by Matt Burke, on Jan 21, 2016 10:27:32 AM
Many people say moving is one of the most stressful things you can do. How about moving your cable or phone service from one side of the building to the other? This shouldn't be a problem. Should it?
Over the Christmas Holidays, Accelare's headquarters moved from one office suite to another in the same building. A month before the move, I went online to check the process for moving our internet and phone services as we were moving 50 feet to the vacant office across the hall. I was reassured from reading our Service Provider's moving policies "You don’t need to cancel your internet/phone services when you move. In fact, it’s easier to just move your service to a new address. You can transfer these services locally or, if you're moving farther, use our online app to make the move." Perfect. That seems easy.
Unfortunately, on moving day, the service technician spent most of the day talking to the service provider's office trying to understand what was changing in the new contract. New Contract! We didn't ask for a new contract. We wanted to continue with what we had; we only wanted to move the service from one data closet to another data closet that was less than 50 feet away. I didn't know it, but we had just started a "new customer journey" with a company that we had been a customer for two years. Lucky for me, I had just returned from a wonderful holiday experience so my mood remained positive. The family and I had just come back from Disney World. These guys are the poster child for the term "Customer Experience". After all, Walt Disney said it best, " Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends." But what if you are not the Disney Company? How do you offer these positive customer experiences without roller coasters and magical kingdoms?
Many companies want to know how and where to start to create a customer-focused culture specific to their own products or services. However, these companies do not offer magical kingdoms, sell gourmet coffee, or have devices that start with "i".
How many of you enjoy calling your Health Plan to discuss claims? How about waiting in line to renew your license? Not quite a trip to Disney, but by in large, something we experience as someone's customer every day. In reality, customers don't need roller coasters to have positive experiences. Most of us will stay loyal to companies that focus at being great at the little things. When a simple thing like moving phone service starts the customer on a journey they never asked for, it is safe to say that this service provider hasn't spent much time on architecting customer journeys.
In our next Webinar, learn how customer experience principles used at Disney and Starbucks can be applied to your organization's everyday interactions. See how organizations and governments have used customer journeys to:
- streamlining driver licensing and registration in the public sector
- onboarding and orienting new suppliers
- advancing the employee experience from hiring to retirement
- choosing and implementing new enterprise software
Join customer experience expert Ric Merrifield, and Accelare's own Jeff Scott and Jack Calhoun on February 26th, 2016 for "Customer Journeys for the Rest of Us".
This upcoming Webinar will provide a roadmap for you to apply basic customer journey techniques in your organization.February