Are you able to recognize the moment when a novelty becomes a norm? when do you turn to “old ways of doing things” in the pursuance to “woo” your customers?
Following the old times business practice: and assume that “customer is always right”. And if it is not right, shouldn’t it be a question if this is best customer for your business?
What kind of expectations that customer has? Do you have deep insights into this? Are you able to meet your customer’s expectations? For your organization, is this service profitable? Are you able to serve your customer reliably (maybe no need to surprise him?) profitably, repeatedly, and in a scalable way?
Are you serving customer who tend to act as “satisfier” or rather “maximizer”? Can amazing experience be scalable? So, how to design emotions within your services?
Start form acknowledging that services – consumed in the moment – trigger experiences. Experiences are recollected both intellectually and emotionally. They are utmost reflected in “critical customer interactions” – also called “the moments of truth” or “signature moments”. They are critical, because they are filled with emotions.
There are studies indicating that people remember the three: last moment that happen, best moment that happen, and worst moment that happen.
When attempting to design wonderful service, by looking at your customer journey map, it is important to factor-in a “wow time” during the worst moment, turn it into best moment, and ensure that it hails until the service ends.
Along that route, all other parts of services became seamless, almost transactional, happening in a background without direct customer interaction.
Can you then design the experience?
Sometimes service that is very routine to the provider, happens to be very special for the customer. For the bank officer, it is standardized activity of filling up forms. For that to-be-business-owner, it may be the life-time opportunity to become independent.
Smart designers say, that people won’t remember what they saw or what they heard, but will certainly remember how you made them feel.
I will always keep in mind the time when I was taking my first mortgage. For the bank officer, it was one of thousands, nothing special. For me – young and naïve - it was the first endeavor to buy my own home, more than special.
It illustrates how important personal hierarchy on needs is. What elements of the service matter to me the most? In the times of uncertainty and intensive reactions, it can even be… simplicity and seamless-ness!
Look for my upcoming blog on turning products into amusing experiences.
