Customer Engagement

Articles, Anecdotes and Observations asking

‘What More Can There Be?’

Quality in a service or product is not

what you put into it. It is what the

client or customer gets out of it.

Peter Drucker

Welcome

Paradigmantics is passionate about Customer Experience. It’s a subject

we’ve spent many years talking to organisations about and delivering

innovative training and development programmes on. We believe that an

‘Engaged Customer’ is evidence of the very highest and most effective

levels of Customer Experience being delivered by an organisation.

This booklet is a compilation of short articles, offering a sometimes light-

hearted look at the issue of ‘Customer Engagement’ from various

perspectives. They represent a combination of previously published articles

from our popular blog site* alongside some new material written to more

fully ‘round out’ the journey!

We hope you enjoy reading them.

*‘What More Can There Be?’ is our blog site and over the past couple of years we

have posted in excess of 80 articles on a variety of subjects which we have come

across within our training and organisational development work. If you’d like to read

more, please feel free at:

www.whatmorecantherebe.blogspot.com

‘What more can there be?’ is a

powerful question. Upon visiting a

CEO whom I hadn’t seen for some

time, I was delighted to find that

those very words were still written

on his office whiteboard from my

last visit... The atmosphere in the

organisation was tangibly

different’

Becoming an engaged

customer

‘Woo-hoo!’; I’m precious and

much sought after.

I’ve not felt this much in demand

since I owned the only football in

the playground. Shop assistants

grease around me and make

outrageous offers. They want to

be my friend on Facebook. I can

be in ‘the gang’. I’m even

‘valued’ (No, not like an

antique... Cheek!).

And how do I feel about this

adulation? ... I’m not bothered.

You see, they haven’t quite got it

right.

Don’t get me wrong I am an

engaged customer and have

been for some time. Every year I make a special effort to go to ‘The

Langbury’ at Blue Anchor Bay, this has got to be the best hotel experience

in the world and I’ve stayed in a lot. I recommend it to everyone, even hand

out their business cards.

If you want a bike then the only place to go is ‘Race Scene’ in Barnsley; my

bike supplier. I get beautiful Italian cycling products from highly

knowledgeable people; what more could I want? As I ride around the Peak

District I’m a moving billboard, resplendent in my ‘Race Scene’ jersey, shorts,

matching socks and water bottles. I’m not alone, there are lots of other

cyclists pounding the local hills in similar kit.

So how have I become an engaged customer?

Firstly, I engage rationally. Can I have what I want delivered to me in the

way I want? Are they easy to do business with, in the way I prefer?

Secondly, I engage emotionally, which is what makes the difference. Some

organisations achieve this naturally, some try to manufacture it and fail,

others work hard to become the sort of people I like. Once I have chosen to become an engaged customer you can be assured

that I will be loyal and rarely take my custom elsewhere. I will have no

hesitation in recommending your services to anyone who will listen. I’m

happy to give you feedback and let you know how I want to use your

service, knowing that you will listen and will accommodate my whims as far

as you can. Your organisation is mine, part of my lifestyle, part of my

identity.

Who knows, I might even go as far as showing my devotion by getting your

logo as a tattoo. Yes, that’s how much I love ‘Codraphenia’, my local chip

shop!

16% of customers will recommend

a company if they received

average customer service. If the

service was considered to be great

then 84% will recommend the

brand.

People Metrics 2010

Customer Experience -

What it isn’t!

It isn’t PR hype.

A colleague of mind recently bought a car from a company which has

proudly proclaimed in all its advertising and PR that they are better than all

the rest because of the experience they give their customers. Highly

laudable until she actually experienced what they perceived was great

customer experience. So many organisations make these extravagant

claims because they see it as a way of differentiating themselves from their

competitors. This would be great if they really understood ‘customer

experience’.

It isn’t what is written in a training manual.

My son has worked for two major financial organisations both of whom

make great play on their customer experience credentials. They even

publish figures to back up these claims. You only had to talk to him as an

employee to quickly realise that they are not talking about ‘Customer

Experience’, they actually mean ‘Service Delivery’ which is quite a different

thing. He talked about the length of time he was allowed to spend in

conversation with the customer and the methods his colleagues used to

deal with difficult calls. It was easy to spot that these organisations had no

real understanding of what their customers experienced, simply by listening

to the language used by their highly trained employees.

