Thought for the Day No.18

What are our customers' experience ?

I was waiting for my wife while she shopped at the supermarket and I stood near the customer service counter of this supermarket. It was interesting to observe the interactions between the employees and the customers /prospects who required their questions/complaints answered or assistance to look for a particular product.

There were instances of customers who were not satisfied with the outcome and raised their voices grumbling and cursing the company while going away frustrated and there were other cases of satisfied customers who felt their needs were met.
What was happening in front of me was the customer's experience with this company.

Because of their experiences, some would not come back and worst still tell many others of their "bad" experiences and warn them to avoid coming here to shop. As for those who went away satisfied - they may not tell of their "satisfied" experience because it is expected - they are the customers and deserve to be satisfied.

What is meant by customer's experience and how can we optimise this in our workplace for our customers?
It is the series of interactions and exposures a customer has with our company that cumulatively creates the customer perception. The customer perception is how an individual customer feels about associating with our company. It’s about the reality of the customer experience, not our proclaimed intention or assumptions.

A good Customer Experience CAN’T be produced artificially! It is always the result of good services and care provided to our customers and the results we get will always mirror our real intentions. Alienated and wronged customers usually spread the word pretty fast.

Some of the things to consider are:
* Walk a mile in their shoes - if you were the customer how would you feel being treated the way we have treated him/her
* Know our customers well - what is their business, how they use our products/services for their businesses, how to relate the benefits of the products/services to their advantage
* Review customer communications - is it easy for them to understand, can they get it timely, is it helpful to them, are they acknowledged for their participation,
* When things go wrong, how do we react/respond? - do we deflect or accept responsibility to help, how fast do we provide solutions, will customers feel being listened to?

No slogans or fancy posters or buttons can create delightful customer experiences - it's the face-to-face personal encounters and maybe even communications through phone or mails that determines the outcome.
I remember this local bank which had all their employees wearing a SMILE button on their uniforms but I observed more than half of them with grouchy faces and no eye contact when serving the customers.
The customer service officer even scolded a customer for filling a form incorrectly.
The employees behaviour has such great impact on the customer's experience that is so different from what is intended and desired by the organisation.

Unless we have a monopoly business in the market - creating positive memorable customers' experiences is very important and is everyone's responsibility.


For Business Growth:
"Do your utmost to consistently provide a pleasant and helpful customer's experience - if not, the customer may be satisfied enough not to complain, but not enough to stay"


For Personal Growth:
"Intentions are meant to drive actions - success is achieved when they do"