Customer Experience explained to my Mom

in 10 points

Cx (for Customer Experience) is the new buzz word that could be the Holy Grail that can
make any business grow and improve profitability through increased customer loyalty; so in
essence the magic recipe for business success. In the current competitive environment
offering good prices and good products is not enough to generate sustainable growth, notably
in the digital space where consumers can easily compare products and prices.

"It is no longer enough to satisfy your customers, you must delight them."
(Philip KOTLER)

That said various people would put a lot of different meanings behind Customer Experience.
Cx is a little bit of a ‘liquid’ notion that irrigates and flows all across the company in many
aspects. It is certainly about satisfaction but much more than that, it is about facts and also
emotions and feelings, etc. Here are some elements to help frame what Cx means.

1. Customer Experience is NOT customer service; it is not just about managing

transactional elements (check-out, delivery, complaints), hence it is not simply a synonym for
quality control, even though obviously a poor transactional service or bad quality will affect
negatively the Customer Experience – therefore good customer service is the minimum
required layer for building a satisfying Customer Experience. Customer Experience is much
more than this and covers many dimensions and functions (sales & client facing teams,
delivery service, maintenance, invoicing, etc.).

2. Good Customer Experience is NOT just offering the right product to the right
market / consumer in the right moment. It is about creating a good overall experience
(factual and emotional) that goes beyond the simple functional benefit of the product , e.g. the
experience provided by Club Med to their guests is far beyond simply providing a
comfortable bed and great food.

3. Customer Experience can be defined as the sum of all experiences and interactions (a
sum of moments) with a brand through all touchpoints : advertising, website, in shop, e-
commerce, customer service, call centre, delivery man, etc. It includes both direct and indirect
interactions (for instance through retailers). It covers all events from before the purchase to
usage and after purchase. With such a broad definition it requires that all functions are
involved and engaged: sales, marketing & comms, product innovation, customer service,
retailers, accounting (invoicing), IT (think about accessibility and performance of your
website or security of your online payment system).

4. Customer Experience is about the culture of the company because all functions are
possibly involved at some point. Not just a matter of process and procedures (internal) to
make sure the transactional steps will work well and connect to each other. It is a matter of
putting the customer at the centre of everything (customer centricity) and understanding the
consumer journey in its entirety. It is only by creating a positive tension in the company about
making clients not only satisfied but delighted.

5. Customer Experience is one and total across touchpoints and moments.Customers

expect the same service, care and experience across the different touchpoints, e.g. bricks-and-
mortar shops and digital channels, or geographies (in the Sofitel hotel in Paris as well as in the
Sofitel in Munich); across different needs and occasions, e.g. pre-purchase (request for
information), purchase, post-sale customer service, etc.; across all communication channels,
be it through print advertising or digital content; and over time: now and next time they come
and buy. So basically the experience with a brand is expected to be consistent across places
and times.

6. This consistency is made possible because Customer Experience is Brand Experience-

and vice versa. Customer Experience is built through the experience of what constitutes the
brand. Brand DNA (purpose and values) is the cornerstone of the experience: everything Red
Bull is doing, selling, promoting is connected to the same roots: a way of life, extreme
adventures and adrenaline-rich moments. But what comes first ? Clarity on the brand essence
and purpose is certainly the alpha which feed the whole experience journey, that said (does
existence precede essence ?) the customer experience (like shopping journey) feeds back the
perception of the brand. So this is a continuous feedback loop.

7. Customer Experience is both rational and emotional, sometimes sensorial. It is about

facts and rational elements: are you delivering against your customer expectations or against
your own delivery promise? Train arriving on time; meal being served hot; etc. It is about
quality and compliance: toilets are clean; the book you get is the one you ordered online; etc.
It is also a matter of emotions and feelings: being greeted with a smile or being offered a
coffee while you are in the waiting line in a shop; making you feel unique when the
receptionist recognizes you and calls you by your name ; having flowers in your room when
you arrive, etc. And a matter of senses, like the feel of leather in a luxury car or the relaxing
sound of music in a spa. Because it is about emotions it is also about people: your customers
and your employees and the interaction between them; hence, having the right people on the
ground (in shops or from call centres) sharing the same purpose and values, properly
empowered to make the right decisions is critical because they are the ones who will make the
difference in the moment of truth beyond compliance and quality checks. Emotions will make
the experience memorable, hence will create a long-term predisposition and relationship. As
noted by Wharton's Professor of Marketing Barbara E. Kahn, Cx is the 3rd level of maturity
for companies (after 1st level: manufacturing and selling good products and 2nd level:
understanding consumer needs and way to feed them): it is the recognition of the importance
of providing an emotionally positive experience to customers.

