Don't Improve Customer Service!
Don't improve your customer service. You'd be spending your precious time and resources in the wrong place. Now don't get me wrong, customer service is an important aspect of any business. Customer service, however, is only a minuscule piece of the bigger picture that you should be worrying about.
Let me explain. Would you focus on the front door while the rest of the house was falling down? Hopefully not. Customer service is only a component - a small component - of your company's overall customer experience lifecycle. This is an important distinction to understand when comparing customer service vs. customer experience. Often we see these two terms used synonymously which is a mistake.
Customer service may represent a subset of potential touch points: a receptionist, a call center representative, or a restaurant waiter or waitress. Each touch point does provide a significant contribution to how each customer is treated. However, even the best customer service won't rectify an otherwise flawed customer experience. The customer experience, however, encompasses all customer service touch points that can extend from the customer's first impression to their ultimate defection.
If, for example, you have attended a professional football game in a season when your home team is struggling, it can be painful to watch. The price of a ticket and a parking pass is expensive. The stadium can be crowded and cold and the fans can be in a foul mood. Although the person behind the concession counter delivers great customer service, the overall experience can be a disappointment.
Companies that are serious about being more customer-centric, or are determined to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, should instead focus their time and resources on the bigger picture; fix the customer experience. Granted, customer experience management is a much bigger issue. It requires a keen understanding of the customer, a maniacal focus on end-to-end process perfection, and an innate paranoia that will never let you rest on your laurels.
Customer experience management is not for the weak or faint of heart. It is not an improvement initiative that can be delegated to that other department. It requires the re-mapping of a company's DNA to be completely customer centric, to elevate the customer experience process to the same or higher levels than finance or operations, and to be willing to listen and respond to customer feedback.
Simply put, mastering the customer experience is not easy. But it is quickly becoming critically important in a business environment where price, product, and promotion just won't cut it anymore.
If you want your business to survive and grow, don't improve customer service. Improve your customer experience instead.
Let me explain. Would you focus on the front door while the rest of the house was falling down? Hopefully not. Customer service is only a component - a small component - of your company's overall customer experience lifecycle. This is an important distinction to understand when comparing customer service vs. customer experience. Often we see these two terms used synonymously which is a mistake.
Customer service may represent a subset of potential touch points: a receptionist, a call center representative, or a restaurant waiter or waitress. Each touch point does provide a significant contribution to how each customer is treated. However, even the best customer service won't rectify an otherwise flawed customer experience. The customer experience, however, encompasses all customer service touch points that can extend from the customer's first impression to their ultimate defection.
If, for example, you have attended a professional football game in a season when your home team is struggling, it can be painful to watch. The price of a ticket and a parking pass is expensive. The stadium can be crowded and cold and the fans can be in a foul mood. Although the person behind the concession counter delivers great customer service, the overall experience can be a disappointment.
Companies that are serious about being more customer-centric, or are determined to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, should instead focus their time and resources on the bigger picture; fix the customer experience. Granted, customer experience management is a much bigger issue. It requires a keen understanding of the customer, a maniacal focus on end-to-end process perfection, and an innate paranoia that will never let you rest on your laurels.
Customer experience management is not for the weak or faint of heart. It is not an improvement initiative that can be delegated to that other department. It requires the re-mapping of a company's DNA to be completely customer centric, to elevate the customer experience process to the same or higher levels than finance or operations, and to be willing to listen and respond to customer feedback.
Simply put, mastering the customer experience is not easy. But it is quickly becoming critically important in a business environment where price, product, and promotion just won't cut it anymore.
If you want your business to survive and grow, don't improve customer service. Improve your customer experience instead.
Labels: customer experience, customer service
posted by Robert G. Howard at
4:00 PM
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