By Ayad Mirjan

I picked up the sand­wich with both hands and it could hardly hold itself together. The bread seemed soggy and stale, the let­tuce limp, and the slice of tomato uncom­fort­ably crammed. I glanced at the menu on a ban­ner above the reg­is­ter where there was a pic­ture of my sandwich…I then looked back at the sand­wich and thought: “is this even the same item?”

This fast food restau­rant, which will remain name­less, failed at meet­ing my expec­ta­tion because it over-promised (through the now seem­ingly photo-shopped image above the reg­is­ter) and under-delivered.

Experts Dis­agree on Delight­ing Customers

Some cus­tomer ser­vice experts would look at my expe­ri­ence at the fast food restau­rant and sug­gest that I should have not only enjoyed my “just as promised” sand­wich, but I should have been delighted by the ser­vice staff. In other words, busi­nesses should always over deliver on their promises to cus­tomers. In an inter­view with 50 Lessons, Gerry Roche, a high pro­file exec­u­tive recruiter, sug­gested that “going beyond what’s expected, almost beyond the rea­son­able, is what ser­vice is all about”.

How­ever, this begs the ques­tion, is going beyond what’s expected, rea­son­able? Where do busi­nesses draw the line? And does this strat­egy apply equally to every type of business?

Accord­ing to Matt Dixon’s 2010 Har­vard Busi­ness Review arti­cle, Stop Try­ing to Delight Your Cus­tomers (an arti­cle that cre­ated a major buzz in the mar­ket­ing sphere), delight­ing cus­tomers does not gen­er­ate the best busi­ness results because it can be costly and its impact on the busi­ness immea­sur­able. Busi­nesses should instead focus on meet­ing their cus­tomers’ expec­ta­tions and ful­fill the promises they make. This is not a blan­ket state­ment to say that all busi­nesses should ditch their cus­tomer delight strate­gies. Some busi­nesses actu­ally spe­cial­ize in offer­ing ‘delight’ as part of their ser­vice and any­thing less would be a dis­ap­point­ment from the cus­tomers’ viewpoint.

Embody the Busi­ness Objectives

Upon its incep­tion, an orga­ni­za­tion makes a choice on the busi­ness objec­tives it intends to focus on to main­tain its com­pet­i­tive­ness in the mar­ket. There are many busi­ness objec­tives to pick from, but the most impor­tant two are:

1) Prod­uct and ser­vice quality

2) Price

Exam­ples of busi­nesses that focus heav­ily on prod­uct and ser­vice qual­ity as the main busi­ness objec­tive are lux­ury goods providers (Ritz Carl­ton hotels, Fer­rari car deal­ers, etc.). Cus­tomers that patron­ize busi­nesses in this cat­e­gory expect pre­mium prod­ucts, pre­mium cus­tomer ser­vice, and yes, delight.

Delight is a very impor­tant aspect of ser­vice for lux­ury ori­ented busi­nesses because cus­tomers expect it! Any­thing less than ‘delight­ful’ is a dis­ap­point­ment from the cus­tomers’ per­spec­tive. Delight, in those instances, can be rep­re­sented in the sim­ple things: a per­son­al­ized wel­come note, com­pli­men­tary food and drink in the cus­tomer lounge, com­ple­men­tary pick up and drop off ser­vice, etc.

On the other hand, econ­omy ori­ented busi­nesses (Days Inn hotels, Mazda car deal­ers, etc.) tend to focus on price as the main busi­ness objec­tive that allows them to main­tain a com­pet­i­tive advan­tage. Yes, prod­uct and ser­vice qual­ity are also impor­tant for busi­nesses in this cat­e­gory, but they are far less impor­tant than they are for lux­ury goods providers.

Cus­tomers who patron­ize those busi­nesses do not expect to see a red car­pet, Vic­to­rian chan­de­liers, com­pli­men­tary lux­ury lounges with unlim­ited food and drink, etc. All they want is a cost effec­tive prod­uct of decent qual­ity accom­pa­nied with robust cus­tomer ser­vice. Delight­ing cus­tomers in econ­omy ori­ented retail envi­ron­ment is a waste of dol­lars, time, and energy.

The bot­tom line is whether, or not, busi­nesses should engage in delight­ing their cus­tomers is irrel­e­vant. The impor­tant part is defin­ing the busi­ness objec­tive of the orga­ni­za­tion, com­mu­ni­cat­ing it clearly to cus­tomers, and then meet­ing the customer’s expec­ta­tions. Cus­tomers expect delight when deal­ing with lux­ury goods providers, and their expec­ta­tion should be com­pletely met. At the same time, they do not expect delight when deal­ing with econ­omy goods providers. Instead, they expect a low price and only a decent prod­uct that does what it promises to do, and those expec­ta­tions should also be met.

Reflect­ing on the state of my sand­wich at the fast food restau­rant, by no means was I expect­ing for it to be served on a China plate, accom­pa­nied by sil­ver uten­sils and a glass of wine. I sim­ply wanted a good tast­ing inex­pen­sive sand­wich with fresh ingre­di­ents like the one adver­tised on the ban­ner above the reg­is­ter. And I didn’t get it. Just meet your cus­tomers’ expec­ta­tions and suc­cess will be around the corner.

Customer Journey Map

A customer journey map is a diagram that illustrates the process customers follow in their engagement with the organization. Every business has a process that customers follow in order for them to buy and use its products and services. It is important to mention that the more touch points customers experience in their engagement with an organization, the more complicated a customer journey map becomes, and the more critical its impact is on the customer experience.

Three main phases of a customer journey map:

Engage: The steps customers take in researching the products and services offered and interacting with service staff to make informed purchase decisions

Buy: Following the necessary steps to purchase the products and services offered

Use: Drawing the expected benefits by using the products and services purchased 

How we work for you…

CustomerX follows specific methodologies to evaluate and improve the customer journey in order to help businesses provide a low effort customer experience that is both satisfactory and delightful from the customers’ viewpoint.

• We help organizations develop customer journey maps and identify and remedy customer pain-points
• We help organizations determine the level of effort customers put forth (to have a request handled) by engaging directly with customers through surveys, interviews, and interactive focus groups

Customer Satisfaction

It is important for organizations to be informed on how satisfied their customers are with the services offered. Satisfaction a simple notion that is widely understood by customers and its results are easily communicated to managers. In fact, customer satisfaction is directly linked to:

• Customer retention
• Increased spending
• Positive word of mouth

Customer Loyalty

Organizations are better off focusing their efforts on maintaining a loyal customer base rather than focusing on acquiring new customers and new business relationships.

Why?:

How we work for you…

Realizing the importance of customer satisfaction and loyalty, we help clients determine the levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty by designing and sending customer surveys and by conducting phone or face-to-face customer interviews. By utilizing those two research methods, CustomerX is able to enact measurable and tangible improvements that accommodate the specific needs and requirements of clients.

Coaching and Training

Coaching has experienced vast growth in the area of business over the last decade as more businesses are implementing coaching techniques to address staff development. In some cases coaching increased the return on investment (ROI) by over 500%.

How we work for you…

CustomerX implements coaching techniques with service staff to do the following:

• Shadow service reps as they perform their daily duties and provide one-on-one coaching feedback
• Provide specific strategies and tactics, unique to the client goals and perspectives, to help service reps better address the needs of customers
• Develop and present a specific set of best practices on the most effective techniques in handling customer interaction

By Ayad Mirjan (Published by Customer Management IQ)

She stood behind the counter and stared at me suspiciously as I explained my situation.  She then started shaking her head in a “no” motion halfway through my explanation.