Common Experience Shortcoming Part 1 - Decision Point Fumble

In our business, we talk about critical touchpoints. The first part of our framework.

These are the inflection points in a customer journey. 

Where are they going to make a decision and change their behavior.

We like to have a general idea of what our customer want and like to experience during an interaction, but regularly I see businesses miss this opportunity dramatically.

For example, you’re a retailer that has great products, but when your customers go to the checkout, the line is 10 people deep and a 15 minute wait.  Customers get frustrated, put the items back and walk out of the store. Potential customer – missed!

Customer Delight? Nope.  

Word of mouth advocate? Nope.  

Maybe the opposite.

Fumble.

Maybe you’re software services company that does customizations of CRM products.  When comparing you against other firms, they see you have a dedicated project manager to their project, but you still can’t seem to get back with them for scheduling the second round sales call.

It goes on for more than 2 weeks, when they knew you had a tight 60 day deadline.

Ooof. Miss. I know you're busy but...

Fumble.

These components are little. They are subtle.  

But they show you UNDERSTAND your customer.

They show that you can see the world from their perspective with empathy, and can professionally address their needs and pains. 

Finding these fumbles at decision points is only the first step.

Now’s the hard part.

What change in process, training, organization or people do we have to make to ensure these touchpoints have clean handoffs?

Let’s look at the customer journey from the customer’s perspective again, what are the critical touchpoints?

What would we have to change so that every critical touch point is handled with care, attention to detail, and with an aim to DELIGHT.

That’s your challenge.

No Fumbles.

#CustomerExperience

#DesignThinking

#CustomerService