Asymmetric burden

The smaller the business, the more salient customer experience issues tend to be:

If one of your five customers is having issues transacting with you, there’s a good chance that a) you’ll be aware of the issue, and b) you’ll feel the impact that the issue has on your revenue.?

Given a) and b), there is considerable incentive for the business to resolve the issue. It’s a win-win for the customer and the business.?

This is in contrast to larger businesses with thousands of customers, where the significance of any one customer issue tends to become increasingly more innocuous as the customer base grows in volume and diversity.?

All else being equal, if one of your 1000 customers is having issues transacting with you, there’s a good chance that a) you will not be aware of the issue and b) the immediate impact that the issue has on your revenue will be virtually unnoticeable.?

Under these circumstances, there is far less incentive for the business to quickly resolve the issue. The customer tends to lose out, while the business remains unscathed in the short term (more on this point in a moment).?

Though a business might be capable of becoming increasingly immune to the woes of any single customer transaction issue, the same phenomenon does not apply to the customer.?

Regardless of whether the company is small or big, a bad customer experience is a bad customer experience.?

And bad experiences, according to Qualtrics’ 2022 Global Consumer Trends report, can put a substantial amount of revenue at risk. After all, who would want to continue to give to a business that did not treat them well??

Any business looking to thrive (i.e., not leave revenue on the table) would do well to address the customer experience blindspot that its growth invariably creates.?

Transact like a big business.?

Take care of customers like a small business.?

Both require a significant investment in infrastructure.?

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