reach out via social media.
[1] https://smallbiztrends.com, 2014