It isn’t apologising when things go

wrong.

An award-winning phone company

apologised to me on 15 occasions over

a six week period before they managed

to connect my home to a phone line.

Every conversation I had with them

started with ‘I can only apologise for

that Sir’. I spoke to operators, sales,

customer service, managers and even a

coach, all of whom failed to deliver the ‘bread and butter’ service of the

company. But they did apologise whole heartedly for the failings of their

colleagues on each occasion!

It isn’t surveys and data collection.

I had a very interesting conversation with a Regional Director of a major

parcel carrier. They were a very good organisation that had made brilliant

improvements in their service. When I asked him to prove to me that they

were good he quickly produced figures, graphs, measurements, and tables.

I was very impressed they had fantastic processes. My experience had

been in trying to get into their building to attend our meeting, just as any

member of the public wanting to make a collection would do. Poor

signage and staff who were happy to assume I knew my way around meant

that this was (to say the least) frustrating. They probably just needed

another graph for this.

What it is, is very simple...

As a customer-facing person use this test. Ask from which side of the

customer interaction are you looking; that of your organisation, or that of

your customer?

What is happening to your customer? Did you deliver? What does your

customer see? What does your customer hear? What does your customer

feel? What is your customer experiencing? That is their customer

experience. We’ve all been a customer; we all know what it is like to be a

customer, so it can’t be that difficult to understand your service from their

perspective.

85% of companies do not take

immediate action on individual

customer feedback

Aberdeen Group (2009)

The no.1 most important

aspect of customer

experience: Deliver!

When I’m talking with people

about what we mean by a

‘customer experience mindset’

they get very enthused about

improving touch points and forget

the most important aspect of any

customer experience. Deliver.

I didn’t spend my time, effort and

hard earned cash with you just to

have a great experience with your

sales assistant, call centre order

taker or your on-line shop. I want

your product, delivered on time and giving me what I expect. I don’t think

I’m unusual in this of course!

My seven sources of disappointment are:

1. It didn’t arrive: When you order a walnut tree it’s not the sort of thing

that is likely to go missing. When mine didn’t arrive as expected I made

a call and was told that the system said it had been delivered to my

address, on time. After searching everywhere anyone might put a tree;

including asking all my neighbours, I had to conclude that I didn’t have

a walnut tree. The parcel carrier made extravagant claims about my

delivery which didn’t change the fact that I had no tree. Once this was

established there was no hesitation in offering me another tree from the

nursery. Great. But it couldn’t be delivered for 12 months! I’d missed the

tree planting season.

2. It’s not what I ordered: My seafood pizza arrives with a great flourish. It

looks brilliant, but I ordered seafood pasta. Sending it back would

mean a long wait while they change the order and my dinner

companions will have finished their meal by the time it arrives. So I

accept the apology and eat pizza.

3. It doesn’t work: Imagine my excitement at the delivery of a new lawn

mower. Followed by the disappointment of returning it because it failed

to start. Exacerbated by the backache from having to cut the grass with

shears.

4. It doesn’t do what I believed it would (or not as well as I hoped): I’m a

little embarrassed to say that the ‘Ab Master 3000’ has not delivered the

six pack as modelled on the shopping channel. (Though, on reflection

this may not be the fault of the product).

5. Unexpected surprises: ‘You didn’t mention the add-ons’. ‘We thought

everyone would know that you also need to buy the stand, otherwise,

obviously Sir, it will fall over.’

6. It needs lots of work to get it going: Never buy a Lego castle. The toy

looks amazing in the picture on the box, which also helpfully states that

an adult may be needed to assist your child build it. My small boy lost

interest after five minutes; it took me nearly six hours hard toil to make

the thousand bricks look something like. It didn’t help that members of

my family (including my junior helper) constantly interrupted asking ’Is it

finished yet!’

7. Not good value: The sense that you have been ripped off doesn’t

incline you towards buying again from this supplier or recommending

them to your friends or family.

