Give your Customers that WOW! Feeling

Aug. 6, 2010 - PRLog -- By Bill Brown : August 6, 2010
A recent article in Harvard Business Review (see web address below) proposed that companies should limit aspects of their customer service to just those elements that impact upon getting the problem solved. By doing this companies wouls economise on the expenses incurred in providing customer service. This stripped-down approach to keeping your customers happy is possibly ok in situations of call centre service and minimum personal contact scenarios. Indeed, the article did focus on just that type of customer interaction. As a retail consultant I like to think that I deal with real-world customer transactions rather than virtual ones. In the real world, I believe that you need to place no artificial ceiling on the service and customer experience that you offer. In the pursuit of this ideal, I have read and rate highly two books that advocate the provision of exceptional and unique service and experience elements. In their books “The Experience Economy” and “Authenticity”, the authors Gilmore and Pine make a very powerful argument for companies to provide memorable and different experiences. And by doing so will rise head and shoulders above their competitors. One resonant example in “Authenticity” tells of Walt Disney purchasing Pixar, the makers of the very successful Toy Story films. Walt Disney had lost its way in the field of film animations, and pixar was the new rising star: it was just like Disney had been in an earlier period. Disney did the right thing and purchased Pixar. This provided Disney with a new lease of life and Pixar with vastly increased resources to sustain it. The Disney/Pixar entity is creating a new magic.

It would have been far more efficient if Disney could have retained its magic without having to spend $7.4bn on acquiring Pixar. The authors Pine and Gilmore suggest that businesses act in the present and focus on the here and now. They propose “operating in your company’s “Here and now Space”. Which they describe as:

Study your heritage

Ascertain your positioning

Locate your trajectory

Know your limits

Zoom in your zone

Scan the periphery

Affix the future

Execute well

Summed up: do not lose sight of your roots, plan your strategy carefully, then do it!

The consumer society is becoming more sated, more jaded to the receipt of “good service”. What is essential is an excellent “experience”. Something that is more memorable and far more significant than merely good service. Companies should be planning how they can turn their customer offerings and brands into entities that generate such memorable and customer-retaining scenarios, at every customer touchpoint within their businesses.

http://hbr.org/2010/07/stop-trying-to-delight-your-custom...

Bill Brown, Retail Consultant
Bright Perspectives
Midhurst

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