A few tips on… Designing your customer experience

smithcoconsultancy.com

DESIGNING YOUR CUstomer experience Customer experience design is not about scripting your people, We lay the stage or prescribing exact behaviours for each guest’s at every point. own piece of interactive theatre. It’s about creating the right environment, with the right “ ‘back-stage’ support and technology and then enabling It’s about creating your people to facilitate an experience that will be valued an environment by your customers. and atmosphere We advocate a concept called ‘Loose/Tight’. Most organisations are that is quite special very ‘loose’ when it comes to what their brand stands for and the kind of and then acting as experience they wish customers to have, but very ‘tight’ when it comes facilitators for to telling employees how to behave. our guests’ own Brands that deliver great experiences usually reverse these two, being out-of-the-ordinary very ‘tight’ about what the brands stands for and the experience they wish to create but quite ‘loose’ in allowing their people freedom in how they experience satisfy their customers. Ho Kwon Ping But how can you design a customer experience that achieves this? Chairman Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts Can customer experience even be designed?

smithcoconsultancy.com

DESIGNING YOUR CUstomer experience

This quote by Geek Squad founder, Robert Stephens, raises a good question. If you can’t design your customer experience, You cannot what can you do to influence it? For Stephens, it’s all about hiring design a customer the right people. But it’s also about being intentional about HOW those people deliver that experience so it differentiates your brand, “experience because is consistent and delivers value to your target customers. it is whatever the So when we talk about ‘designing’ customer experience, we refer to customer perceives designing a framework that enables organisations to do this. This framework details the touch-points where you need to differentiate and the ways in which it to be your products, processes and behaviours must be distinctive to deliver value to your target customers.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach as to how you do this, but here we offer a few tips to help you on your way. Before you begin, start with the right foundation

Many organisations begin to think about customer experience improvements without first creating the right context for doing so.

So before you begin, be clear on the following three things:

• What your target customers expect and how you are performing against these expectations. • The customer values that drive retention and advocacy. • A clearly articulated brand promise that will deliver this value and differentiate you from your competitors.

If you don’t have this degree of clarity, take a look at our guides to customer experience research and brand promise definition.

smithcoconsultancy.com

DESIGNING YOUR CUstomer experience

Until you’ve experienced the actual ‘journey’ your customer takes, you can’t begin to empathise with what he or she goes Don’t judge a man through. So think of the journey from the customer’s until you have perspective, not the organisation’s walked two moons Map the experience from beginning Often, the biggest opportunity to “ to end including social media differentiate is on those touch-points in his moccasins engagement and digital interactions. that are not even on the radar screen If possible map one touchline covering of your competitors. Native American proverb the entire experience but if this is too complex (as in the case of some b2b Identify your ‘hallmark’ touch-points businesses), map a touchline for each These are the ones that will really key customer interaction. As a rule, distinguish your brand and emotionally we rarely work with more than eight to engage your customers. They are the twelve major touch-points. If you have touch-points that you need to a lot more than this you are probably ‘over-index’. mapping your organisational processes rather than the customer experience. One mistake brands often make is thinking that they need to focus Think also beyond the accepted on delivering a great experience at beginning and past the perceived end. every touch-point. Unless you are a We often define the customer journey Ritz-Carlton and can price accordingly too narrowly because we think of it in – don’t. So ‘dial-up’ the experience functional terms. This is a journey so only at those touch-points where you it’s not just the sales experience that choose to differentiate and are willing counts. For many brands, the customer to invest the resources to create a journey is on-going, with after-sales ‘wow’ experience. care and loyalty efforts to foster and build the relationship. Outline what you want to happen at each touch-point Identify the pain or stress points Clarify what you want your Note inefficiencies, redundancies customers to experience and feel. or inconsistencies in how customers What does this look like in terms of experience your brand. Consider your how you want your people to interact brand promise and how well you with them? How do they need to deliver it at each point in the touchline. behave in order to reduce the pain, The experience Ensure you think about your most increase the pleasure and deliver your you deliver to your valuable customers and their top brand promise? The pleasure peaks expectations – and what they will be should align with the hallmarks that customers every experiencing and feeling at each you have chosen. day, through every touch-point. Implications for process transaction, direct Identify opportunities product and people and indirect either In order to streamline and Designing your experience is one builds value for your improve the experience, look also thing; implementing it is another. The next step to think about is the brand or destroys it. for the ‘cracks’ or hand-offs between existing touch-points e.g. the interval implication for your people, processes between making a purchase on-line and products – and how you align The sum of all these and the actual delivery of the goods. these to deliver the experience. touch-points is the Also look ‘up-stream’ and ‘down-stream’ Get your HR and Operations people customer experience along the customer journey for those involved as part of the design process. touch-points that are ignored by They need to understand it, commit to that defines your your competitors. it and be given the resources to do it. organisation.

smithcoconsultancy.com

DESIGNING YOUR CUstomer experience

Mapping the touch-points Let’s take a look at a couple of ways you could map the journey…..

