Business Opportunities: On-Line Articles - Using Customer Experience To Define Your Business

Using Customer Experience To Define Your Business
By Michael J. McDermott

One of the biggest challenges facing any small or medium-size business these days is finding ways to set itself apart from the competition. With the economy on a downward track recently, that challenge looms larger than ever.

In today’s multi-channel, multi-media environment, customers and potential customers come into contact with businesses through a variety of touch-points: on the Internet, via email, through phone conversations with customer service reps and face-to-face with employees. The cumulative impact of all these customer-business intersections is called the "customer experience," and it can be a critical factor in differentiating any business from its competitors.

The perfect customer experience is "one which results in customers becoming advocates for the company, creating referral, retention and profitable growth," says Dale Wolf, president and founder of the Cx Institute, a publishing and consulting firm specializing in contextual marketing and customer experience management.

"The 21st century marketplace is brutally competitive," says Laila Bichara, a faculty member at the IBM Executive Business Institute and author of a white paper on innovating through customer experience. "After decades of focusing on products and product development, there are few remaining ways to distinguish yourself from your competitors."

Customers want businesses to make them feel special, she says. They will reward those businesses that make them feel unique and provide a positive and memorable experience.

It seems simple enough, and many business owners probably assume they already provide a satisfactory customer experience. In more cases than not, however, their customers do not agree.

A recent study by Bain & Co. found that 80% of companies it surveyed believed they delivered a "superior experience" to their customers. But when the customers of those same businesses were surveyed, a mere 8% agreed with the companies’ self-evaluation.

Customers come into contact with businesses through a variety of touch-points today.

To their credit, many small and mid-sized businesses take the importance of customer experience seriously, devoting time and resources to make sure customers come away with the desired impression from all interactions with their business.

"We want our families to feel as though Pathway to Learing is their home away from home," says Bianca LaVigne, co-owner of the day care and preschool program, which has two locations. "We want them to feel as though we truly are their extended family."

The most common point of interaction Pathway’s clients have with the business is through face-to-face contact with their children’s teachers. Teachers are instructed to greet each family member by name upon both arrival and departure, LaVigne says.

"Thereafter, our directors, as well as my partner and I, always make a concerted effort to greet every family by name at every interaction," she explains. "We contact parents by phone throughout the day when the need to do so arises, and we also offer a web site."

FEEDBACK CHANNELS

Pathway to Learning constantly surveys its clients for feedback to make sure they enjoy a positive experience. It conducts annual, anonymous surveys of both its teachers and its client families. It also conducts visitor surveys to inquire about their first impressions of its facilities.

"We do follow-up phone calls whenever we feel that a family may not be entirely happy with our programs," LaVigne says. "We then acknowledge their concerns and try to improve wherever we can. While we cannot always make everyone completely happy, at least they feel heard and somewhat validated."

The company maintains efforts to bolster customer experience on several fronts, focusing on communication as the key to making its families feel connected and satisfied. It provides client families with daily information sheets, conducts regular conferences and hosts "meet the teacher" nights.

It also hosts quarterly "parents’ night out" events and an annual "family fun day." The aim, says LaVigne, is "to make sure that each family feels as though their individual needs are being met."

Pathway to Learning substitutes the phrase "family experience" for "customer experience" because it better reflects what the business is all about. "Family experience is absolutely essential to the success of our business," LaVigne says. "We are caring for our families’ most precious gifts in life - their children. As a result, it is essential that we demonstrate love and commitment to each entire family."

Some companies conduct visitor surveys to inquire about first impressions of facilities.

At the end of the day, the customer experience Pathway to Learning looks to deliver is aligned with the values to which it is committed. "Positive social relationships are imperative to healthy families," LaVigne explains.

For Barbara Dane, owner of a skin care and cosmetics franchise that is one of the franchise network’s highest-volume stores, crafting the ultimate customer experience for her clients revolves around confidence and trust, and one-on-one interaction is the catalyst that brings it all together.

"Our service involves personalized skin care analysis. We help our customers choose the skin care products and color cosmetics that are right for their them. We offer free makeovers and teach them how to apply their own makeup themselves," she explains.

"We want to give them the confidence to do that, and we need them to have trust in us in order for that to happen. This can only be achieved through intensive one-on-one interaction where the customer feels she is the sole focus of our attention," she adds.

Dane insists there is a lot more to it than the casual observer might think. She employs a variety of stratagems to create the kind of customer experience her business needs to thrive, including free steaming facials, a try-before-you-buy policy and a 30-day money-back guarantee that helps customers make purchases with greater confidence.

"We want our customers to know that when they come in here, we are going to take personal care of each and every one of them," Dane says.

INSTILLING CONFIDENCE

Giving her customers the confidence that they are getting the right products to give them the results they want is the competitive point of difference Dane looks to achieve for her business through a carefully managed customer experience. "That’s what it’s all about," she says. "Paperwork, reports and the other aspects of running a business are all important, but without customers, it just doesn’t matter what else you do."

