Where Should You Focus Customer Experience Management Efforts?

I’ve been thinking about pizza all day, so I decided to order one for dinner. I choose a well-considered new restaurant to try, pull out my phone, find the app, walk through the menu to order exactly what I have in mind and pay for my order. I wait for delivery, tracking the driver on the way to my house so I can open the box and have fun.

It’s a typical customer journey in today’s world, made up of many small moments — some digital and some analog — that come together to create a customer experience. Some of these moments carry more weight with the overall experience than others because they trigger an emotion that has some effect on the outcome. These are the moments that matter.

With design thinking, we use research and data to understand how the customer experiences the journey-and we empathize with the customer’s feelings at every step, paying attention to these moments that matter. We can intentionally engineer those moments to reduce pain and maximize satisfaction opportunities to drive a particular outcome-for example, reducing customer churn, securing renewal or repurchase or improving employee retention. .

Many are now focused on the concept of “pleasure.” Google the topic, and you’ll find any number of articles about “X ways to make the customer happy.” That’s never a bad perspective to have. But I thought this: Most of us don’t work with unlimited resources, and we usually have to decide where to prioritize our time and effort. In the face of that choice, is it better to make that lasting impression really pleasing or fix something that is broken?

The ‘Peak-End Rule’

I believe the “Peak-End Rule” offers a good context for thinking about this question. Based on research by Daniel Kahneman and Barbara Frederickson, the Peak-End Rule recognizes that the brain does not digest every moment or data point throughout the journey. Instead, it gives greater weight to the strongest positive or negative moments (“peaks”) during the experience and to the last moments (“end”).

On my pizza trip, I had a great experience ordering through the app, and the pizza arrived earlier than I expected. IM happy. But when I opened the box, the pizza toppings were wrong (and I really hate mushrooms). That “end” experience nullified much of the effort invested in earlier moments.

Related Article: Do You Need Customer Journey Orchestration?

Why and How to Raise Positive Peaks

During the pandemic, everyone learned to communicate in a more digital way. As most companies have moved their business to being more digital, aiming for customer satisfaction has become a necessity to differentiate itself from the competition in order to maintain some level of customer loyalty.

It is important to understand that “satisfaction” does not equal satisfaction, with many understanding that customer satisfaction means exceeding expectations to make a lasting impression.

But if you are “engineering” positive moments, are they true? In their book, The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact, Chip and Dan Heath discuss the intentional engineering of fun moments. They explain how engineered moments should be memorable and meaningful-that is, deliver a positive feeling such as connection, pride, or insight. This is no different from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and in fact, you could argue that negative experiences result from failing to meet basic physiological or safety needs.

Customer Surveys Won’t Always Do the Trick

How do you do it? Not to say that customer insight is essential for designing pleasurable experiences. But do customers always know and say what makes them happy? They may not say they care about something, but if they really do, then a different experience could change the outcome. You probably won’t get this kind of insight from a survey. You need to be out of the field, having the right conversation.

Find and lift the moments that are most useful or important. For example, starting a new job can be a tremendous experience – with a lot of information given to you in a short amount of time. Even at its best, it is not uncommon to be hesitant. Find ways to help new employees at certain moments that may increase anxiety. Give them a schedule of arranged meetings instead of asking them to set up those meetings themselves. And celebrate the beginning of a new relationship.

Related Article: 3 Ways Data Science Keys to the Customer Experience

Why and How to Fix the Negatives

Some would argue that meeting expectations should come first before trying to rejoice, because people tend to remember negative experiences better and more clearly than positive ones, according to research by Randy Larsen, PhD. This is known as positive-negative asymmetry, or the negativity bias.

Numerous studies refer to the impact of negative experience on buying behavior. For example, in new research from Qualtrics and ServiceNow, 80% of customers said they switched brands because of a bad customer experience, and 43% said they were relatively likely to switch brands after only a negative customer service interaction. A 2021 study by the XM Institute and Bruce Temkin suggests that poor customer experience puts $ 4.7 trillion of sales at risk.

There is also evidence that fixing problems delivers greater profits than improving what is good. Research published in the Harvard Business Review by a division of the Corporate Executive Board measures a larger leap in loyalty by moving from “not meeting expectations to meeting expectations” than from “meeting expectations”. expectations exceeding them. “

Determining Why Customer Expectations Are Not Being Met

How do you do it? First, identify negative peaks and perform root-cause analysis to understand why the experience is difficult.

Identify drivers of negative results and ideas around those drivers. Here, again, it’s helpful to really dig into customer perspectives and need to understand what expectations are not being met and why.

Sometimes, customers have a hard time saying what they need in the first place. A good example of this is found in the book Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business by Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine; it’s about in part how FedEx redesigned the package drop-off experience. Through observation, it was found that placing a package in a giant pile created a negative feeling about the safety of the cargo. As a result, it eliminated the negative peak moment by having five pre-sort windows behind the customer agent to properly “sort” the package.

One of West Monroe’s clients also experienced a similar issue. As a software company, they saw a gap in revenue sold and recognized the revenue, identifying the root of the issue as a bad experience when moving from buying software to installing and using software-which they called “failed to launch.” By responding to this experience, it eliminated the negative peak moment by setting the right customer expectations and making sure they could use the software, as intended.

Related Article: Are You Asking the Right Customer Experience Questions?

Why and How to Make a Positive End

Remember the pizza? It is doubtful that my next order will be from that restaurant-despite the very smooth digital experience early in the trip. Similarly, a bad flight experience on the way home from a vacation can obscure the trip, even if the vacation is beautiful. I might prefer to choose a different airline next time.

Due to the nature of short-term memory, customers often remember the most recently presented information best-and that influences their future behavior.

Engineer a positive end to the journey. Greet the customer for approaching you for help to resolve an issue or for completing a process. Or, recap what you did together. For example, Mint Mobile provides an onscreen celebration at the end of a new service sign-up and phone number transfer, congratulating the customer on their decision to “save money.”

Be Conscious of the Experiences You Provide

COVID-19 was an unexpected occurrence. We all threw rocks into the test lake, looking for something to make an impact. Now, things are much better, and companies need to be more intentional with the experiences they deliver.

The right focus depends on your organization and your customer – whether that’s consumers, employees or some other type of stakeholder. Most likely, it won’t be a straightforward exercise with an easy answer. Here are some important questions to ask:

• What outcome do you want to achieve? If you want to reduce churn, you may want to adjust the negatives. If your goal is to drive growth by acquiring or expanding, then focus on the positives – but make sure the negatives don’t hinder growth.
• What does the data tell you? To understand what is driving the outcome you want, there is no substitute for learning from customers-in the field. Tap all the quantitative and qualitative data you can.
• What kind of experience are you trying to convey? Consider your target customers, what they like or respond to and what you do that differentiates your organization from others.
• What budget and resources do you have? Since we don’t live in a world of endless resources, determine where you can achieve the greatest potential return on investment.

Related Article: What Do Teams Really Face in Customer Experience?

Conclusion: Use a Design Mindset

Whether you aim to make the positive fun, fix the negative, or pick up the ending, the next steps are the same. Assume design thinking and use a person-centered approach.

Develop a hypothesis, not a permanent solution. Get out there quickly-conceptualize, test and experiment, learn, measure and make adjustments based on what you’ve learned. And, most of all, when something works, be prepared to measure and use it.