Effective Experience

To understand what a "effective customer experience"We must first question traditional notions of perfection and customer satisfaction. Here, the key lies not in a flawless experience, but rather in create memorable and meaningful moments. This suggests that highlights, even if they are few, can have a more significant impact on customer perception than an effort focused only on eliminating imperfections.

Another important point is consistency and expectation management: if I have chosen to make a certain stage of my customer journey memorable (e.g. the "check in" if we are talking about a hotel), I have to be able to maintain it, because otherwise, if the customer perceives that today it is very good and tomorrow it is average, what I generate is frustration.

Two ineffective experiences

I have been anearly adopterand admirer of Uber and Airbnb because of the experience they have given me. However, recent bad experiences with these brands have led me to discuss it with my entourage and discover that I am not the only one who is becoming disenchanted.

Both brands represented a disruptor in their industry, offering a novel and personalized experience, quickly gaining popularity and satisfaction among their users. However, in my case, over time, my perception of that experience has worsened, resulting in a decline in service quality and responsiveness to problems. This demonstrates to me that an effective customer experience requires not only peaks of satisfaction, but also a consistency that meets the expectations that are created..

When I have shared it I have collected comments of the type:

"Uber has rested on its laurels and cab drivers have gotten their act together, I'm taking more and more cabs."

"For the price of an Airbnb I'll go to a hotel, which gives me everything done and if I have a problem they solve it for me."

It is curious how models that some people thought were outdated: cabs and hotels of all times, have been able to react and re-emerge with strength, overcoming the hecatomb that was predicted for them. They have done so by shifting the focus to an effective and, I would say, sustainable customer experience.

Our conclusion: An effective customer experience builds loyalty and improves business, a "fake" customer experience generates frustration and churn.

If you would like to go deeper into the concept of effective experience, I attach to this article the book PIG Strategy (translated by us into Spanish), which explains it in a very direct way. You can download it completely free of charge and without the need to provide your personal information.

Photo by JavyGo on Unsplash