Is your customer ecosystem wider than you appreciate?
When you provide a product or a service to customers, its rarely your product or service that matters to them, but how it enhances their lives which is most important. To achieve this goal, there are likely to be multiple interactions for the customer. From finding the right solution, to ordering it, to paying for it and using it etc. Sometimes it will even involve more than one provider either consciously or otherwise combining to fulfil a desired outcome.
This is what we call the customer ecosystem. There are three layers:
When customer experience is 'slapped on' to it is only the middle layer which is applied. It's paper thin and customers see right through it.
To this end, I recently gave Enterprise car hire a lower satisfaction score because of the poor experience I encountered from Rye Street Car Repairs. Unfair? Not at all.
It's my world and companies I interact with just live in it
(to paraphrase the great Dean Martin)
This scenario can apply to anything, from arranging some quality time away with your family, to organising the Christmas at home or as in my case arranging for a damaged car to be returned so you can return to your routine of collections and drop offs for your family. Each engagement has a higher purpose to the customer, more important than the organisation they engage with or the product and service they purchase. Each organisation involved is part of a chain with other companies before and after them. So as consumers, we are looking for seamless engagement from start to finish.
However, organisations can be self centered in their approach to customer centricity. Even if they have frictionless interactions between them and the customer, they don't think about the next engagement customers will have. For instance, we witnessed a family distraught at the airport because despite their plane landing a little late they missed their connection because the airport baggage handlers system had broken down and everything was being booked in and out manually.
领英推荐
A personal example was when I returned to pick up a very late car repair from Rye Street Coach Repairs of Bishops Stortford. I hadn't been kept up to date on the delay of my vehicle repairs (which is another story). The car being repaired was less important to me, it was the inconvenience of not being able to do the trips we had in the diary including a couple of longish distance ones for my sons hockey. A fact which didn't matter to the car repair centre. Due to the extended time it had taken to get my car back I had needed to hire a car. Which I collected from Enterprise, a train and a bus ride away from my home, which ate in to my weekend. But the car was clean, and upgraded so a small compensation (not that Enterprise were aware of why I needed a vehicle).
When I got a call to say my vehicle was ready to collect from Rye Street, I explained I had to drop a hire car off first. That day we'd had an unexpected download of snow. To which the receptionist told me I could drop the hire car off at the garage and they would return for me, because they had a deal with Enterprise. Now this resonated with me because it would save me 60-90 mins extra travel on a work day. It could never make up for the poor experience to date, but was a well appreciated gesture. I delayed my journey, and completed some business tasks knowing I had recovered some time and I could leave later and still get back for my next meeting.
How a 'customer last' culture plays out in reality
Then I got a call from the 'Enterprise Rep' from the garage who informed me that because I'd booked the hire car from a broker and not directly from Enterprise they can not return the car on my behalf. In fact, I'd have to pay a ￡35 fee for the privilege. Having had five weeks of pain with this garage, a quick reference of my notes would have shown some empathy to my situation would have been wise. In fairness, I'm not sure the organisation keeps a central record of customer details because this was one of many interactions with the garage which highlighted no one knew the customers situation. But, I was now out of time, I had no choice because of meetings pending to drop the car off at the garage and incur a ￡35 charge, which after all was down to the receptionist having the permission to provide and offer, which was not available and management not overriding it irrespective of the situation. I dropped the hire car off and explained to the Enterprise representative I was disappointed. He shrugged, said there was nothing he could do and took my keys.
That was my last contact with the garage. They had washed their hands of me. A customer experience of 0 out of 100 scored.
A few days later Enterprise car hire phoned to inform me the ￡35 would be deducted from my deposit. They also asked for feedback. I explained, that as part of the overall experience connected to Rye Street, they would earn a low satisfaction score from me. Their choice of car repair partner had tarnished my experience with Enterprise. With several others available from the airport, I would not be choosing the again. They apologised and asked what could be done. I suggested they ensured if they bestowed their reputation with Rye Street Repairs they trained the staff to understand what is and what is not permitted.
When you work in partnership with other companies, you don't hand over accountability, instead it is shared. Whether that's a BPO practice to move contact centres to new geographies and affinity deals to reach more customers, both demand greater care, not less.
In this case Rye Street Repairs has damaged another brands reputation. No doubt this will happen again and again as they are a multi site car repairer providing services to insurers such as LV=, Sheila's Wheels, Direct Line, Sainsburys, Ageas and many others. It's customer centricity's responsibility that the customer standards are understood by partners and delivered. And its the responsibility of the senior management of companies, such as Rye Street Repairs, to honour those standards when they take on partnerships, and not to see them as simply a new contract to make money from.
So, apologies Enterprise, this will actually impact your future business, I have hired cars for 4-6 weeks of the year for about 10 years and will do so for the next 20 hopefully. As well as those I share the story with. But not because of your 'on us' customer experience (which was pretty good), but your choice of those who deliver it on your behalf. A salient lesson of what customers now expect in 2022 and beyond. Customer centricity, spread your responsibility wider. It's those who care less about customers in your ecosystem, which will undo you.
Posted by Christopher Brooks, global customer experience consultant
So good reading, thanks Christopher Brooks . CX means holistic view on customers journey, available touchpoints, processes and very last but as important as everything else the sentiments that are being provoked along the entire lifecycle from promotion, purchase, delivery, payment to retention….
Poor service impacts everyone...look at what's putting your potential customers off, then fix it.
1 年I would like a few others to see this, Anthony Heard, Mark Stevenson, the industry is fragmented, and possibly worse than ever with shortage of available parts and hire vehicles.
Struggling to meet CX goals? I empower CX Practitioners, marketers & founders to transform data & insights into bottom-line results. Expert mentoring, thorough assessments, and hands-on support for measurable success.
1 年spot on Christopher Brooks. love that opening sentence "When you provide a product or a service to customers, its rarely your product or service that matters to them, but how it enhances their lives which is most important." and the paraphrase of Dean Martin. Businesses have to let go of the idea they are important to their customers, we inhabit but a tiny part of people's lives and our job is to meet their needs and let them get on with their lives.
Educator & consultant leading B2B CX Transformation | Specialist in Tailored CX Training Programs | Enhance Your Customer Journey, Client Management, and Team Effectiveness with Strategic Consulting & Coaching
1 年It's a great point Christopher Brooks, and one that so many companies forget. The online retailer that contracts its logistics out to an unreliable transporter is not going to win many friends, particularly at this time of year. Airlines are almost always blamed for damaging baggage, but in many cases, the only time the airline will see your bag is when it is on the plane. Before and after, handling agents will be responsible for checking it in, getting it to the plane and loading it, and then unloading it the other end and getting it to the baggage belt. But, when things go wrong, it is almost always the airline that makes the headlines because they sold you the ticket and they hire the subcontractors (although to be fair, they might not always have much of a choice). The same applies to franchises (of any type, not just fast food). A bad location can damage a brand, even if the franchise itself is not running the location directly. But so often these businesses have a "fire and forget" attitude. Once I am not dealing with you directly, you are no longer my problem. They need to rethink that attitude.