May 28, 2010
Stat of the week: 3 customer experience themes. No consensus.
When leaders in our study said “YES – there is a definition of customer experience that’s well understood across my organization,” we knew clarity about the definitions themselves would be the next thing we should know. In fact, when I introduced this series a few weeks ago, Lerou asked about definitions on that post.
As you might expect, leader responses varied widely. So this week I’d like to share more of a discussion than a specific stat:
We asked leaders to share a sentence that captures the definition of customer experience people across the organization hold in common.
We found three recurring themes: service / satisfaction, quality, and exceeding expectations.
Among the several hundred responses, we found unique company principles, age old maxims, and a few emerging thought leader definitions. But service, quality and exceeding expectations were the themes underscoring nearly every one. Some examples:
On SERVICE “We call our customer experience definition ‘Customer Rules’: 1. Take ownership and show that we care. 2. Be responsive and deliver. 3. Do it right. 4. Make it seamless. 5. Meet our commitments.”
On QUALITY ”Improve the lives of our customers by providing quality services, products and solutions that earn their trust and build lifetime relationships.”
On EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS “To meet and hopefully exceed the customer’s expectations in craftsmanship and communication.”
What’s most striking to me about these definitions is that they are about internal actions that influence or shape what happens for customers. They are for customers but they are not about customers.
Can you see the CUSTOMER experience? Coming at this from the other direction, I met a leader last week who defined customer experience as “the perception a customer has about our company as a result of all the interactions they have with us.” I love this because it acknowledges the customer’s reality. It still leaves me hungry though – searching for the step by step journey that I can see as “an experience.” Checking out the dictionary definition of experience, I find the infusion of time and sequence very useful.
Ultimately, every customer experience starts with a person who has a need, desire, or problem they would pay money to have solved. I define their experience as what happens and how they feel as they:
- realize the need,
- learn about options,
- try out options,
- buy,
- use the product or service to solve their problem, and
- evolve to another need over time.
What’s your definition of customer experience?
Hi Linda,
I recently posted on the same subject (http://ow.ly/1Rfoz) and came to the same basic conclusion.
Wim Rampen (@wimprampen) commented and got me thinking…
The definition of customer experience should also include other interactions that the customer has while using the product or service, as you’ve said; but how about when they talk about it to others?
If they buy a lawnmower and their neighbour sees it and gives them a positive comment that will have a positive influence on their experience. Inversely, if they talk about getting their clothes dry cleaned and a colleague mentions that the retailer in question destroyed their clothes, it will induce anxiety.
Since the customer experience is also based on emotions and not just rational thought, I think it’s important that this aspect be included.
What do you think?
Cheers
Eric
Eric – You make a great point that experiences are made up of both tangible (product, price, process steps) and emotional parts. I also agree that experiences are made up of EVERYTHING that happens and ALL the things a customer feels as they realize a need, learn about options, etc. Psychologically, humans can’t separate any of these elements. So in my definition I (purposefully) didn’t specify that the customer’s experience was solely with one company – or even just with the options they learn about.
Perception matters even in definitions! Thanks for stopping by.
LCI