Following on the heels of my recent article, “Differentiation in a World of Parity,” I would be remiss not to discuss the most important differentiation today: Suffice it to say, it is the customer experience (formerly known as customer service).
This is not mere semantics. Customer service has traditionally been reactive, while the customer experience is both proactive and reactive. Some will disagree, but the data shows that what determines whom customers will buy from is not product (a good product is table stakes), price or program (both are necessary just to compete); rather, the key determinant is how “good” a company is to work with and how good its people are.
A few short years ago, CEOs of major companies were asked how they would rate their customer service. Some 93% said their customer service was very good to excellent. The customers of those companies were also asked. Some 33% responded that the customer service was, at best, adequate to good, with single digits claiming it was very good to excellent.
In the 1967 movie “Cool Hand Luke,” the captain of the chain gang told the prisoner, Luke (Paul Newman), “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” Do we still have failure to communicate?
Thinking Has Evolved
Research shows that thinking has evolved. Blake Morgan, a customer experience futurist, provides some data in her article “20 Stats Tying CEO Involvement to Customer Experience Success.” What follows are a few data points of CEO and executive responses:
- 97% believe customer satisfaction is key to business success.
- 90% believe customers have the greatest impact on their business.
- 90% say customers have a high or very high impact on their business strategy.
- 70% feel a growing responsibility to represent the best interests of their customers.
- 63% want to rally organizations around customers as their top investment priority.
- 39% say customer experience is the most effective method for creating a competitive advantage.
Although customer experience is gaining the attention of many CEOs and executives, this invites the question as to whether this thinking permeates their business practices. What is concerning are the latter two figures: Only 63% see this as a top investment priority, and 39% see the customer experience as the most important competitive advantage. Some companies seem to feel differently and, most importantly, act differently.
Customer expectations are at an all-time high; conversely, so, too, are stories of worst customer service. There are a lot of “best customer service” lists, but a few companies are on almost all the lists. We need to learn from them and then translate those lessons to our business.
Lessons Learned
The following are some lessons learned:
Apple: Empathize with customers and give every issue — no matter how trivial or complex — the same level of attention.
Publix: Publix does everything to boost workplace morale. Happy employees create happy customers.
Zappos: They never outsource customer service, so they can capture the local culture and persona in their experience. They sell happiness over products and services, and they claim the rest will take care of itself.
Ritz-Carlton: Ask your customers first and align your service with their needs, rather than expecting customers to get accustomed to how you choose to operate.
Amazon: You can order, reorder and return on Amazon with ease, without any signs of friction.
Disney: Hiring friendly, enthusiastic people is essential to delivering “guest” happiness.
Starbucks: The average customer visits Starbucks about six times a month, whereas their most loyal customers visit up to 16 times per month. More than 11 million people follow them on Twitter. This could only mean that Starbucks consistently provides good customer service.
Lexus: Their creed: “Lexus will do it right from the start. Lexus will have the finest dealer network in the industry. Lexus will treat each customer as we would a guest in our home. If you think you can’t, you won’t. If you think you can, you will. We can, we will.”
Virgin Atlantic: Richard Branson tells us, “Every complaint is a chance to turn a customer into a lifelong friend.” He also urges us “…to get comfortable with uncomfortable customer scenarios. You will learn more from unhappy customers than happy customers. They burst the bubble of self-acclaimed customer success and show how you are really performing — which may not be what you want, but [which is] very much [what you] need.”
The data is irrefutable, and the message is clear. People deal with companies that meet their needs as effortlessly as possible, and people engage with those whom they like. Do your own benchmarking but rest assured that, in the world of parity, the real difference is you and how you make your customers feel. Their perception is your reality!
Alan C. Brawn CTS, DSCE, DSDE, DSNE, DCME, DSSP, ISF-C, is principal of Brawn Consulting.
