Use the Customer Experience to Create "Soft" Customer Value

Customers today are more likely to be willing to leave to get better value elsewhere; don't give them a reason to take their business to a competitor.

• They are likely to be more edgy and anxious in the sense that they will leave for reasons that might not have been serious enough to have caused them to leave just a year or more ago.
• They are less forgiving today simply because they have less money to waste.
• They want better value and we have to deliver it if we are to persuade them to stay.

Everyone in the organization has the potential to cause customers to leave. The people who we put in front of them, the design of telephone and web systems, the time we leave them waiting on hold, the stupid rules that cause them to solve their own problems—all contribute to creating an experience that might just turn a customer into a former customer.

On the other hand, of course, turning these customer interactions into positive experiences will go a long way to creating a softer form of value that customers will notice and that will impress them in a climate where many of your competitors are cutting back.

Four Softer Forms of Value

Canadian author and consultant Jim Barnes suggests that companies should look at how well they are delivering four types of experiential value:

1. Make it easier for customers to deal with us. Reduce the effort that customers have to expend; get rid of rules that make them jump through hoops; reduce wait times; reduce the work they have to do. Customers don't need any more frustration in their lives at the moment. Their collective fuse is shorter and they'll leave at the drop of a hat if we put them through complex processes. So, answer the call more quickly, avoid handing them off to colleagues who will have them tell their story all over again, don't make them answer 15 questions when five will do.
2. Treat them better than ever before. Put your best foot forward, impress them with service. Now is the time for impressive service to occupy its rightful place in the value proposition. I see far too many companies cutting back on service to reduce costs. Despite widespread advice to the contrary, they opt for a short-term solution that serves to reduce the level of service at precisely the time when it is most needed.
3. Help them get things done. Offer good advice; impress them with new ideas; deliver "I'll-look-after-that-for-you" moments. This will require that we make a greater effort to identify what the customer is trying to accomplish, what he or she needs to get done, and then looking for ways to make it happen. Anything you can do to facilitate that will be appreciated. Create that "one-less-thing-I-have-to-worry-about" response.
4. Surprise them occasionally. Now is the time to offer more, not less. But, this does not necessarily mean offering more product or giving away things that the customer may not even appreciate. Instead, think about the analogy of a retailer who offers to carry things to the car, drops that item off at your house so you don't have to make a trip down here, or sews the hole in the pocket when the pants are in for dry cleaning. These may be viewed as little things, but they have the potential to make a big impression, especially when competitors aren't offering them.

What can you do to provide softer value?