The best moments in customer experience are those that make the customer plan to come again, to repurchase, or to want a repeat of the emotion that he or she experienced during the interaction. Businesses need to be crystal clear on what comprises those moments, at what point in the experience journey they are supposed to occur and remove all barriers to bringing them to life.
Generally, these are called moments of truth or moments that matter, but sometimes the magic goes further and they become the best moments of the experience.
There are the “surprise” moments. These are instances when something is done that takes the customer completely by surprise, especially when the action is perfectly timed. Take for instance, the passenger on an airline who appears to be feeling cold and, without being asked, the flight attendant brings a blanket. Or, a customer service representative who offers to assist a physically or otherwise impaired customer, with his or her shopping.
The best moments in customer experience are those that make the customer plan to come again, to repurchase, or to want a repeat of the emotion that he or she experienced during the interaction.
There are the “going the distance” moments. Please note that I did not say the extra mile moments. Okay, so let me take a moment to differentiate between going the distance and going the extra mile in the customer experience universe. It’s common practice for businesses to shout to the heavens that they go the extra mile for their customers. But what happens if the customer needs the business to go the extra ten or twenty miles? Get my point?
The more customer-centric way would be to go the distance for the customer. In this way, whatever the customer needs and however long it takes to resolve the situation, so that customer happiness is the outcome, becomes the fulfilment of the unconditional commitment to the customer. I call this the long-haul moments where an employee stays with the customer until a situation is rectified. The moment becomes extra special if the employee maintains a cheerful, eager-to-serve disposition regardless of how taxing getting to the solution would have been.
Then, there are the “miracle” moments. Have you experienced a situation where you’re hoping for a highly desired outcome that falls outside of the typical parameters of a particular procedure and the business makes an exception for you? Yes, that would be a miracle moment. Some of these moments border on euphoria. One example would be if you’re waitlisted on a flight and your name is the last to be called for boarding.
These are instances when something is done that takes the customer completely by surprise, especially when the action is perfectly timed.
To me, some of the best moments are those that can fit into the “selfless” moments category. Very different to all of the other categories. These are the deeply human moments when humanity is visible in plain sight. Typically, these moments revolve around, (but are not limited to), experiences that involve the more vulnerable customers.
Have you ever come across a trolley attendant at a supermarket who is happy to escort an elderly customer who has a full shopping cart, all the way to his or her home, a few blocks away? I have. I guess there is the argument around the motivation behind the enthusiasm. The tip and the welcome respite from the repetitive job of pushing out trolleys. To their credit though, I have seen some attendants who seem happy genuinely, to be of service, especially if they have forged a cordial relationship with the customer.
The cornerstone of service excellence is getting customers to believe that they are not invisible to a business
A natural question then is, “How do these magical moments come about?” Through an unwavering commitment to service excellence. The cornerstone of service excellence is getting customers to believe that they are not invisible to a business. When this belief becomes deeply engraved in their emotional circuitry, customers become resolute about where to place their loyalty.
If we dissect service excellence, the starting point is about excellence. I’ve talked about the need for businesses to be grounded in this principle as if their very existence depended on it. When this principle become a non-negotiable element, every decision and every action that the business undertakes, will be granulated through the excellence mill.
Excellence breeds efficiency, doing things right, getting things done and building solid internal relationships. Only when excellence becomes the internal foundation upon which the business is anchored, should attention be turned to external impact areas as service and customer experience curation.
Given that the basis for serving customers has been satisfaction-driven, not delight-driven traditionally, a low bar has dominated the landscape of service delivery to customers.
Excellence breeds efficiency, doing things right, getting things done and building solid internal relationships.
If we liken the impaired state of customer experience affairs to the frog and boiling water experiment, we know that over time, generational shifts in attitude towards poor customer experience will place some borderline businesses at risk of becoming obsolescent.
The time to act therefore, is now.