Once you can assure me you can avoid all the above, then give me a

great experience.

60% of customers describe

themselves as ‘satisfied’ just before

leaving a brand.

Bloomberg Business Week October

2009

Service Delivery Channels

I was behind a Staples (office supplies) delivery truck on the motorway

recently which carried the advertising strap line ‘Three ways to buy’, with

online, phone and in-store the options offered to me by the lorry. Since we

had ground to a halt in an M6 traffic jam I reflected that this was indeed an

interesting ‘stationary’ choice!

This is nothing new, think tea, loose leaf or in a tea bag which was first

marketed in 1904 by tea merchant Thomas Sullivan. There are many other

examples; the difference today is the range of options that companies want

to offer.

Most have recognised the need to move on from a ‘take it or leave it’

approach, (although this doesn’t apply to their automated phone systems)

to a ‘this is what we will offer you’ mindset.

Finding as many ways as

possible to deliver a service

to us is the challenge. Like

the razor-blade wars

between Gillette and

Wilkinson Sword, it appears

that organisations have to

find one more than their

rivals.

Is this what your customers

want? Have you asked

them? Is this really important

to people? Most importantly

is it worth the investment? Sometimes you need to try something new and

completely different to find better ways to serve your customers. I will be

eternally grateful to the banker who talked their bosses into developing

telephone banking. Internet banking on the other hand may offer benefits

but for me the convenience of telling someone what I want is far superior.

This is where we see the difference between those companies that ‘do to

their customers’ and those that give people the experience they want. A

subtle yet telling differentiator. Telephone Banking is the opportunity for the

bank to give me a personal experience, to connect with me, to involve me

in an interaction which is personalised. I can become emotionally attached

to their service. This is far more difficult to achieve with an internet

experience which is entirely functional.

Although ‘three ways to buy’ is a great idea, will I get three equally great

experiences?

80% of executives say their

company delivers a ‘superior’

customer experience. 8% of their

customers agree.

Bain and Company 2009

I don’t want to flash my

pants!

Once organisations have discovered that delivering what their customer has

ordered is the first step towards giving them a great experience, then they

are ready to take the next step. At this point they usually ask what further

services can be offered to potential customers to differentiate themselves

from their competitors; which quickly becomes a list of features and

benefits.

Let me give you an example:

This weekend, my son was

showing off his new phone.

It was the size and weight of

a brick. I suddenly realised

why there is a fashion

amongst young men to

exhibit the top few inches of

their pants (considering the

number of times Calvin Klein

and Dolce and Gabbana

waistbands have been

flashed at me and I hadn’t

realised why!). I postulate

that it is because their

phones are so heavy that

gravity is continually pulling

their trousers towards the ground! It’s nothing to do with fashion and

everything to do with technology. Keen to find out more I asked him to

explain why his phone was so much better than mine.

Apparently it can wake him up in the morning, when he can check Twitter,

Facebook and his e-mails before he gets out of bed. He can set off for

University guided by GPS all while accessing the internet, which considering

he cycles to lectures must be dangerous. Texts are no problem using the

tiny keyboard, and anything of visual interest can be attached as a photo

or video. He can even video-call me via Skype if I’m online.

Is this is what all new phones are like? Is this is what I am to expect when I

change my handset?

I started to hyperventilate. I only want to make phone calls! An answer

machine is useful but I don’t want all these other things. I want to use my

phone to talk; if I wanted to text I’d buy a typewriter. Most importantly I

don’t want the world to know that my underpants are from Asda-Walmart,

made by George!

To compound the issue, my phone provider recently offered me 300 free

texts per month. I told them I really only wanted a contract for making

phone calls, so they could knock off the 300 texts and do me an even better

deal. Alas, I was told they didn’t do this and I would have to have the

service, texts and all.

Often organisations fail to distinguish between customer service and

customer experience. They give their customer the service whether or not

they want it. They operate from their perspective rather than viewing the

interaction from their customer’s perspective. Only when they are able to

put themselves in my position and tailor what they can offer to what I want

are they attending to my customer experience. So a phone that is just a

phone... is this too much to ask for?

By 2014 Smart phone sales will

exceed 1.7 billion.

