"Companies recognize that customers are increasingly becoming more discerning and demanding in their choice of vendors," writes author Lior Arussy in the e-book Exceptional Service: Customer Experience, Self Service and the Human Interaction (Strativity Group). "If they want to be the customer's vendor of choice, they need to deliver even better experiences."
In this excerpt from Exceptional Service Arussy explains the importance of defining a top-notch customer experience, both internally and externally:
In a multiyear customer experience management study of nearly 24,000 participants, Strativity Group has explored the customer experience from both the perceptions of experience creators (employees) and experience recipients (customers). The study concluded that as a rule, experience creators and experience recipients have widely differing perceptions about the quality of the experience. The vast majority of employees claimed that they delivered great experiences and exceeded customer expectations, while the majority of customers stated that their expectations were not even met.
Similarly, a majority of experience creators believed that they used common sense and discretion when dealing with customers, while experience recipients stated that common sense and discretion was not felt by them. Topping the findings was the assertion by customers that those individuals responsible for creating and delivering the experience had minimal understanding of their lifestyle, pains, challenges and aspirations. In the absence of this understanding, employees will never be able to deliver the quality of service expected by customers.
The customer experience needs to be defined, specified, explained and communicated by companies to their employees. This makes every employee responsible for creating and delivering the experience and will have the means to deliver it and by that execute the brand promise. Merely explaining and communicating the experience to employees will not differentiate an organization from its competitors. Successful organizations need to embed the experience into the corporate culture, hiring criteria, education programs, employee objectives, compensation plans, and incentive programs.
When explaining and communicating the experience to employees, companies should avoid the concept of "following a script". Rather they should provide their employees with inspirational and tangible guidelines that demonstrate the general principles that one should adopt when delivering the experience. Moreover, these guidelines should incorporate a description of different customer profiles as well as their lifestyles, challenges, aspirations and frame of reference as they relate to the company's products and services.
Imagine a hotel with employees that are unfamiliar with jetlag. During a consulting engagement with a hotel chain in Europe, we found that employees at one of its premier properties had never heard of jetlag and, consequently, did not appreciate their guests' challenges in dealing with lengthy flights and different time zones. Hotel employees believed that these jetlagged guests were simply grouchy and difficult. Rather than provide these tired guests with rapid, warm and caring service, they were often snubbed and even placed in hotel rooms above a night club where they were unable to get a good night's sleep.
Put yourself in the shoes of a jetlagged guest. Ask yourself whether you would consider staying at a hotel where after repeated visits, you were snubbed and placed in rooms that afforded you little opportunity to get a good night sleep. Aside from eventually making a decision to frequent another hotel, chances are also slim that you would ever recommend such a hotel to your friends and colleagues. People generally do not want to stay in a hotel or conduct business with individuals who are experts at following processes and policies, but care little about their impact on customers.
As consumers, we seek to do business with companies that are constantly elevating the quality and consistency of their customer experiences. We want to deal with empowered employees who not only have the tools and authority to solve our challenges, but have the knowledge and background to truly understand our challenges and how we perceive and appreciate value.
Lior Arussy is president of Strativity Group and author of numerous books on customer experience. Learn more about Exceptional Service at http://www.strativity.com/products/2009-06-18.aspx.