We spend millions trying to find ways to improve our service quality within the organization. We bring in consultants (and I love you for it), we develop new training, but often we forget that every interaction a client has withour company forms an experince that they’ll either remember positively or negatively.
Client experience author and thought-leader Lior Arussy addresses this in his book The Experience! How to Wow Your Customers and Create a Passionate Workplace. Written as a fable, his character, Joe makes the following statement that should be shared in your next service quality or customer experience meeting:
Joe summarized, “When we wake up in the morning and brush our teeth, we are customers of the toothpaste company. We get dressed and we’re customers of the clothing manufacturer.
We eat breakfast and we’re customers of the cereal and coffee companies. We drive to work and we’re customers of the car manufacturer. At work we use phones and computers, so we’re customers of the phone and computer companies.
As customers, we demand flawless service and exceelent quality. We will not tolerate less than that, and we definitely will reject any rude service we get from those companies. It’s our money and we demand to get its full worth.”
He realized that his personal experience as a customer was key to his understanding his own customers. We’re all customers, after all. (Page 39)
Next time you sit in a meeting trying to figure out what that mysterious creature called the customer thinks or feels, ask people in that room, How would we feel about this as a customer?
The answer to your issue might not require extensive focus groups and assessments. Maybe, just maybe, your team can simply tap their inner customer!