Think about the last time a clerk threw your change at you, or an online purchase went sour because the order hangs, or a teller gives you that horrified “I don’t have a clue” look when you ask her a question, or you get trapped in a voice response system. Think about how you felt, and how it makes you feel about the company you’re doing business with. It doesn’t matter if it’s a low involvement product like buying a pack of gum at a convenience store, or your next new car. Every transaction has an impact on your perception of the company or companies that deliver it.
There’s a magic moment for every single business transaction that happens in life. The moment when the actual transaction occurs between a customer and a representative of a business. It doesn’t have to be a human representative, it doesn’t have to be in real time. And in that moment, the customer judges your company, and determines if the decision to do business with your company is validated and reinforced, or the reverse, and the customer questions his purchase decision.
There’s a bunch of stuff that surrounds that moment, but no matter what, it’s that moment that defines or reinforces the relationship. Getting a positive vibe from that transaction is what the art and science of customer experience management is about. And it’s probably the most important factor in your business, regardless of what the finance guy tells you.
As if that weren’t enough, creating a positive magic moment is about the only way to make a difference in the world of financial services. Our research at Maritz shows that 51% of customers defect because of a bad customer experience. It’s expensive to get a new customer and the only way to offset the high acquisition cost is to keep customers as long as you can to convince them to deepen their relationship with you. So lose a customer at your peril.
How do you make a positive magic moment? It’s hard, but it’s doable. And that’s what we’re going to talk about.
1 comments:
Too many people substitute the words "customer experience" for the words "customer service" as though they were the same thing. The reality is that experiences are as distinct from services as services are from goods.
Experiences are memorable. They address not just the functional jobs that the customer hires us to do, but the social and emotional jobs too. The best experiences incorporate elements of each -- and in doing so command premium prices.
Here's an example: It used to be that before I left for vacation I stopped at the store to pick up a roll of film -- a good. When I returned from my trip, I dropped my film off at the drug store for processing -- a service.
But today, I can upload my digital images to a website like Shutterfly.com and produce a coffee table quality book with of my photos. So I accomplished the functional job of having my photos printed AND the emotional job of creative expression AND the social job of being able to share my experience with friends. And I happily paid a premium for the experience.
The point is that great customer experiences are more than good service. It's more than just good service design. It expresses the core values of your firm in ways that are palatable in sensory and visceral ways to your customers.
"Sure," you may say. "That's fine if your Disney or Apple. But we're in banking." Let's face it, bankers are lemmings. They regularly follow each other off the same cliffs. (Think sub-prime mortgages or free online bill pay.)
But consider firms like ING Direct who delights its customers with simplicity or USAA which creates tremendous customer intimacy without physical distribution.
Of course the essential prerequisite for creating a great customer experience is a passionate desire to be different.
Oh yeah, we're just bankers...
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