From the 1940’s on into the early 1960s, Pamela Churchill Harriman had a series of affairs with some of the most prominent and wealthy men in the world. What attracted these men, and kept them in thrall, was not her beauty or her lineage or her vivacious personality.
Extraordinary attention to detail. It began with her attentive look as she listened to your every word, soaking up your tastes. Once she found her way into your home, she would fill it with your favourite flowers, get your chef to cook that dish you had only tasted in the finest restaurants. You mentioned an artist you liked? A few days later that artist would be attending one of your parties. She found the perfect antiques for you, dressed in the way that most pleased or excited you, and she did this without saying a word . . . Harriman’s attention to detail had an intoxicating effect on all the men in her life.
“Life is harsh and competitive. Attending to detail in a way that is soothing to the other person makes them dependent on you. . . Anyone can say the right words . . .the gesture, the thoughtful gift, the little details seem much more real and substantial.”
The Art of Seduction” Robert Greene
Attention to detail is not only the secret to seduction, it is also one of the best kept secrets to a great Customer experience. We care about details, because they show that the business cares about us.
We used to buy our wine from a local wine shop until my wife started driving an extra kilometre when she bought wine. When I asked her why she did this, was it cheaper. Her answer was, “No, but the man always carries my purchases out to the car.”
In the 1980’s Scandinavian Airlines introduced what it called “Moments of Truth”. A moment of truth occurs every time a Customer has a touch point with your organisation. These can be “glowing” moments of truth or “gruesome” MOTs. If you analyse the sequence of events when a Customer partakes of a purchase of your product or service you will find there are multiple opportunities to affect the Customer’s perception of their experience. You can create a list of activities and then individually look at how you can enhance the experience of each step.
For instance, let’s look at an airline flight:
* Plan the trip * Find the best fare * Buy a ticket
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Pack
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Get to the airport
* Check in
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Clear Security
* Wait in departure
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Go to the gate
* Board the plane * Fly to destination * Disembark
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Pass immigration
* Collect luggage
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Meet friends at arrivals
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Leave airport
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Arrive at destination
As you can see from this example there can be far more parts to the experience than we consider. The parts I have marked with an asterisk are the parts that the airline or the airport can design around the most glowing MOT experience.
Have you considered doing this with all the Customer interactions in your business?