‘What we put our customers through if they wish to do business with us’.

In this example there are eight main stages for someone making a business purchase. Other types of purchase would have more or less stages of different types.

Stage 1 – Need - I’m considering a purchase – who should I approach?
Stage 2 – Enquire - I make general enquiries to possible suppliers.
Stage 3 – Approach - I decide to make more specific enquiries to a selected few.
Stage 4 – Recommendation - They make recommendations and/or send proposals.
Stage 5 – Purchase - I decide to purchase and place my order with one supplier.
Stage 6 – Experience - They supply and I use the product or service.
Stage 7 – Problem - I have a problem that is reported to and handled by the supplier.
Stage 8 – Reconsider - I’m considering purchasing something else – should I go back?

At each of these stages we could break the customers experience down even further into smaller elements. For example, in the Approach stage, if it involved a sales visit, we could have:

· The promptness of the sales person

· The appearance of the sales person

· The politeness of the sales Person

· How much interest they demonstrate in my business and my needs

· How much they know about their product and how it will help my business (linking their product/service to my specific needs)

· My perception of their enthusiasm and commitment

· How much confidence they build in me for them and their company

Each of these elements, no matter how big or small, will have some impact on the customer’s experience and therefore will in some way influence the purchasing decision.

The four concentric rings in the diagram represent the four stages of creating what an ‘Addictive Customer Experience’. That is the type of experience that when encountered makes the customer want it again and again.

Drawing the Customer Journey of Experience like this also makes it look like a bulls-eye. That’s intentional. The inner ring is where the Addictive Customer Experience is created so as with a bulls-eye, that’s the target area.

If we now look at this diagram, which shows one of the segments in the overall experience, we can consider in detail what the four stages are.

Stage 1 - Insatiable Curiosity - Understand Customer Needs

The base stage or foundation is where you understand the needs and expectations of your target customers. Think of this stage as ‘hearing voices’ - the voice of the customer, the voice of employees, the voice of suppliers, the voice of the market and the voice of the company owners. The goals should be to understand these voices and get closer to your customers than any competitor. This is done through constantly gathering feedback, in as many ways as you can, and ensuring that your people are encouraged to get and then stay as close to customers as possible.

Having done this you must decide what you will (and will not) build into your brand promises. If you make these choices intelligently, and sometimes bravely, you should create a mix of things that collectively will make you distinctive and create competitive advantage. When this stage is complete the customer reaction is likely to be one of interest. You will have something different, distinctive and focused on their needs, which should warrant more of their attention – but not much more.

Stage 2 – Absolute Reliability - Match Customer Needs

In this stage you deliver your brand promises with predictability and consistency that amazes your customers and outflanks your competitors. This is where you must create the principles and processes to ensure that you always match customer needs. The goal here is to deliver perfect service and it is where the techniques of Six Sigma will have their greatest application. When working, this stage will create customer satisfaction. Many people expect success here to create more than satisfaction but research confirms that just delivering what customers expected, or what you promised, will simply create satisfaction. (This research also shows that mere satisfaction rarely leads to loyalty – so more is needed.)

Stage 3 – Dazzling Spontaneity - Add Something Extra

This is the stage where you move on to surprise, dazzle and delight your customers with unexpected acts that consistently exceed their expectations. These things could be called +1s and WOWs – the little things that make big differences to customers.

The best ones are spontaneous and different every time. Many successful organizations have found ways to make these a key part of their ‘style’ of doing business. Service recovery techniques are also important here to ensure that any failures that do occur in Stage 2 don’t lead to customer dissatisfaction. This is the stage where satisfaction is turned into delight. It’s these unexpected little things that make all the difference. But they will only work when Stages 1 and 2 are in place first.

Stage 4 – Heart Felt Empathy - Do it with Emotion

In this final stage you demonstrate a closeness to, and an empathy with customers. If you do this right you will touch their emotions in ways that can lead to life-long loyalty. You do it by encouraging your people to bring their natural, human emotions into their work through the ways they interact with customers and each other. The goal is to let customers see and feel that you really care about each other, your products and services and the experiences they have when doing business with you.

If this is added to the preceding three stages, experience indicates that this is where customer addiction is created. Customers become ‘hooked’ on your level and style and never want to go anywhere else.

The challenges and opportunities of mapping and managing an effective Customer Journey of Experience are:

Improved Customer Value

• Providing customers with more for the same or less
• Building or improving customer relationships.
• Increasing customer satisfaction
• Reducing hassle for customers.
• Making things quicker for customers
• Make things more consistent and/or reliable for customers
• Design of product/service to fit all customer needs
• Generally creating a better customer experience

Improved Employee Value

• Improving employee knowledge or skill
• Enhancing employee career opportunities
• Building employee relationships
• Building employee pride
• Strengthening employee confidence
• Enhancing employee job satisfaction
• Making work generally more enjoyable

Improved Business Value

• Growing sales
• Improving profits
• Reducing wastage/eliminate “ no value added” operations
• Saving time
• Simplifying processes
• Reducing errors/variances
• Eliminating duplications
• Saving effort
• Improving supply assurance/incoming quality Increasing/conserving resources
• Enhancing business reputation - Generally being a better business and a better neighbor

WINNING IMPLEMENTATION TECHNIQUES

As with most things in business, your skill in implementation will be critical to your success. I’ll therefore end by mentioning a few things that I’ve learned are important to ensure the successful implementation of any Customer Experience Management or Six Sigma project.

Great leadership is an absolute requirement for success in any project. Leaders must lead by publicly affirming their commitment to and regularly confirming their support for the project goals.

Worthwhile goals are necessary to unite a workforce. Improvement projects must therefore be seen as focused on the things that will make employees proud of their work, their workplace and their results.

All employee involvement or at least most employee involvement is necessary to create a critical mass of committed people to carry the projects through any lean times.

Regular celebrations are essential to long-term success. You should always recognize and reward any progress towards a goal as fervently as the ultimate achievement of it.

Winning momentum must be created through a pace of improvement that will put you streaks ahead of your competitors and leave them demoralized and breathless attempting to keep up.