Customer expectations, as we all know, constantly evolve. Once, customers were grateful just to receive a product or service that worked efficiently; then they wanted the interaction and supporting processes to be positive. Now, many organisations try to engineer an “experience” for their customers. I’ve no doubt this is valuable and the best organisations do it supremely well.
As always however, the devil is in the detail. It’s all about execution.
Recently we went out to celebrate a friend’s birthday at a “popular casual dining establishment”. This is a fiercely competitive arena. In fact within our sightlines, there were 14 other companies in the same “space”. Yes, I’m afraid I did count them.
We were shown to the bar for cocktails, which was all very pleasant. But after more than an hour (and some more cocktails) this began to wear a bit thin. Waiters studiously avoided our eyes and despite the considerable number of empty tables, (there is a recession after all), there seemed to be no prospect of starting the meal.
Finally we cornered the manager and begged to be seated. We may have also asked, more than slightly tersely, what the holdup was. The fresh-faced youth assured us that customers see pre-dinner cocktails as part of “the overall experience”.
Now, I have a reasonable idea how these things work. And I very much doubt the Customer Experience Design Workshop concluded that most mid-week customers should be a) starving and b) off their faces, before being seated. And even if the goal is to create a “convivial” atmosphere, I would guess that customer attitudes and possibly customer demographics have changed in these difficult times. All of which underscores the value of the most recent evolution in customer expectation: “provide me with an individual service that is bespoke to my needs.”
Which just illustrates that when it comes to designing customer experiences, individual or otherwise, the strategy is useful, but knowing your customer is critical.
Mike Hawthorne, Managing Director
achieveglobaluk
mikehawthorne
