My passion lies within empowering organizations to THRIVE, and there has never been a more critical time in history when companies need to reevaluate the importance of their customer experience. We need to continue to think differently, be innovative, and most importantly, put the customer at the heart of everything we do. Understanding what I mean by putting the customer at the heart of everything you do can often be very challenging for organizations. They say that the customer is the most important thing, well, at least the mission statement says so. But is it really? How are they practicing this consistently? You see Customer Experience is a discipline, just like Accounting, Marketing, and operation. Yes, it’s a feeling, but it is executed by following a framework that allows organizations to consistently think differently.
Let me share a story of a home builder with you:
Imagine a leader says
“Our competitor has an app, we should create an app to make sure that our customers have a better home building experience”.
So your organization puts together a team to lead the project. The leadership team makes this a priority.
“It must be launched by September 1st. That is a busy time in the home building industry and we want to make it easy for our customers to shop with us”.
The organization invests hundreds of thousands of dollars, countless hours and puts added pressure on the team to create the app on time and on budget. With pride and joy, the app is launched! And then crickets… no one is using the app; the ones that are, are giving the app poor reviews because it’s not solving the challenge that they had. So the team goes to the customers and asks –
“Why aren’t you using the App?”
“How can we make the app experience better?”
And the customer replies.
“I don’t need an app. I was on your website looking for home plans, lots, and prices. I’m typically on my computer after I get my rambunctious children to bed. It gives my husband and me time to talk about options.
What’s been frustrating us is that your website has little to no information about the actual homes. There are no prices, and we can’t see the available home plans or lots we can build on. It’s a challenge to call during the day with the kids at home and we are trying to work from home – there is a lot going on!
And so when I do find the time to call your sales team during your office hours, no one can help me unless I come in. I want to be able to shop from my home with my husband. I’d love for someone who has answers to be available to help me on the phone or on a zoom call. And… we actually bought a home with another builder last week – It was just easier!”
Takeaways from this story?
Just imagine how much time, resources, and money the organization wasted on creating the App. Perhaps those same funds could have gone into creating a better digital experience online, or training the staff to service and sell to clients over zoom? This is just one example of how putting the customer at the center of your organization can save you time, money, and improve customer and employee retention.
Remember that it’s not about what you believe will be better for the customer – it’s about Actually asking, listening and following a framework to make it easy for the customer to do business with you!
After all, those two beautiful rambunctious kids could be your next two customers, and you can bet that they might want their parent’s input when buying their first home!
I hope this little share inspires you to dive into the science and the art of Customer Experience Design. The value of putting your customer at the heart of everything you do is priceless, it can and will directly impact your organization financially, but it will also cultivate a culture of success and encourage long-term customer loyalty.
Something for you:
To get your leadership team thinking differently, join us for our Complimentary training webinar on April 13th, 10am-12 pm EST: Introduction to Customer Experience Mastery!
Engineering Experiences,
Crystal D’Cunha
Chief Experience Officer,
The INSIDE View Inc.
