Customer Experience Management
Posted by Patrick Tang on Wed, Jul 21, 2010 @ 09:47 AM
A positive customer experience that is also sustainable ensures brand loyalty – and in very successful cases – converts a customer into a brand evangelist. Some thought leaders have actually argued that “experience” is the new economy that has supplanted the product and service economy. In their definitive book, “The Experience Economy,” B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore draw on Walt Disney, Nordstrom, Starbucks, Saturn and IBM as examples of brands leading the experience economy. They even make the case that “experience” is the “product” that the customer is buying.
Any company, whether product-centric, service-centric or experience-centric, that has an existing economic model that works, should still re-evaluate how you can be better poised to manage customer experience. It is still a critical source of competitive advantage for your company.
While the case for customer experience management sounds compelling, many companies still put ONLY numbers and statistics at the heart of customer experience management when in reality it should be the customer that should take centre-stage. Numbers are great BUT what about the qualitative aspect of the human experience?
Customer satisfaction is often erroneously driven by the measurement and management of quantitative statistics only. It ignores the actual customer perception and drives a tool box called customer service delivery which is often seen by customers as mechanic and not related to their actual satisfaction.
Generally speaking, for customer experience to be a competitive advantage, companies have to ensure that the winning formula can be sustainable and replicated. There has to be a science behind the art of making the customer experience memorable.
According to the Disney Institute, in its book aptly titled “Be Our Guest”, the 'Nuts & Bolts' of making customer experience a winning and sustainable loop has five key tenets:
1. The “Theme” – A shared vision of the driving force behind a company’s service. It’s typically articulated as a simple statement.
2. The “Cast” – Having the right recruitment, acclimatization, training and retention practices for employees so that they act and breathe with accordance to the shared vision of the service theme and service standards.
3. The “Setting” – The Disney Institute argues that SETTING DELIVERS SERVICE. In short, any “stimulants” that would stimulate the five senses (sight, sound, smell, touch and taste!!!) should be orchestrated and no details spared to give customers a distinctive and memorable experience that is uniquely yours.
4. The “Process” – A flow that intricately involves both Cast & Setting and includes the most key service delivery process for most organizations.
5. “Integration” – “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. This is the balancing act of integrating all the elements in this service loop to create a complete operating system.
What are the challenges you encounter in ensuring that excellent customer experience remains sustainable within your company or team? How are you addressing these challenges?
Looking forward to your views and insights.