Luxury retail store - physical touchpoints

Entrance

After-sale

Welcome Goodbye

Present Purchase the product Browse Experience Engage/ the product approach

Digital touchpoints Search Digital billboard Newsletter Landing page Mobile Email Viral email Blog Website

3rd party sites IM/Chat Online aids Blog

awareness consideration purchase service loyalty

Word-of-mouth Call center IVR Promotion PR on invoice

Radio TV Print Physical touchpoints Outdoor Managed touchpoint Unmanaged touchpoint

Image taken from b2bstories.com

smithcoconsultancy.com

DESIGNING YOUR CUstomer experience

CASE STUDY

VISION Journey-mapping in action TO BE THE PEOPLE’S CHAMPION Let’s take the experience of a typical airline passenger. We start by showing the customer touch-points and the mISSION typical sort of pressures that many of us face when flying. BUSTING CARTELS Now let’s look at how Virgin Atlantic has looked up-stream and down-stream AND SUPPORTING along the journey to re-design the ‘Upper-Class’ customer experience in order THE UNDERDOG to increase the pleasure, decrease the pain and differentiate from competitors. VALUES ’Notice the design features (highlighted in bold) at the bottom. These are the FUN, ENTERTAINMENT, brand hallmarks where Virgin chooses to ‘over-index’ to deliver their promise. IRREVERENECE, Needless to say, we’ve greatly simplified it to bring out the learning and INNOVATION protect the confidentiality of Virgin Atlantic!

Customer Getting Check-in Comfort In-flight Arrival Getting to touch-points to airport until flight comfort destination

Customer Stressful Long, Want to work Planes are Unkempt Traffic experience frustrating lines uncomfortable issues Parking Want to relax Un-showered Unfamiliar place Unnecesasary Long time in seat Luggage (Only necessary Clothes a mess to airline) Boredom

Customer experience

Design Transport Drive-through Clubhouse Full sleeper seats Arrival valet Chauffeured features to airport check-in with Wi-Fi delivery to provided Mood lighting 18 showers destination Airline knows Massage/spa Driver where you are Gradual dawn Makeup/shave Comfortable handles Sound room ride door- Heated floors luggage Bar to-door Driving range You decide meals Clothes pressed Knowledgeable Skiing Machine local driver Hot & cold breakfast

smithcoconsultancy.com

DESIGNING YOUR CUstomer experience

A few other Feedback is a touchpoint How, and when you ask customers for feedback – and respond to it – are things to important touch-points. Whether it’s through a survey, or a review on Trip Advisor think about… or a comment within social media, make sure you create a touch-point that enables you to influence that experience of your brand, but without it being onerous for Don’t gold-plate your the customer. customer experience And five further ‘rules’ for creating a great experience Customer experience is a neutral term and does not imply Behavioural scientists Richard Chase and Sriram Dasu identified five rules to gold-plated service. Ritz-Carlton ensure that customers focus on the high points of their experience and overlook offers a great customer experience the low points. In our summary below, for simplicity we’ve focused on the hotel but so too does Premier Inn. Yet their industry. With a bit of creative, bold thinking, the same principles can be applied business models and price points effectively to any sector. are very different and delivered in distinctive ways. Be careful not to upgrade your customer experience Finish strong Build customer commitment beyond the point that target customers Finish on a high – do something through choice want and are willing to pay for, simply unexpected at the end of the Give guests full information about because it is what you value. experience. For example, a small your charges (like water-sports) on gift given at the point of check-out. your web site so they are transparent Focus on the dollars, This helps to create a positive and expected. Guests can then make not the dimes moment at the very point you are informed choices about the package asking the customer to part with they need and, most importantly, There is a saying in the US: their cash. wont be surprised by them. “Don’t nickel and dime me”, which means to accumulate money in Get bad experiences over with early Stick to rituals small amounts. There are examples If customers have to do something Create on-brand rituals that of this in many areas of customer onerous, get it out of the way as customers associate with their service and it is one of the practices quickly as possible. In the case of stay with you. For example, a trait that drives many consumers crazy. hotels, pre-register guests online so of the Banyan Tree Resorts each A classic example is when you pay that their first experience of the hotel evening is to leave a little locally mega dollars to stay in a luxurious is not one of lining up at the front made, handcrafted gift as part of 5-star hotel and yet still have to pay desk and filling in a registration form the turn-down service rather than your $12 a day for internet access. with exactly the same information the ubiquitous chocolate. Not only What behavioural science tells us is they provided when they booked does this create a little moment that the customer’s memory of an or stayed last time. of pleasure but also serves to highlight their support for the experience is formed at every touch- Segment pleasure, point with a brand. Generally speaking, local community. combine the pain the greater the number of pleasurable Spread the pleasure along the or ‘branded’ touch-points, the more touch-line. So provide those little positive the experience is. When you touches of fresh cookies served ‘nickel and dime’ customers you create with coffee, cold face towels on little moments of pain that jar with the the beach etc. They cost very little customer and remind them how much but create little ‘spikes’ of pleasure. this is costing, and if these happen at Combine the ‘pain’ by bundling the end of the experience that is what internet and other facility charges It is often the little things they will likely remember. Don’t surprise into the room rate so that you your customer with add-on costs. that your customers experience them in one step rather remember - especially than every time you wish to how you made them feel. use them. “And that more often comes from your people rather than your product

smithcoconsultancy.com

DESIGNING YOUR CUstomer experience One final note Search the internet on the ‘how to’ of customer experience design, and you will find hundreds of methodologies, models, academic papers, theories and frameworks.

There is however nothing like your own experience as a customer to draw on when thinking about the experience you want to create for your customers. As you interact with brands every day, in whatever format, be conscious of what you are experiencing - good or bad. Once you and your team start opening yourself up to experience in this way, experience design becomes much more insightful, intuitive, instinctive and far more exciting.

Customer experience design is part science and part art. The important thing is to apply rigour to how you design, but be bold enough to let your instinct guide your creativity. So don’t let your agency design the experience alone, (nor your product engineers) otherwise you will only get – and create - half the story.

Customer experience design requires both sides of the brain to be engaged.

©smith+co 2013. All rights reserved

smithcoconsultancy.com