Through the Eyes of the Customer

People say we remember two things in  every presentation; we remember the first thing that's said, and the last thing the presenter says.

The same can be said for a customer experience; we remember the first touch point,  and we remember the last touch point.  That's not to say that we don't remember anything in between; it's just that we always remember  the first and the last.  And in some cases, we really remember the last.

This was the case for me when I called the Doubletree Hotel at the Newark Airport for a shuttle ride.  The fact that I was tired didn't help anyone's performance. 

The phone call from the airport to the front desk to too long to answer.

The instructions where to go to meet the shuttle were too confusing.

The journey from my terminal to meet the shuttle bus was too long.

The shuttle bus took too long to arrive.

The shuttle was too crowded.

The line to check in at the hotel was too long.

When it was finally my turn, the front desk clerk was amazing.  Personable, informative, charming, witty and genuinely helpful.  His performance caused all the negative stuff before him to seem trivial.

I'll gladly stay at the Doubletree at the Newark Airport again.

Last impressions matter - a lot.

Two key traits of any customer-facing employee are the ability to anticipate needs, and the desire to help. And there's one demographic group that surely has both: retired professionals who aren't quite ready to settle down. 

During a recent flight from the airport in Portland, Maine, I stopped to check the board that lists the arriving and departing flights.  A gentleman in a purple vest surprised me, by asking if I needed any help.  That was Henry, one of 7 "Ambassador" volunteers at the airport.   The role of the Ambassadors is to make it easy for travelers to navigate their way through the airport, and arrive at their gates, stress-free.  

Ambassadors are positioned in "hot spots," or locations where customers are likely to have needs. For example, when security lines are long, several Ambassadors are stationed at the entrance to security; they direct customers to the correct line, and help them anticipate what they'll need to do up ahead (i.e. remove belts, shoes, etc.)

  

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man."   -- Elbert Hubbard

We're living in an era where automation is becoming the norm.  Business processes  that were once performed by humans are  more often performed solely by technology.  If not already, human interactions will soon become the exception.  

Within a ten-minute period this afternoon, I ordered a prescription refill from my pharmacy, got cash from my bank, and bought and paid for groceries at a neighborhood supermarket.   That's three transactions at three different businesses without a single human interaction.

Efficient?  Absolutely. 

Engaging? No.

By automating those transactions, the pharmacy, bank and grocery store reduced their costs, but they also reduced my customer experience to its lowest common denominator.  By removing the human touch, they eliminated an opportunity to trigger my emotions; they eliminated a chance to show me a competitive advantage. 

Each time a business automates a customer touch point for efficiency sake, it should look balance the automation with a human touch for experience sake.

Think about a company like Zappo's.  They sell a lot of shoes, and they do it very efficiently. But if you ask Zappo's what they sell, they won't say "shoes."  They'll tell you they sell "happiness."  And that happiness is created by the fun, engaging customer  service reps that love to make a customer's day.  In fact, these human interactions are the essence of the Zappos brand. Sure, the company runs a very efficient e-commerce business, but they don't forsake the human touch for more efficiency.

Here's the point:  Before automating a customer touch point, think about how the automation will impact the customer experience.  Will it remove an important point of emotional contact, and a competitive advantage?

If it does, then look to either enrich an existing human touch point, or create a new human touch point that adds value and emotion to the customer journey.  A good example here is the Trunk Club...

The Trunk Club is a men's clothing service where a personal stylist handpicks a trunk of high-end clothes and ships it to you, so you don't have to shop or worry about selecting the right styles.  It begins as an on-line experience that could certainly remain 100% on-line, but the Trunk Club adds a human element:  After providing some After providing some information about yourself and your preferences, you're assigned a "personal stylist" who serves as your concierge.  The stylist then calls you directly, to begin a human-to-human customer relationship.    

Is this human conversation required to complete the transaction?  Of course not.  Many on- line retailers avoid this costly step for efficiency sake.  But the Trunk Club uses these additional human interactions to create the emotional bond with their customers clicks can't do. 

In his 1981 best seller, "Megatrends," John Naisbitt presciently advised us to balance high-tech with "high-touch" to preserve our humanness.  This advice is more applicable today than it was 34 years ago, because technology is  more prevalent, and more challenging to our humanness on a daily basis.

What are your competitive human touch points?

Where can you add more?

Last week, I checked into the Contemporary Resort at Disney World.

I wasn't the typical customer Disney World; I didn't have children or family with me, and I didn't even pack shorts or a swim suit; I was there for a 3-day business conference, along with a few hundred other guests that would be arriving that day.  And  like most of them, I wanted to check in quickly, get my room key, and head up to my room to answer emails and return phone calls.  

If you've checked into a Disney resort recently, you know they don't provide the common plastic key cards; they give each guest a MagicBand - a plastic bracelet imprinted with Mickey's face and the first name of the guest.  The MagicBand serves as room key, and stores digital accesss to ride s, amusements and charge card for your entire stay.

And they don't just give you the MagicBand in the same simple way that a hotel desk clerk gives you your key; they present your bracelet in an oversized gift box (picture an iPhone box, but ten times larger), and proceed to tell you  all the great vacation-related things that you can do with it; all while you're fidgeting to just get up to your room.

I received the entire song and dance that would thrill a family of four that's excited to be on vacation.  But I wasn't a family of four and I clearly wasn't on vaction.  I was a middle age guy on a business trip without his family, and I just wanted to get to my room.

The Point is this:

Different customer segments have different needs and expectations at different stages of the customer journey.   Follow these four steps to get it right:

1. Segment your customers.
For Disney, this means identify your business customers from your liesure customers.

2. Identify and isolate each step of the customer journey for each segment.
Checking in at the hotel is one of  those stages.

3. Design the right experience at each step, for each customer segment.
For Disney's business customer, this means creating at least two separate key bracelet delivery methods:  a fast and simple delivery for  the business customer, and the more elaborate presentation for the vacationing customer.

4. Deliver the right experience to the right customer.
Train the front desk staff to quickly identify (based on outward appearance, and information from the guest's reservation) the customer type, and to deliver the right experience for that type.   For Disney, this means getting the desk reception to recognize me as a business guest, and therefore give me the bracelt qiuckly, without all  the fanfare, and definitely without that large box!

If a customer experience idon like Disney can overlook something like this, so can the rest of us.  Hence, it would behoove us all to revisit these three steps - Segment, Isolate, Design and Deliver - for our customer base.

What stage of the customer journey should you change, and for which segment?