CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
even automation needs . Customer service was never meant to be an end ; it is a part of the entire customer experience value chain . If you want to have customers , create good products and have good customer service but if you want to have ambassadors , you need to move higher from the service to the experience .
The Expected , The Impressive and The Unexpectedly Impressive
One of the most widely used stories and anecdotes for customer service is the Nordstrom story . Virtually everyone who has been trained in customer relations has heard it at least once . However , I will share it again here because it points to something very important . Nordstrom , Inc . is an American luxury department store chain . Founded in 1901 by John W . Nordstrom and Carl F . Wallin , it originated as a shoe store and evolved into a full-line retailer with departments for clothing , footwear , handbags , jewelry , accessories , cosmetics , and fragrances . The story is centred around Craig Trounce who was then a young sales associate with Nordstrom .
While at work one day , an old miner came with a pair of worn-out tyres claiming that he did not like them and that he wanted to return them . There was only one problem and that was the fact that Nordstrom did not sell tyres . Trounce however made a call to a local tyre dealer and got a quote for the tyres . He promptly paid the customer twenty five dollars . The customer left satisfied and everyone was happy . Now , as great a story as this is , it was customer service and not an experience . As far as the miner returning the tyres was concerned , Trounce had not done anything special . He did not leave the place thinking that Trounce was a hero . In essence , he simply experienced what he expected .
When you go to a restaurant to eat , you are expecting to be served good food and you are expecting it to be served by a clean and polite waiter who knows exactly what they are doing . You are expecting the chef to be good and you expect the environment to be clean . You expect someone to welcome you with a smile and usher you to your seat and you expect to be treated with respect throughout the time you are there . This is the first level of the interaction with the customer at the customer experience level . It is called the Expected .
No one is going to write a glowing tribute about you or your organization because you have done the expected . Anything short of that would trigger a backlash . This is exactly what Trounce did to the miner at Nordstrom . He did what the customer expected him to do . Even though Nordstrom did not sell tyres , they had bought over a company that once sold tyres . Even though this was in the past and Trounce could have gotten away from a management perspective by insisting that Nordstrom did not sell tyres , it could have caused a prolonged discussion where he would have had to escalate to his superiors . With his quick thinking , he made a call that has turned that encounter into a legendary story for customer relations personnel around the world . However , as far as the customer was concerned , it was no big deal . It was what the customer expected .
“ Most people define customer experience as a snapshot event . It is however not an event . There is a customer experience value chain that many do not talk about . Every customer experience is made up of anticipation of the moment , the moment itself and then the memories from the moment .”
From the expected , we move on to the Impressive . This is nothing other than doing the expected with a very great attitude . It is still within the confines of what the customer expects but the person delivering it has such a great attitude . This is what happens when the customer insists on a certain waiter when they go to a restaurant . They were given impressive service and they liked it . The service by that waiter was however just a fraction of the entire experience . The fact that he had great customer service cannot be denied though but that is not enough to define the entire experience .
The next level is the level of the Unexpectedly impressive . What characterizes this is that you as the customer did not see it coming . In fact if it was not there , you would not have missed it . Years ago , I was planning a trip from Nairobi to London and I was not able to get a seat on my regular airline and so I had to look elsewhere . I reached out to Virgin Atlantic and a lady called Carol picked the phone . Her voice was as welcoming as what I was about to experience . When she heard that I had never flown with Virgin Atlantic before , she made it look like I had missed half of my life . She then went on to tell me to buy an economy ticket and that she would upgrade me to upper class . In her words , she wanted me to have a feel of the Virgin Atlantic lounge at London ’ s Heathrow airport . I thanked her and got my ticket .
The flight turned out to be one of the most memorable flights for me at that time in my life . When we attained cruising altitude , a flight attendant came and asked me if I would like to have a massage ! They also offered me pyjamas and flat beds . This was long before these became the standard for first class passengers . These memories were so strong that until they stopped flying to Nairobi , Virgin Atlantic was my airline of choice . Around the same time , I had to be in the United Kingdom literally every month for an extended period of time and naturally Virgin Atlantic was always my choice . So much did I travel with them that on my birthday , they had a little event for me in their office and spoiled me with presents . Now , this is where we separate customer service from customer experience .
When buying your ticket for a flight from Nairobi to London , what is the expected ? It is that they will get you there in one piece and in the most comfortable and pleasurable way . Now , if they did not offer a massage would I have missed it ? Certainly not . If they did not offer me pyjamas , would I have missed it ? Most definitely not .
However , those very things that I would not have missed were the very core of the experience that I had . They are the things that I talk about . They are the memories that were created by that encounter . We do not keep talking about the expected and neither do we keep talking about the impressive . We however cannot stop talking about the unexpectedly impressive and that is where the customer experience is developed .
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