Jim Morrish: Analysys Mason 2010.

At this point nearly every man

woman and child in the western

world will have one.

Exactly what it says on

the tin...?

There is a great TV ad for Ronseal Woodcare products which has the strap

line ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’. If only that were true of all the

products and services we buy. How often do we fail to get the delivery we

were expecting, when we were expecting it and to the standard we

wanted? There is no way an organisation can work towards giving their

customers a great experience if they can’t do ‘exactly what they’ve said on

their tin’. This has to be the very bare minimum starting point for any

customer experience.

Yet this fact seems to have

passed them by. Take the

phone company who I

contracted to reinstall the

connection to my new home.

They took my order, arranged

the date and sorted a

contract. I had clearly told

them they would have to send

an engineer to fit a phone

socket because there was no

longer one in the property. A

few weeks later when they rang to check on my experience so far and to

make further arrangements, I was told that if the connection didn’t work at

the appointed switch on date then I could call them to arrange an

engineer’s visit. How would I know it hadn’t worked, I had no socket to

connect a phone to? I had asked for an engineer’s visit at the time I made

the contract with them and now I am told this could only happen if the

connection couldn’t be done from the exchange, which they wouldn’t

know until they switched me on. Why won’t they believe me when I tell them

it won’t work because I have no socket! My phone line would not be

delivered at the arranged time to any standard. I had a negative customer

experience.

It is easy to spot the customer focus of an organisation by playing a simple

game. We call it the ‘Blame Game’. All you do is listen to the reasons given

for the failure in delivery. Have a go yourselves, it’s a lot of fun. Here are

some examples to get you started:

‘The system’s down’.

‘We deliver in your area on a Thursday.’ ‘I’m not there on a Thursday’ I

reply. ‘In that case you will have to make arrangements to be there so

we can deliver.’

‘We are not authorised to tell you how to complain.’

‘It is not possible to tell you the name of our Chief Executive.’

‘‘They’ haven’t filled in the field.’

This tells you loud and clear that people are wedded to a process which is

far more important than you, the customer.

They have likely been given targets for implementing the process. They are

accountable for their role in the process - not for the way they help their

customer. Thus ‘the process’ is the customer experience.

So let’s have some honesty. Don’t talk about how focused you are on the

customer experience if you really mean your team is focused on service

delivery.

Let’s all understand that delivering ‘exactly what it says on your tin’ has to

be the very minimum standard for any customer experience.

‘The man who can smile when

things go wrong has just thought of

someone else he can blame it on.’

Robert Bloch, American Writer

Role Models

As a schoolchild I had

compulsory swimming lessons at

the local baths every week.

Being quite competitive, I was

determined to be in the top set

which meant the chance to go

in for the hard swimming

achievement badges. On the

day of group selection I was

horrified to find we had to swim

across the pool using front

crawl. I was a reasonable

swimmer but I’d never even

attempted front crawl I didn’t even know the rudiments of the stroke. All

seemed doomed to failure. Luckily a new girl had recently arrived in school,

she was American and was an amazing swimmer. She glided effortlessly

through the water using whatever stroke she wanted. I decided upon a

foolhardy, yet with hindsight, quite good plan. I would watch carefully what

she did and simply copy her technique. Which I did, incorporating a long

dive and holding my breath for the whole distance I managed exemplary

front crawl and learned some valuable lessons.

1. Always do the things with complete confidence, it gives the impression

you know what you’re doing

2. Technique is everything

3. Be prepared to take a risk, the worst thing that can happen is you will

drown

4. Find the very best people and learn from what they do

5. God Bless Americans

People hold the customer experience you get in USA as the role model for

customer service. I have had great service when visiting America; I have

also had quite the reverse. What you notice wherever you go is that you will

get pockets of great practice. If one person is brilliant then usually many are

brilliant. People follow a role model. They want to be like the person most

admired in the organisation.

Culture is contagious and self managing. Take the example of the fantastic

Italian waiter we had at a restaurant recently. He had the accent, the

mannerisms, the skills and the look of the other brilliant waiters. When you

heard him ‘off duty’ he had the broadest Yorkshire accent and had no

connections with Italy except that he served pizzas for a living. He probably

didn’t even realise that when he was at work he became Italian! The culture

he immersed himself in everyday meant he could give his best, indeed he

couldn’t give anything else.

