As described in my earlier blog “Customer Experience and Organizational Excellence”, customer experience has a start
(your current level) but no end point and it needs to be improved perpetually.
If we do not improve the level of customer experience, it automatically
degrades itself. The kind of experience we can provide to customer depends on
how well we know the customer and our urge to provide customer with great
experience during every interaction. Since it is proven that the top and bottom
line gets affected directly by the experience a customer gets while interacting
with our company directly or indirectly; it is natural that we want to give the
best experience and the “urge” for the same is assumed to be given. So the
manifestation of experience directly depends on how well we understand our
customer. Do we understand their needs, wants and aspirations?, Can we really
think like them?, Do we know how they will react or perceive us if we take a
certain action? It is a complex, multidimensional, and nonlinear process due to
multiple variables like changing environment, churn in customers, technology disruptions
and competition to name a few.
I have observed a nine step model in ancient Vedic
literature to understand God (Nava Vidha
Bhakti i.e. nine ways of devotion) and I feel that if we apply it to
today’s corporate world, it provides us a great model for understanding our
customer and provide a superlative experience during each of our interaction. I
have presented the same in this blog. The following diagram shows the real names of
these nine steps and “Applied Names” when used in context of understanding
customer.
The first one is called “Shravana (Listening
to/about Customer) Bhakti” which tells us to listen more and more about
customer. Use any channel available at your disposal; be it reading print /
digital media, go to different customer / industry forums, conduct some surveys,
understand some success stories as well as failures etc. Everything collected
predominantly from secondary sources. This gives us a level of perception where
we can start visualizing what customer would expect from any interaction with
us and we can start building our customer engagement mechanisms.
The second and third forms namely “Nama
Sankirtana” (Chanting about Customer) and “Smarana” (Remembering Customer
behavior) are typically performed together after the one has achieved a
specific level of perception about customer through secondary knowledge and listening
about him from multiple sources. These two forms tell us that we should always
talk about customer, keep customer in mind while taking any action or decision.
Also remember customer’s behavior in different circumstances and situations,
remember how customer has reacted to an intervention by us or competition. This acts as a positive spiral refining our
perception about customer and helps us improve our actions thus improving the
experience customers would get in every transaction.
These first three steps really talk about the
homework that we need to do before interacting with customer in order to create
a great experience during interaction. This homework prepares us for initiate a
satisfactory transaction with customer.
We are now ready and waiting for an opportunity
to provide a service to our customers in the most desired manner. The next
three forms i.e. Pada Sevana (Waiting on customer), Archana (Worshipping
Customer ) and Vandana (Saluting Customer) provide direction in terms of how do
we create this opportunity. Pada Sevana (Waiting on Customer) tells us that be
around your customer, visit places like trade fairs where your customer is
present, observe your customer, take note of what customer is doing. This keen
observation and presence will definitely get noticed and opportunity for
interaction will present itself. This
when coupled with Archana (Worshipping Customer) and Vandana (Saluting Customer)
the chances of improving the customer experience increase many fold. A simple
thing like Saluting / celebrating success of an athlete in a large forum of
budding athletes by a sportswear company brings this whole thing together. It
creates a large group of customers at one place, it provides opportunity to
interact and understand the customer base through informal interactions not
related to any business transaction, it sends clear message that you value the
customer as well as the success one of the customer has achieved and you are
happy about the same. It also conveys that you listen to your customer and
ready to do things which are not directly related to your business (go extra
mile) if necessary. A company can create
multiple such opportunities using Archana (Worshipping Customer) and Vandana (Saluting
Customer) to create a supportive background for a memorable customer experience
when the actual business transaction takes place.
We have done a lot of hard work in getting
ready for giving a great experience to our customer, we have done right things
to create an opportunity to do so. I am certain that opportunity will present
itself to perform a business transaction and thus provide superlative
experience to customer. The next three forms i.e. Dasya (Serving Customer),
Sakhya (Be friend to Customer) and Atma Nivedana (Complete Dedication) take us
through process of superlative experience throughout the life-cycle of
relationship with customer. In the initial phase of your business relationship,
you serve customer without questioning, listen to the needs and service them
without questioning and try and go beyond what customer is looking for. You
fulfill anything that customer demands. This provides a very comfortable
experience in the transactions and also provides a lot of insights about
customer mindset. This triggers the next form I.e. Sakhya (be friending
customer), which means you now start advising customer on what would be right
for him based on your knowledge about customer, you start thinking for him and
work for him for his benefit. This elevates the experience to a new level. The
last one i.e. Atma Nivedana (Complete dedication) is the next phase where your
thinking is changed in such a manner that there is no difference between you
and customer and you deliver services in a manner that you feel would provide
best customer experience without need for asking customer. The key transition
that you find here is the extent customer has to drive the transactions and set
the expectations. From Dasya (Serving Customer) to Atma Nivedana (complete
dedication), you find that need for
customer to focus on what he needs in a business transaction reduces and he
keeps of getting the same or more without asking which naturally ensures a
great and lasting experience.
A few questions come to our mind –
·
Are these steps sequential?
·
Do we have to do all these steps?
·
The environment, technologies are changing; so
are the customer expectations, what happens to this framework?
These steps grouped in to three groups as
described earlier and followed in that sequence. Most of the activities in a
group are run in parallel. There are subtle differences, but they can run in
parallel. This sequence is for a set/segment of customer/s once you start you
can go to the end to ensure great experience. It is better to perform all the
activities to reach the ultimate goal of superlative customer experience, if we
do not perform certain activities, it may not give us the desired results.
The model has an inbuilt positive spiral to
correct the changes which are happening in the environment and then modify the
next steps on the go. We are continuously Listening to/about customer, talking
about customer, understanding their feedback to firm up our understanding in
order to prepare for next steps. This activity is continuous activity and any
changes taking place in the environment, technology, customer expectations,
etc., automatically refine our understanding of customer enabling effective
next steps.
We can use the two approaches described in my
earlier blog, “Customer Experience and Organizational Excellence”, to implement
various initiatives to ensure superlative customer experience.
1
Reverse Planning for a Customer Experience
thread
2
Creating multiple pairs of supplier/customer
within ecosystem
