Delivering an Effortless Customer Experience
In early September, I traveled with friends along the Dalmatian coast, enjoying the sunshine and lingering over cappuccinos late into the night. One evening at dinner, I couldn’t help but remark about the wonderful service at the restaurant. While it was the end of the busy tourist season, our waiter was amazingly attentive. He made it easy for us to order the right amount and variety of fish for the table, tailoring the offering to meet individual preferences. I suggested to my friend that I was surprised that although he knew he’d never see us again, he delivered exceptional service. A native, she told me that the customer was an integral part of the dining experience. For the business, ensuring customer satisfaction was as important as ensuring the quality of the food.
So how can companies everywhere deliver effortless, memorable experiences for its customers? How can they ensure that the service they deliver lives up to its brand promise?
It’s simple. The best companies deliver straightforward, reliable experiences that meet real needs. People want to interact with companies where doing business is personalized, easy and hassle free. Consider Starbucks, where you get a consistent experience and your morning jo customized for you no matter what city you are located in. Or Nordstrom, where you can link directly from Pinterest to their store to order the latest products that catch your eye.
Delivering an effortless experience begins with listening to your customers. It’s important to take the time to look at your business through the lens of your customers. This involves setting up multiple listening posts to capture different viewpoints. Most importantly, you need a robust system to capture and categorize that feedback in a manner in which your organization can easily act on it. At Verizon, we have a social media team that monitors posts across a wide variety of sites. The data they collect is analyzed using Clarabridge, a data analytics platform, that lets practitioners quickly identify trends.
Once you understand what matters to your customers, leveraging tools like Six Sigma makes it easy to effectively eliminate pain points. The goal of your process reengineering effort should be to create a simple and intuitive process for your customer. To coin an old phrase, “eliminate the small print”. If you have to explain the offer, it probably isn’t pain free.
Structured, data centric decision making is not only a powerful way to drive problem solving, it also helps align your stakeholders. Verizon found that it was easier to align its leaders when data formed the basis for the conversation.
Finally, successful businesses need alignment throughout their organizations. If the customer service organization isn’t prepared for the latest product offer, it can’t provide the training necessary for a successful launch. If the sales organization isn’t aware of what the marketing team is putting out into the market, it isn’t going to present a consistent message. So, in short, align your brand message internally before you take it external.
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Join the Center for Services Leadership at Compete Through Services Symposium on October 26th, 2016, to hear Carol Fink, Director of Executive Relations at Verizon, speak on Branding Your Customer Experience.
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Carol Fink is Director of Executive Relations at Verizon. In her current role, she has responsibility for voice of the customer analytics and process improvements across Verizon’s major businesses. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a Master’s degree in Business from the University of South Florida. She is a certified six sigma black belt, a certified work out planner and a “Playing to Win” strategy facilitator. She leverages voice of the customer, employee engagement and six sigma principles to improve the customer experience. Carol is based in Basking Ridge, NJ at Verizon’s corporate headquarters. She is a member of the CXPA.