Why is Customer Experience so important?

The best way for me to answer this question is with another question. Do you want to make money? 

If you answered yes, you are in the right spot! 

Many people think that throwing money at advertising spend will win customers and make them millions. That can be true in the short term, but if you completely ignore the customer experience, over time it will only hurt your reputation, and ultimately your bottom line. In this post, I will go over what customer experience is, why it is important and give you some pointers on how to improve it. 

What is Customer Experience? 

Customer experience is the phrase used to describe the relationship a customer has with a business. Customer experience refers to the total of all experiences a customer has with the business, based on all interactions and thoughts about the business. 

Now back to why Customer Experience is so Important … 

I’d like to illustrate for you the two major reasons why Customer Experience is so important. Each is spelled out in two of my own personal experiences. 

I am so hungry! 

The other night, we were getting ready for the McGregor vs. Cowboy fight. I was pumped! Not because I want to watch two men beat the hell out of each other. No no! I was excited that I could order junk food, sit in my yoga pants, and not care what I looked like … my poor boyfriend. 

We get to the point where we are getting hungry, so I pull out my phone and open my GrubHub app! Given that we challenged ourselves to be Vegan for the month of January,  there were limited options. Lucky for us, we live in San Diego, so we have more options than most. I chose one of our go-to spots, Donna Jean. They have the best vegan pizzas in the city, and I am quickly becoming obsessed with their mac and cheese. I placed an order for two pizzas and one mac and cheese. I cringed at the total due of $67.63. That is $50.00 for the food, $2.79 for a Delivery fee, $0.69 service fee, $4.15 sales tax, and $10.00 tip (20%). I justify this because if you are going to be lazy, you should pay. 

Right out of the gate, I see that I am paying $13.48 for convenience. I am ok with that, however, that is setting the expectation that I will get my order AT THE VERY LEAST, on time, hot and in its entirety. And it looked like, for the first time, that was going to happen! The driver got to the restaurant fast, and by the looks of it, we might have been the second stop, if not the first. My boyfriend went down to get the order and set the table. The excitement was building! I am like a kid at Christmas when pizza is on the menu.

As he walks in the door, I saw his face … I said, “What, what is it?”. He said they only gave us one pizza. Now before you judge us for getting two pizzas for two people, these pizzas are small. It’s not like my hometown of Chicago, where a pizza is a pizza. Here in San Diego, pizzas are more like tapas. My boyfriend went on to say the delivery guy said “that’s all they gave me” and left. He didn’t even check to be sure the entire order was there, or offer to go back and get us the rest of the order before he took off. Mind you, I paid this bum $10.00!!! 

Now, I have to go to the GrubHub app to report that I did not get my entire order. I go through the prompts and it does nothing. I then see a “chat with us now” link and start up a conversation with a customer service rep. To my surprise, they will not send out the missing item. They said the delivery service is not available. I know exactly what this translates to = The restaurant nor GrubHub will pay a driver to deliver the missed item. However, they can credit me for the missing item. Well, thanks for nothing … I am hungry now! This chat went on for 15 minutes. Needless to say, working with GrubHub customer service went nowhere. They credited me with the pizza and I requested that the tip be changed as well. Sorry, I used to be a server and bartender. I know the importance of customer service. If you fail to deliver, you fail to get the entire tip.

After all that, I was able to sit down and eat half of my order which by then was cold. I was so upset. They not only ruined my dinner but also my mood and my night. You tell me … would you deal with these people again? Right after this post is done, I am writing a not-so-nice review for them and only using DoorDash for now. If you create a bad experience, you will lose business and receive a poor reputation that may deter other customers from using your service/product as well. In a study by Zendesk, 97% say bad customer service changes a customer's buying behavior.

What is this?

A few years ago, I was shopping along Michigan ave in Chicago. It was a sunny spring day, the kind of day that gets you all excited that summer is just around the corner. I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular, just excited to be out of the house and breathing fresh air that didn’t hurt your lungs. I had recently gotten a new pair of shoes and thought I’d start breaking them in. Oh man was I wrong. These shoes broke me in! I had a vicious blister on the back of my heel that was on the verge of popping. However, I was going to be a trooper! No way would I let a blister mess with my day. 

