Use these principles as a score card for your delivery of the Customer experience: Read more . . .
- Great Customer experiences strongly reflect the Customer’s identity.
The experiences that reinforce our self-image and resonate with our personal values leave us feeling good about our decisions.
- Great Customer experiences satisfy our higher objectives.
Wants and needs are derivative; it is satisfying the higher objective behind them that is the foundation on which great experiences are built.
- Great Customer experiences leave nothing to chance.
To create consistent, smooth Customer journeys, every interaction needs to be considered, planned and designed.
- Great Customer experiences set and then meet expectations.
Existing expectations, learnt behaviours and associations are the criteria that Customers use to judge an experience from the beginning.
- Great Customer experiences are effortless.
Interactions that put the onus on the Customer, soaking up their time and energy, are quickly put off or replaced with those that are less demand (i.e. today’s banks).
- Great Customer experiences are stress free.
Customer experiences that eliminate confusion, uncertainty and anxiety reap the rewards, generating a competitive advantage, loyalty and a peerless brand image.
- Great Customer experiences indulge the senses.
From delicious food to relaxing music or a beautiful painting, we all seek sensory pleasure. Customer experiences that delight the senses win our hearts and have us coming back for more.
- Great Customer experiences are socially engaging.
The importance of cultivating personal relationships with Customers cannot be overstated; we more readily buy from a friend than a stranger.
- Great Customer experiences put the Customer in control.
Control is fundamentally important to us: we want to do things in our own time and in our own way, and we take exception to those encounters that force us to jump through hoops.
- Great Customer experiences consider the emotions.
We are all slaves to our emotions, yet most see their Customers from a purely rational perspective. Evaluating the emotional aspect of an experience brings often unconsidered issues to the surface and opens up new ways to delight the Customer.
We considered these ten principles to tell a powerful story about Customer experience (CX). They are distilled from a book by Matt Watkinson and can be found on his site www.mattwatkinson.co.uk