Customer Experience or Customer Service!

Depending on which side of the debate you fall on will determine how you argue which comes first and/or which is more important – Customer Experience or Customer Service.

To be transparent and clear – 30+ years of pragmatic experience has led me to the point where I see the current world of Customer Experience completely clouding and confusing the exceptionally important world of Customer Service. My opinions below therefore reflect this perspective.

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• To Serve – something that you can DO
• To Experience – feelings generated by something that happens TO you

‘Service’ is something tangible that you can do; ‘Experience’ is something more emotional i.e. how something makes you, or in this discussion, your customer, feel.

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Organisations can only ‘Serve’ their customers well, in the hope their customers ‘Experience’ their product/service/people/information/offer/engagement/contact… in a positive way – though their customer’s emotions will also be influenced by many other factors e.g. how well they slept the night before, the weather outside, whether they are unwell, something said to them moments before etc.

So, the reality is that you do not have full control over all the factors that contribute to how your customer will feel (experience) your interaction.

You can’t control their Experience ??

You cannot make your customer ‘experience’ something in a particular way, though of course, you can increase the probability. You can only ‘serve’ your customer and do so exceptionally well, in the hope that they will ‘experience’ something of yours in a very positive light.

These definitions lie at the heart of what I believe is wrong with the whole relentless, consultancy-led drive towards Customer Experience (#CXP), often from those who have no first-hand experience of serving customers.

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Whilst I understand the desire of all companies is to create delightful, enduring, positive interactions for their customers to experience, they can actually only do this by serving their customers extremely well – and consistently and in the manner and way they want.

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Firstly, we need to be clear on the definition of ‘Service’. My definition is broad and inclusive - ?delivering to your customer (external or internal) or prospective customer, exactly what they want and/or need, at the time they need it and in the way the need it, with as little effort on their part as possible. I find that too many organisations limit their definition of what it means to serve their customer (‘customer service’) and worse still, relegate it to just one or two departments or teams, usually focused on after-sales support. This is so short-sighted.

We all ‘serve’ each other in many different ways. We all have ‘customers’ (those whom we serve). They can be internal as well as external and as such, we should take special care to serve them well. So too, other stakeholders (employees, shareholders, suppliers etc.) should be considered and treated as customers too. That way, everyone benefits along the way to delivering outstanding service to the ‘end customer’ consuming your product or service. ?

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All the great learnings from the world of human psychology tell us that you cannot change the other person, you can only change yourself. In doing so you will influence the other person, but they must then choose how they respond. You cannot control the other person. You cannot make them ‘experience’ something great about you – you can only change yourself.

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So why are companies spending so much time, effort and money on trying to make their customers ‘experience’ something great about themselves, when they cannot control their customer? Why not concentrate instead on changing themselves (transforming their own organisation) in the belief that their changes and improvements will have a positive influence on their customers, ultimately encouraging them to buy more from them, as they ‘experience’ delivery of great value along the way.

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Organisations must stop being so arrogant to think they can control their customers feelings and start being a little more humble in truly focussing on serving them better. Stop tinkering with the superficial and get back to transforming the substantive.

Let’s get back to ‘Serving’ exceptionally well, trusting you have great people who can deliver well and trust that your customer will then ‘Experience’ your product/service/interaction well enough to feel good about your organisation.

??Focus on the right thing, that you can have most influence and control over!

Your customers will thank you for it!

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#serviceexcellence #ceos #customerservice #customerexperience #businesstransformation

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