The Change Dude’s Blog

Trapped by Customer Satisfaction

My last business trip resulted in no less than 4 feedback opportunities,  the airline, the hotel, the rental car company and the travel agency.  Each of these organizations sought my feedback to help improve my customer experience.  Marvelous.

It seems that every time I buy a product or service the provider offers me the opportunity to give them some feedback through a customer survey.  Although the feedback opportunities are wonderful my service providers are mired in the details of asking about the logistics of their service.  Executing flawlessly merely provides them feedback that they delivered what I expected.  Useful information but empty.

Many of my clients that are in the early stages of truly understanding what drives loyalty and advocacy focus on the details of executing a process without failure.  High quality service is the metric being captured.  Quality isn’t enough today to enchant customers.

Voice of the customer programs are falling behind by focusing primarily on the quality of the experience.  Today’s leader takes the next step and teases out what drives customers to extol the virtues of the experience.

Does your organization know what customers love about you?

The whole love thing sounds a little squishy doesn’t it.  That’s the challenge.  Gaining the emotional connection with customers is truly the goal of any business.  Emotional connection drives loyalty and advocacy.  The Walt Disney Company knows what guests love about their experience, Apple knows what users love about their products, do you?

The next time you review customer feedback results see if you have the answer to these questions:

1. What did you love about your experience with us today?
2. Is there anything about your experience that you’ll tell your friends not to miss about your experience with us?
3. If you could change one single thing about your experience what would that be?

Look beyond the quality of the experience to the heart of the experience to truly enchant your customers.

April 8, 2010 - Posted by thechangedude | Uncategorized