“Customer experience” seems to be a term we’re hearing about more and more lately.  One could be justified in thinking that it’s just a new buzzword for something successful companies have been doing all along: hasn’t it always been important to ensure that customers have a positive experience?

Of course, positive customer experiences have always been important.  But they’re more important than ever nowadays, when social media can amplify every single customer’s positive (and negative) experience.  Peter Shankman has recently written a great book on this topic: Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans.  He explains how one customer’s good or bad experience can have a disproportionate impact on a company’s profits.

How can companies make sure their customers are tweeting (and Facebooking and Instagramming) about how much they love them and NOT rants about bad experiences?

It has to start at the top and include the whole company.  All the company’s departments need to work together to ensure great customer experience.  Some companies make the mistake of measuring customer satisfaction at key “touch points,” but miss the customer’s overall experience.  For example, my bank surveys me after I have an interaction with their customer service reps, and I’m usually highly satisfied.  But they don’t realize they’re on the verge of losing me because I’m irritated by their ATM fees.  Consider conducting focus groups and ethnographic research with customers to get the full picture.

Make sure your employees are happy.  Happy employees are more likely to go out of their way to make customers happy.  Especially if you give them permission to do so.  Give them leeway to use their judgement to make sure a customer is happy rather than tying their hands with endless rules and processes (Ritz-Carlton is famous for this: every Ritz-Carlton employee is empowered to fix a customer’s problem, even if it costs money).  And get your employees on-board to think of creative ways to delight your customers.  Shankman points out that we are conditioned to expect mediocre customer service.  A good experience is worth sharing with our networks.  For example, the contracting company that presents its customers with a photo album of the renovation after it’s completed – before, after and during.  It’s a small investment that pays off many times over.

Consider conducting internal workshops with management and employees to figure out ways to improve the customer experience and to come up with creative ways to delight them.

Want to find ways to improve customer experience at your company?  We would be glad to help!  Just give me a call at 818-752-7210 or email info at bureauwest.com.

Sources: “Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans,” Peter Shankman, 2015; “The Truth About Customer Experience,” Harvard Business Review, September, 2013; Bureau West research