Because you are a member of the eQ community, I know how much you like to read/listen to great content and thought leaders – and you know it is at the core of what we do at eQ.
You may be familiar with an author by the name of Atul Gwande. He has written a few books, all of which are worth the time to read (I promise). I recommend his books to clients and our community fairly often. One of Gwande’s books, The Checklist Manifesto, has quite a bit of relevance to a recent situation I found myself in.
My wife JoAnn has (had) an iPhone 4s. First world problems have been popping up hot-and-heavy recently. The kind of things that happens when you live in a country that lives and breathes technology. With more software updates, the iPhone has been working less and less effectively, often shutting down while it is in use; not ideal as she uses it to communicate with physicians in the work she does at a local hospital. On the day I wrote this, we went to a local Verizon store to upgrade her device to an iPhone 6. The store sales person was very nice, seemed to like his job, and enjoyed talking about the various technologies in play today. His demeanor and overall engagement created a positive store experience for us, which is so important since many of our visits to that store have been drawn out and rather painful.
JoAnn was very excited to get her new phone. We left the device with Fred (the sales person), so he could perform the activation and updates while went for a bite to eat (he said it would take approximately 40 minutes, due to the volume of information that needed to transfer). When we returned, he said the phone was ready to go, and the updates could take some additional time to finish. We left the store, and when we returned home at 7, the phone was still not operational (the store closed at 6pm, by the way). A non-operating phone equates to a work stoppage for JoAnn, which as you might guess, is rather troublesome.
Although you may not know JoAnn, you can likely imagine some of the choice words that came out of her mouth. I called Verizon’s support line, and it turns out that the program under which we enrolled, (Edge) needs to be activated in a specific way, and Fred apparently didn’t do it the right way. The short story is the technical support team couldn’t help us, and JoAnn is now without a device for work for Monday (one of the busiest days at the hospital). And now we need to return to the store so they can correct the error and properly activate the phone (I will be doing that in the morning to save everyone’s sanity).
As nice as Fred was/is, the entire experience is severely tainted because when there is work stoppage for JoAnn, nothing else really matters. Fred’s energy and enthusiasm are wiped out in an instant.
While the story isn’t over at the time of writing this post, you can probably see some of the connections and how this is relevant to what is happening in your world. In the spirit of helping you create an incredible, and hassle-free customer experience, here are three central elements for you and your teams:
• Execute: While having energy and passion for what we do is critical, a failure to execute on the basic elements in your customer lifecycle will cripple your revenue, retention, and referrals (and, as a result, this will erode your brand reputation). A friend of mine used to say that while she appreciates all of the new and different food offerings that Starbucks brings to bear, if they get the coffee wrong, the other stuff doesn’t really matter very much.
• The Client Experience: Client experience starts when a prospective, or current, client engages your brand from the first moment through the entire client journey. This includes searching for your company online, visiting your website, calling your business, visiting a brick and mortar/online store, searching for products/services, purchasing, resolving issues, referring friends – the whole enchilada. Spend time evaluating each and every element through the prospect/client’s eyes. I can’t stress enough how critical it is to objectively remove hassles from the experience.
• Always Be Learning: In Verizon’s case, the Edge program, at the time of writing this post, is still a new offering. Verizon, according to their staff, is making a big push to move as many customers to this program as possible. I can get behind the business rationale of that move. But here’s the deal…when companies rollout new programs, products and services, the customer facing folks HAVE TO be considered. The rollout has to be designed through their eyes, as they are the ones who will make or break the success of the new “thing.” In my experience with Verizon, they have wasted my most valuable resource – TIME – by causing my wife and I to go back to the store. This could have been easily avoided if Verizon ensured Fred knew precisely how activating an Edge program is distinct from a different activation (of the same device).
An overarching guiding principle for your entire client experience is this: consider what you want your clients THINKING, FEELING, and DOING after every interaction with your organization. Then, ensure your people, processes, and systems align to produce those outcomes!