On one of my stops, I walked into a Micheal Kors store. More like limped into the store. The salesgirl, Michelle, noticed my discomfort right away and came to my aid. She had me take a seat and went to find me some bandaids. Once I got back on my feet, she slowly walked me around the store to explain the new collection. I fell in love with a pair of sunglasses and a navy blue leather jacket. The jacket was actually from the clearance rack. Not many salespeople take a customer to the sales rack, but she was convinced that with my red hair, the blue leather moto jacket would be perfect. To this day, it is still one of my favorite jackets. 

Once I had my items picked out, I looked around for a register. She said no worries, I can check you out right here. She pulled out a tablet and took care of the purchase right there. No lines, no new person to tell who helped me … just a clear simple process. I walked out of that store so grateful for Michelle and happy with my purchases.

However, it didn’t end there. A few weeks later I got a letter in the mail with a Michael Kors logo on it. I was like … “What is this?”. I opened it and it was a written note from Michelle. It said…

“Julianne - It was great meeting you a few weeks ago. You pulled some great pieces. The Sicily sunglasses with cheetah and the awesome navy Moto jacket will look good together or separate. It's perfect for this weather! I hope you’ve been successful in breaking in your shoes for the summer. -Michelle” 

OMG, how awesome was that! That solidified my love for her and the Michael Kors brand. I posted that all over social media, and to this day, I tell the story. If you create an amazing customer experience, the customers will be your salespeople … for FREE!! In the book Never Lose a Customer Again, Joey Coleman discusses the importance of making the experience personal

How can I improve my customer experience? 

I hope based on my examples above, you can see what a good experience and bad experience looks like. It really is common sense. If you only take one thing away from reading this post, it’s this … if you want to improve your customer’s experience, think about how YOU would want to be treated.  It’s that simple. So many people forget that just a kind word, surprise gesture, and simple process can go a long way. 

Many experiences are longer and more complicated, so seeing the challenges might be harder. Below are a couple of ways you can help yourself to identify opportunities. 

Layout your customer’s experience

The best way for me to do this is to first think of all the things my customer sees, hears, and does. I then list them all out in chronological order. There may be a few or many sequences but just start with one. After you have your list, print everything out and lay it on the floor. It may become a scene out of Homeland, but it’s ok. Doing this is a great way to visualize the process in its entirety. You can absolutely get more sophisticated and do this digitally, but I prefer my old school method. Sorry trees! 

Now you get my Homeland reference.

Identify the opportunities 

Now that you have your experience laid out in front of you, look at it. See it like you are a customer moving through this for the first time. Think about what they are seeing, reading, hearing. Does it make sense? Does it align with your goals? Are you setting the right expectations? Are you setting an expectation at all? Do you feel good? Do you feel frustrated? Do you feel educated? Do you feel appreciated? Keep asking yourself these types of questions as you walk through the experience. At any point along the way if you answered your questions in a negative way … BINGO … there’s your opportunity for improvement! 

Where can you go beyond their expectations

The fun part about this is that you can get as elaborate as you want. Michelle wowed me with a handwritten note, but the options are limitless. This is the time you can really shine. Think about my first Customer Experience example above. What if the ending went like this instead …

My boyfriend set down the food, and I said: “where is the second pizza?”. He said not to worry, the GrubHub driver recognized the pizza was missing and went back to get it. 

Or

When I contacted GrubHub, they apologized and reached out to Donna Jean’s. The restaurant was so sorry, that they sent someone out right away to deliver the missing pizza. They also looked back in our past orders and realized we order a particular dessert a lot, so they sent one free of charge for the inconvenience. 

See, there are so many ways you can rewrite that ending! Do the math, it wouldn’t have cost any of the parties involved that much more money. It’s the little things that really matter. Just be thoughtful and show your customers that they matter. 

It's common sense

You do not have to be a genius with a high-level degree to know what is good and bad. This is about perspective and common sense. Put yourself in the place of your customers. When I got that note from Michelle, I took a picture and posted it on social media. Not only did they get my business forever, but I showcased my experience and their brand to all my friends. That is FREE advertising! No influencers needed. That is why your Customer Experience is so important. 

In closing, you can spend a ton of money on advertising, but ask yourself if the Customer Experience you are putting them through is a positive one. If it’s not, you are spending lots of money for a short term relationship. The real money is in the long term relationship. Turn those customers into brand advocates. Let their great experiences bring in new business for you. That is why Customer Experience is so important.