We begin this article with a couple of first-person stories, 100% real, to illustrate the ideas I will explain later:
Some time ago, I went with my young daughter to buy clothes at a store that a Spanish brand has opened in the center of Madrid. The store occupies a completely renovated building and is wonderful; in fact, it has become a place of pilgrimage for young customers.
We saw that there was a party in one area of the store, a kind of presentation of the new clothes. Many customers were coming and going from the event, and we wanted to "sneak in." At the entrance, a sales assistant stopped us, and this was more or less the conversation:
"Do you have an invitation?"
"No, how can we get it?"
"An email has been sent to regular customers with the invitation."
"We are regular customers, but I don't remember the email; maybe it's in my spam folder" ( which was true).
"Yes, but you have to bring the printed email. Without it, you can't come in. I'm sorry."
I don't know what our faces looked like, but I don't think it was one of joy.
Around the same time, my car broke down. Something to do with the radiator or the oil pump, I'm not sure. The thing is, the repair shop called me to say that it could be serious, and, gulp... although the final assessment required dismantling part of the engine, the repair could cost up to €2,000! In the end, after two days of tense waiting, the joke ended up costing "only" €800. As the mechanic later explained to me, in great detail and piece by piece, they had managed to repair part of the damage and limit the impact considerably. The repair came with a 6-month warranty.
Despite the final amount I had to pay, I was much happier than in the previous situation.
In the first case , I don't think we'll be shopping at that store again, at least for a while. In the second case,I've already recommended the workshop to more than one person.
I believe that my reaction in both cases is perfectly normal and predictable. The person in the first case could have let us pass or given another explanation: we are regular customers, there was plenty of space, it wasn't rush hour, and that event was taking place in full view of the rest of the store, and I suppose that more customers would want to pass (... let's keep in mind the needs of this segment of the public).
In the second case, I don't know if the mechanic is familiar with the psychological mechanism whereby bad news at the outset makes subsequent bad news easier to take (the classic "bad news first" approach), but he applied it perfectly.
Every day we see this kind of thing: companies that have invested time and money in cutting-edge technology, excellent products, luxury contact channels, customer intelligence, well-trained employees... but they overlook the fact that on the other side there are real people, with normal needs and reactions, whose experience and behavior as customers undoubtedly depends on that emotional, personal factor, or whatever you want to call it.
This factor is often considered obvious or "included by default in the specifications." What we see is that, with a complex value chain and many people involved, if we do not consider the "emotional impact" in the design, its management is left to chance and we may encounter surprises.
Let's look at a few real examples of the kinds of things that are affecting us:
Selling.
- Buying on the first try is becoming a thing of the past. We shop around more before buying, especially because of the volume of information we have access to. Are our salespeople prepared for this? Do they see a visit without a closing as part of the sale or as a missed opportunity?
- The decision to buy can be linked to two factors: motivation to buy and ability to buy. The first is more complex to manage, while the second (ability) refers to the customer's financial capacity but also to how easy it is to buy (process). This is well known on the Internet, but in physical stores, why do we insist on asking customers to make all kinds of efforts (cognitive, physical, time, etc.) to complete a purchase? With less motivation, greater ease can precipitate the purchase decision. If we make it easier to buy, we will sell more.
- If our prices are lower than our competitors', customers may have doubts about the quality of the product. A simple comment from the salesperson at the right moment, talking about value rather than price, can break down that barrier.
- Providing information about our competitors' prices and features while defending our product increases customer confidence and preference. Do our salespeople have this information?
Providing service.
- After conducting thousands of surveys and interviews about customer expectations when calling customer service, the same thing always comes up, across all sectors: people need accessible service, courteous treatment, answers when they ask for them, requests fulfilled as quickly as possible, well-trained employees, clarity about what to expect from the service, commitments and promises kept, first-time resolution, and follow-up on requests. That's it. These don't seem like unreasonable things, do they?
- The memory and assessment of a service interaction is based on what happened at the emotional peak and at the end of the interaction; everything else is forgotten. Let's take care of the end of the contact and know how to handle the emotional peak to achieve a good memory. A good memory of the interaction is vital; it is what builds the customer experience.
- "Educating the customer" is a widely used term. Normally, when we want the customer to do something that is in our interest, if they do not see the benefit,it will not work.
- The mood and attitude of employees directly influences customer attitude. What's more, if you want a quick assessment of what customers think about a service, ask employees for their own (honest) personal assessment of that service. There is a high correlation between the two opinions. Incidentally, mood and attitude are managed from the moment of recruitment. Not all of us are suited to the same things, and a genuine attitude of service is not easy to learn.
Important keys
- It's not about reinventing the wheel, and there are no magic formulas: The key is to gain a thorough understanding of who our customers are and what they need, using the right methodology.
- We are talking about working ondesign,processes, and employeecapabilities . Certainly not about large investments: it is almost always a matter of guiding and refining what we already have.
- The customer experience exists out there even if we ignore it. The decision is whether we want to manage it to contribute to the business or let it happen randomly.
- It is always better to start with small changes and move steadily toward more ambitious goals. This is more motivating and allows us to learn: we are human beings.