8. Customer Experience is not limited to your direct competitive landscape. Your

customers have experiences and interactions on a daily basis with hundreds of brands,
products and services. So the experience with your brand may be evaluated on the same scale
and with the same expectations as with other brands, possibly in other categories. Clearly
consumers do not require nor expect the same experience or features in a discount motel on a
motorway versus a luxury boutique hotel in Miami, that said their expectations in a prestige
boutique hotel will benchmark against their experience of luxury fashion brands, premium
cars, etc. So you need to take inspiration and best practices from other categories, sectors, etc.

9. Customer Experience is also about employees, i.e. employee satisfaction, engagement -

and experience! -, primarily because quite often the first and last interactions, especially in
services, is with human touchpoints: shop assistant, car dealer, receptionist, etc. (even though
digital has modified this slightly). Delivering a good service and building satisfaction happens
if your employees on the ground have the right behaviours (for example: Say "Hello" upon
arrival at desk) – which is also a matter of having the right procedures and training. Building a
great Customer Experience happens if your staff have the right attitude. They will under four
conditions:

 All staff are clear on the brand purpose of the company; everybody knows what the
brand stands for and then what experience the brand is meant to create;
 You have the right people sharing and expressing the right values, i.e. values directly
resonating with your brand DNA; not just a matter of hard skills and competence, also
a matter of soft skills and attitude;
 Your staff are free and empowered to make the right decisions to create the best
experience for customers;
 The Employee Experience is as great as the one you are building for customers so that
there is no inconsistency or breach between what you want your staff to achieve based
on values and promises made to customers and what they actually experience within
the company.

10. Customer Experience is not fully under your control ; it’s not just about the direct
contact points or occasions that you control, it is also impacted by various indirect elements
and stakeholders:

 Indirect touchpoints you can control or influence: in many businesses, products are
delivered through third parties like retail chains or car dealers or installers/repairers.
For example the type of experience BMW wants to deliver to their customers is
crucially dependent on how car dealers are doing: scenography of car dealership,
 training of car sellers, etc. This means you need to pay as much attention to how you
manage Customer Experience through the touch points you control, as you do to how
third parties deliver and execute for clients along the distribution chain.
 Indirect touchpoints you do not control: in the era of digital, word-of-mouth,
recommendations on Tripadvisor, complaints on Twitter, all sorts of feedback on the
experience that customers actually had influence the perception that future customers
may have, and the level of their expectations. This means you need to be involved in
the social conversation in one way or the other, e.g. identify then promptly and
professionally deal with the bad buzz on social media and complaints on Twitter from
customers who have had a bad experience. These uncontrolled indirect points can be
positive agents too: highly satisfied customers will also share their great experience
through word-of-mouth or social media and become great ambassadors, not only by
giving good reviews to your products but also sharing a great personal experience
(look at this YouTube testimonial video by Casey NEISTAT refering to his experience
of flying EMIRATES‘ First Class as one of the "greatest days in [his] entire life").

"Delighted customers tell others. Satisfied customers tell no one."

(Steve DORFMAN)

Good customer delivery and service builds market share and profit; Great customer
experience builds sustainable growth and premium (customers being ready to pay more). This
is why so many companies are now investing significantly in this area. That said, it is not just
rebadging jobs with a Cx title (Chief Experience Officer looks like an important job...
C.E.O.).

As pointed by Jeananne Rae, "building great consumer experiences is a complex enterprise,

involving strategy, integration of technology, orchestrating business models, brand
management and CEO commitment.” There is no ‘silver bullet’, this is a long-term effort and
engagement with customers is a multi-year journey. It is crucial to set clear and reasonable
objectives and set simple metrics to monitor progress over time.

Jean-Michel JANOUEIX
(June 2017)