Jonas Roberts, owner of Good Earth Nursery, a supplier of plants to independent retailers, distributors, landscapers and garden centers in the southeast for more than 40 years, faces a particular challenge in managing customer experience for his business. Since his sales reps deal with the company’s customers primarily by phone, they have to find a way to provide a verbal representation of a highly visual product.

"Number one, we have to tell the truth," Roberts says. "We grow about 2.5 million plants a year, and they’re going to vary in size, shape, color and overall condition. The critical factor for us to provide a good customer experience is making sure that when the product arrives, the customer sees what we told him he’d see. In this business, you’re only going to fool someone until the truck backs up to the door."

There is a big element of trust in the relationship Good Earth Nursery has with its customers, but the company takes other steps to help maximize the customer experience. "Good service is a big one," Roberts says. "We deliver all our product on our own trucks, and we try to do it in a timely fashion, usually within a day of taking the order."

'Without customers, it doesn't matter what else you do in your business,' Dane says.

Flexibility is also important, especially in making deliveries for the nursery’s landscaper customers. "If they’ve got a crew of workers showing up at seven in the morning, they want to be darn sure the product is going to be there," Roberts says. "We’ve built our reputation on making sure it is. That gives us an edge over our competitors."

Customer experience is critical to the success of Good Earth Nursery, on a par with the quality of its plants, he adds. "We have to deliver quality product in a quality time. When they need it, they need it. They don’t want to know what my problems are. I’d like to get the same kind of treatment from my suppliers."

Wolf’s description of "perfect" customer service emphasizes referrals, and that’s a major issue for Forged in Iron Studio. The family-owned and operated custom ironwork company relies nearly 100% on referrals for its business, most of them coming from contractors, architects and designers. It does virtually no advertising.

"We have a very definite impression we want our customer experience to provide," says Eileen Petrosky, vice president and treasurer of the company. "We want customers and prospects to come away with the impression that we are knowledgeable, experienced, honest, courteous and can do a really good job for them."

Take steps to make the most efficient use of time for both customer and employees.

Delivering that kind of customer experience depends on everyone at Forged in Iron walking the walk, not just talking the talk. "We are always courteous and truthful with customers, and that includes telling them if something is not going to work," Petrosky says. "Of course, if we have to tell a customer that a design concept they’re presenting needs work, we do it in a very diplomatic way."

Organization is also crucial to the customer experience at Forged in Iron. The company takes steps to make the most efficient use of time for both its customers and its own personnel. If a customer is coming in to discuss architectural railings, for example, the studio sets up a display of the various types of rails it has available in advance of the meeting. It has samples on hand of all the products it fabricates, and it maintains a separate design area for architects.

"Clients tend not to understand drawings, so when they can see something first-hand, it helps them understand what the architect is trying to do," she says. "Everyone is so busy today, so we try to be respectful of their time."

UNIFORM APPROACH

Forged in Iron takes the same approach in all its interactions with customers and prospects. The process usually begins with a telephone contact resulting from a referral by an architect or designer. That is generally followed by a face-to-face meeting, either at the shop or at the architect’s studio or the building site itself. It also maintains a web site.

Finding ways to engage customers presents a challenge for Lou Matthews, owner of Pure Water Express, which sells purified drinking water through automated vending facilities at more than four dozen locations in four states.

"Our machines have to do the talking and selling for us," he says. "We try to accomplish this by providing signage in multiple languages, well-lit facilities in secure areas and on-call personnel to assist with any difficulties that might arise."

Value is the central characteristic Pure Water seeks to project in its customer experience. "I want my customers to leave thinking they got a good deal, and that by visiting one of our stores they’ve saved time and money and received a product of equal quality," Matthews says.

Purity, obviously, is another attribute that must be communicated in the customer experience for Pure Water. "We are in the business of selling purity, and that can’t be done unless the location is as clean as the product you’re delivering," he says. "I want my customers to walk away knowing they got what they paid for."

Opportunities for Pure Water Express to interact with customers on a face-to-face basis are limited. They usually occur during the servicing of a station, a marketing promotion or when responding to an equipment malfunction.

"In each scenario, our goal is personal attention," Matthews emphasizes. "When servicing a station, our technicians provide free water to customers as a way for us to say thank you. Our marketing promotions generally center around bottle giveaways and free water on site. However, I believe our best customer experience is in our response to malfunctions."

Smart companies find creative ways to communicate good customer experience.

Every store has a toll-free number for reporting problems, and it rings directly to Matthews. When that happens, "We try to bring the customer service counter right to the customer," he says. A service technician is dispatched to the site immediately, and money is refunded in person or by mail, whichever the customer prefers.

"I’ve even delivered water to customers’ houses the same day," he says. "I don’t want anyone who patronizes my stores to feel as if we’re a faceless company hiding behind machines."