Managers in particular need to be constantly vigilant of themselves. Their

team is a reflection of themselves, they are the role models. Their team want

to be like them. If they are not what you want them to be - then you need to

look to yourself. People learn by copying the actions of those that look like

they know what they are doing.

WARNING. This doesn’t apply to learning front crawl. If you want to become

a master swimmer, get lessons. If you use my technique as a model be

warned it could result in being humiliated at the public swimming pool as

the lifeguard pulls you from the water.

‘It takes 20 years to build a

reputation and only five minutes to

ruin it. If you think about that, you

will do things differently’.

Warren Buffett, Investor and

Author.

Becoming the

Disengaged Customer

My car is very clever in helping me look after its every need with interesting

bleeps and flashing lights. In this way I can put in fuel before we grind to a

halt, top up with oil, fill the washer and organise a service. We are both

happy with the arrangement. It works well. However it seems that

this isn't enough. All of a sudden the garage has discovered customer

experience.

When we arrived in the service centre car park we were met by no lesser

figure than the manager. He wished me a pleasant day and pointed

towards the reception area. He was being slightly too friendly. Rather

different from the last time I clapped eyes on his sharp suit when he offered

me peanuts in part exchange for my old vehicle.

The receptionist was brilliant, but then again, she always has been. I left for

home to wait for the mechanics to do their job.

As usual I received a phone call to tell me that my brake pads were 30%

worn and other stuff which would cost £3,000 to put right, including £30 to

unblock a windscreen washer

pipe. All of which I respectfully

declined.

When I returned to collect my car it

seems that under the new ‘customer

experience’ regime taking my

money was no longer enough. I was

urged by the manager to follow

them on Twitter and join their

’Facebook’ community if I was really

to have the best possible

experience. Not long afterwards I

received an SMS text inviting me down to the showroom to have a ‘special’

chat with their salesperson about a new car model. This was then followed

by a courtesy phone call asking if I was still OK because at my last car

service there was a blocked windscreen washer pipe that I declined to

have fixed; touching concern for my safety.

Why do I feel these are just marketing ploys? How come I'm left thinking

these are not genuine invitations to become involved? What makes me feel

like this is a new bandwagon which has my cash at heart and not my

welfare?

The Manager doesn’t get it. He sees this effort as a sales tactic to ‘make’

me a loyal customer. I was engaged by a genuine, skilled receptionist and

my clever car. Now I go to ‘my’ Kwik Fit for a better deal on servicing and

parts, and really genuine, honest people, who are interested in tyres and

shock absorbers, not Twittering about it.

‘There is only one boss: The

customer. And he can fire

everybody in the company from

the chairman down simply by

spending his money somewhere

else.’

Sam Walton founder of Wal-Mart

In Summary

We are all engaged customers in some aspect of our lives so we know

what it is to become engaged.

Engagement is rational and emotional. It has to be both.

The reward for having engaged customers is immense and should be

treated with respect by companies.

Always deliver. This is the very minimum level of customer experience,

but organisations should beware of putting their processes before their

customer.

Creating a wide range of ways to do business with your customers is

great. Each, however, has to deliver a great experience. One way

can’t be better than another. It’s also good if they all join up.

There is a distinct difference between customer service - which you give

to your customer; and customer experience – which is the way they

perceive your efforts.

It’s everyone’s responsibility, at all times, with all your customers and

colleagues to give a great service. People don’t engage when they

receive a great experience from some people, some of the time.

Facebook, Twitter et al are a means to engage, but they alone don’t

create engaged customers.

‘I now own a smart phone, it’s a whole new experience for me to make a

telephone call.’ Dave Bradley 2011

Only 38% of business leaders

identified ‘leading by example’ as

a key quality for a leader .

Grant Thornton Leadership Survey

2005

For every 26 people that

experience a problem with a

brand, only 1 will report it back to

the company.

TARP research

© Paradigmantics Limited

Registered Company Number 6932992

Tele: 0845 519 3357