Customer Experience

Tweet

A large focus of my company lately has been "Customer Experience". It's amazing when you actually think about it how important the customer experience is in any client-facing industry. The example that always comes up at work is the story about the guy who gets a haircut and says it's the best haircut he's ever experienced, and all it took was the hairdresser to spend a mere 2 minutes to give him just a little more.

I think you can apply the theory of customer experience to almost any industry. Even someone who runs a manufacturing factory in South Dakota can apply this theory. It's about giving your employees or customers a little bit of extra attention or appreciation. It's the little things that mean something, not just giving someone a card at Christmas with money in it. It’s the snacks and pop that is always in the kitchen at the office, or the thank you card that someone sends you unexpectedly. It’s something that makes someone feel good about what they are doing, otherwise known as “customer experience”.

There are a couple scenarios that came up recently that made me think about Customer Experience and how it applies to my everyday life:

• The first was when I purchased some furniture at The Brick (On Dufferin Street). They had great service on the sales floor (surprise surprise), but when I went to pick up my furniture it was the worst service I've ever experienced. The computer that the clerk used to lookup my order is 50 feet away from the counter and behind a half-wall, so the kid is yelling to ask me for my phone number while I have to yell it back. Not to mention they only have 1 person working at a time so it's not uncommon to wait 20 minutes before they even look your order up. To me, picking up your furniture is as important a part of the overall customer experience as the original sale, and I think they are making a serious mistake by making the pickup process so difficult and inhospitable.



• The other example is when I hear a song on the radio. I noticed the other week that I will hear a song on one radio station, and that exact same song will sound so much better on another radio station that I have more respect for. I thought about this a lot and I think it all comes down to the customer experience. I have a better perception of the one radio station over the other, and that in itself makes me less sceptical about a song when it comes on, even though the radio station I like more doesn't necessarily always play better music.

I challenge you to put some thought into how you could give someone else a better Customer Experience, whether it be your spouse, your employee, your client, your family, etc. It's amazing how a small effort can be so appreciated by someone else.