or even with insurance companies . Take , for instance , an insurance company where we had spoken with a salesperson who made promises that looked really good . A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon , expecting something good to happen as promised , only to be shocked when it was time for the company to deliver . They then brought out a clause that nobody knew about before . This created a customer memory where people will forever remember that company as one that doesn ' t keep its word .
The sad thing is , the person who made the sale might not have even realized there was such a clause . This is why , for customer experience to be solid and effective , there must be a level of openness . There must be a free flow of information and communication within the organization . It is only when there is communication and information flowing that people can deliver the best possible experience because everyone will be on the same page .
What happens when there is no communication ? It even affects internal operations . One of the things we discovered in a lot of research in this field is that wherever trust levels are low in an organization , where teamwork and camaraderie are low , the first place to check is communication . When communication is low , it opens the door to interpretations , speculations , and silos . It opens the door to the grapevine , and so news flows in from different angles . People start acting based on what they are hearing , whereas if it was streamlined and well-orchestrated , everyone would be on the same page .
In the book " Business at the Speed of Thought ," Bill Gates said that every organization has a digital nervous system and that the effectiveness of the flow of communication in an organization can be measured by how quickly bad news gets to the top . I refined that a little and said , how quickly can bad news get to where it can be fixed ? It doesn ’ t have to be at the very top , but how quickly does it get to where it can be fixed ?
This is important because , a lot of times , bad news in an organization is suppressed , and people try to manage it and suppress it . Before you know what ' s happening , things get out of hand . So , for customer experience to be effective , we must start internally with very effective communication and information .
When you have identified all the different points in the customer experience value
So , give your experience value chain a thought . Have you been able to identify all the points ? Have you been able to identify all the unseen players that shape the experience and the memories people have with your organization ? Right there is the key to your growth and getting to your next level as an entity .
chain or ecosystem in your organization , it is very , very important to identify which ones are directly under your control and which ones are not . I will give you two examples .
One day , someone ordered one of my books , and we arranged for a rider to deliver it . It was not our usual rider or bike . By the time the book got to its destination , it had rained , and the rider had no protection for the book . So , my customer ended up receiving a damaged book . Of course , we replaced it with many apologies . This situation illustrates that if we were to have a strategy session or planning meeting , nobody would have pointed out that the rider was part of our experience ecosystem . But he is , because at the end of the day , ensuring that the book gets to the customer in good condition is part of our story . If it doesn ' t , it becomes what they will remember about us - that our books have a very bad delivery system and are not taken care of properly .
Therefore , it is very important to identify those who are not directly within our control . Then the big question arises : what do we do with them ? How do we mitigate the risk posed by the person who is the last to engage with the customer in the experience value chain ? How do we ensure that they represent us well ? This is very important and often overlooked .
People don ’ t examine this area well enough . We need to be very conscious of the fact that the experience value chain does not stop until the customer has received the product and is happy with what they received and the way it was delivered . This is crucial .
Another example is going into a bank that has security personnel outside . The security is outsourced ; they are not staff of the bank . But if the security personnel
treat customers very badly , people will always remember that XYZ bank has the worst security relations in the country and treats customers badly . The security staff are not part of the bank , but they impact the perception the customer has about the bank .
So , it becomes very important to align those values because the bank may have a value of being customer-centric . This focus does not start only when you ’ re in the banking hall . The security personnel are part of it . The cleaners are part of it . You walk into an establishment that touts its customer-centric values , and then you walk into a washroom that is not maintained well . That is part of the experience .
So , no matter how good you may be in the technicalities of the business , if you have neglected any aspect that impacts the customer , it is part of that value chain , and you cannot afford to leave it to chance . Every aspect that affects the customer must be intentionally looked at . If you have to set specific requirements for the security company and ensure that your values align , that ’ s what you need to do . Otherwise , it will mess up the experience people have with your organization .
For us with the books , if we have to invest in getting our own bike and our own rider , that is something we look into because we cannot afford for someone who is not affected by customer perception of us to give us a bad name . This drives home the point that the customer experience deals with a value chain and an ecosystem .
This whole customer experience concept does not end with organizations . Entire nations have built themselves and their GDP based on the experiences they offer people . A good example is Singapore .
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