The coronavirus has certainly slowed down the pace of business for many. One bright side may be that the slowdown offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on how we can offer customers a better experience when things return to normal.
According to Bain & Company, there is a significant gap between perceived and real benefit delivery—80% of companies believe they offer a superior proposition but only 8% of customers see it that way*. So, most likely there is room for improvement within your organization.
Improvement begins with an honest appraisal. In what areas do you feel the organization falls short in product or service delivery? Is there an opportunity to be friendlier, much like Southwest Airlines? Or show greater customer appreciation, like Moe’s Southwest Grill or Chick-fil-A? Perhaps offer a more thoughtful overall experience, like Apple. Measuring your performance against best-in-class organizations often reveals great opportunities.
Identifying one or more areas of improvement leads to the hard part. How do you implement change? Change management begins with selling the organization on your vision for improvement and how everyone benefits. It requires commitment and real enthusiasm from the most senior levels of the organization. A detailed process that includes realistic milestones for improvement to keep your employees motivated is a must.
If you are not able to take on a significant program at this time, consider the huge financial upside to even a small improvement. The Temkin Group, a leading customer experience research firm, estimates the financial benefits of modest customer experience improvements for a $1 billion company can be as much as $775 million over three years.**
You can find additional insights for customer experience improvements in The Bloodhound Group’s white paper ”Achieving Competitive Advantage: Keys to Winning with a Superior Customer Experience.” It’s available for download here.
* Bain & Company, “Closing the Delivery Gap” 2005.
** Qualtrics XM Institute, 2018 Temkin Experience Ratings, US.,” 2018.