The Christmas season brings out the good, the bad and the ugly in the way customers are treated wherever they conduct business. It’s a season of frenzy, with frustrations running high when customers experience parking challenges, face long checkout lines, encounter price irregularities and interact with salespersons who are overworked. Woe be onto those customers who get on the last nerve of these salespersons.
It’s the perfect storm of chaos, disgruntlement and frenzy, that causes service delivery and customer experience to be stretched to the outer limits of service failure. It’s also a time when all of the latent or unresolved weaknesses in the way in which a business serves its customers show up. As we know, the true strength of a structure is discovered when it’s under stress. If a business has been neglectful in its attention to creating a strong customer experience structure, the result in this season of stress, is what can be termed service terrorism. In other words, customers are going to feel terrorized by the many service failures that they experience.
If a business has been neglectful in its attention to creating a strong customer experience structure, the result in this season of stress, is what can be termed service terrorism.
The one goal for counteracting service terrorism is to eliminate shopper or visitor pain points during every interaction journey. Now, the correct assumption here is that this goal should be an overarching one, as long as a business exists. Except that during the Christmas season, when customers are shopping more often than usual, the impact of an over-abundance of service failures will take a greater than usual toll on an individual’s psyche and may have a longer lasting imprint. The thing is, some businesses drop the ball more often and in more serious ways at this time, than at other times of the year. Nothing leaves as much of a lasting imprint on a customer’s mind than being disappointed by an unkept promise, especially if the promise is associated with a special gift for a loved one. Sometimes, there’s no redemption from this disappointment for a business.
Service terrorism is avoidable, especially at Christmas time. After all, we would have had twelve months’ notice to make provision for the inevitable rush. So, forgive me if I have some questions. An obvious question is, “Why are salespersons so invisible at this time?” In many retail outlets, especially the more popular stores, how hard would it be to have a few salespersons whose job it is to simply “float” and ensure that customers are not neglected. The mission of these special ambassadors will be to reduce “inattention anxiety” by ensuring that customers are properly cued for service with salespersons.
Nothing leaves as much of a lasting imprint on a customer’s mind than being disappointed by an unkept promise, especially if the promise is associated with a special gift for a loved one.
Another thing, with the groundswell of traffic, wouldn’t it be an act of consideration to have car park attendants directing customers to available parking spots? Some extra hands hired specifically to ensure a smooth flow in and out of car parks, can rack up priceless goodwill at the start of the customer’s journey and, as we know, goodwill is a revenue generator.
In many businesses, stockpiling merchandise on the shop floor takes precedence over creating customer convenience. This explains why so many items do not have price stickers and force customers to find “invisible” sales or customer service representatives for price checks. Additionally, not everyone wants to walk around looking for a price checking device, especially if the device is not positioned in a highly visible spot, with obvious signage.
This brings me to the point of online and social media channels. So often during the Christmas season, these channels morph into pure “hype” channels, designed to just push sales, without enough infusion of the care element. Digital channels should include automatic push notifications that alert customers to date and time for collection or delivery of their merchandise.
If a business has been guilty of delivering less than stellar service delivery throughout the year, aiming for redemptive service at this time of year can be the start of a whole new ballgame for making magical experience memories, through customer-first gestures.
Christmas time is an ideal season for personalizing the customer’s experience, with small but memorable gestures. With so many businesses now requesting a shopper’s name and mobile number, wouldn’t it be nice to receive a “Thank you for shopping with us today” message? This is sure to make customers smile.
By and large, customers are not hard to please. In my case, I had the most endearing experience whilst shopping at a retail outlet recently. There was no price sticker on an item that I wanted to purchase, so a warehouse attendant came to my rescue. He took the item, found the price on the computer, kept me updated whilst the system moved slowly and then escorted me to the manager’s desk, where I had an equally delightful experience in closing the sale. If only this could become the standard experience in our country.
I’ll say it again. Service terrorism is avoidable. If a business has been guilty of delivering less than stellar service delivery throughout the year, aiming for redemptive service at this time of year can be the start of a whole new ballgame for making magical experience memories, through customer-first gestures.
Eliminating one customer pain point during this season, can change your customer experience game forever.
It’s important to remember that long after the purchase, the customer will remember the journey that he or she had to travel to take possession of an item. A telling question would be, “What emotion will be evoked when the customer reflects on the journey associated with the item.” I can guarantee that the upcoming emotion will influence whether the customer’s next purchase will be from the same supplier or not. The takeaway from all of this? Eliminating one customer pain point during this season, can change your customer experience game forever.
To all of my loyal readers and to those individuals who share valuable insights on my articles, I extend heartfelt appreciation for your kind comments when you reach out. To all of my countrymen, my wish is for peace, joy, love and prosperity to overtake you this Christmas season.
Sending you much love and light!!