Do you know the ingredients to a great customer experience? How about a lousy one?
The first ingredient, no matter what product or industry, is the expectation.
It’s about what promise you have made to a customer.
Wal-Mart has promised low prices. They have not promised much else, so customers are not shocked when they don’t get a lot of service or the store is not an example of elegance.
Nordstrom has promised service. Customers are willing to pay a bit more to get a better service and experience.
But if Wal-Mart has higher prices than the other guys, customers feel disappointed. This is not what they were promised! If shopping at Nordstrom is cumbersome and the service is poor, customer loyalty is chipped away.
The bare minimum of any customer is simply meeting the expectations of a promise. Those are table stakes. Exceeding the expectations is where the magic lies. Disappointing a customer is simply not meeting (or attempting to meet) those original expectations.
Do you know what you’ve promised?
Photo credit: discoodoni via Creative Commons license
