Why Customer Experience Still Hasn’t Found its So-Called Wow! factor: with David Robbins

05.04.21

An interview with David Robbins, VP, Client Consulting, Gongos, Inc. by Charlie Katz

  1. Align your people, process, and technologies to deliver that experience — You cannot deliver a “wow!” customer experience without aligning every part of your organization around it, and that means your people, processes, and technologies all need to march to the same beat. Too many companies today think that “wow!” experiences are the result of awesome digital strategy and execution. And while there are great examples of this in the marketplace, I guarantee that you will not find them without seeing an organization whose people and processes are not equally aligned behind this same customer-centered vision for creating that “wow!” experience via a digital channel.
  2. See your business as a customer does — I mentioned this before and it is absolutely critical, so it bears repeating. The secret to delivering great…or “wow!” customer experience is to think less like a business, and more like a customer. Think about the goals that your customers are trying to achieve and orient the design and delivery of your “wow!” experience around one of the goals that is most important to your customers. Don’t make it about your business, make it about your customers.
  3. Empower your employees — Company leaders cannot create and deliver a “wow!” customer experience without empowering employees to act in the best interest of your customers. Of course, there need to be guardrails here and businesses cannot act in ways that are counter to their business goals. Find your guardrails in your customer-centered purpose and design and deliver a “wow!” customer experience that empowers employees to act in that way. Either through their one-to-one interactions with your customers, or through one-to-many experiences that are designed and delivered through your employees on the basis of technologies or processes. Behind both of those must be empowered employees, as even the best digital strategies, tools, and processes will fail at creating a “wow!” experience if employees are not empowered to think outside of the box and find new ways to serve the customer.
  4. Make it memorable — At the core of every “wow!” customer experience is an emotional payoff or benefit — not a functional one. Creating “wow!” experiences that stir positive customer emotions will drive the memorability of the experience. Factors such as simplicity and ease are still important, as customers want and expect that too in so many cases. But to truly “wow!” them requires that emotional response sticks. Emotion and memorability are intricately linked — you can’t create a “wow!” experience in the absence of a positive emotional experience, which is what will drive the enduring nature of the interaction.

As published in Authority Magazine.

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