What Does Customer Delight Mean Anyway?
07.25.2010 | Chris Bailey | Focused on Customer Experience
Anyone know what it means to “delight” customers? Or what it takes to exceed their expectations? Is it even worth the effort? These are some questions raised in the latest Harvard Business Review article, Stop Trying To Delight Your Customers (or read Anne Miner’s synopsis Should you stop trying to “exceed customer expectations”?).
I once served under a VP of Services who wanted to dramatically improve customer service so he made it a benchmark to “delight” our customers. When asked how we’d be improving our service operations, he replied it was in the works. Then when pressed to actually give some idea of what a “delight” benchmark meant and how it was going to be measured, he quickly found a way to change the subject. Before long, delighting customers became just another meaningless buzzword for the Services department.
Don’t let this happen to your organization.
First and foremost, get your basics up to grade. That means committing to excellence at customer service fundamentals – like responsiveness, internal teamwork, accountability, plans and metrics…to name a few – before graduating to delighting your customers. It’s that whole crawl before you can sprint kind of thing. If your basic customer service structures and systems stink, no amount of delightfulness is going to mask the stench.
Service is just one facet of the whole customer experience. Even if the customer service experience goes from baseline to phenomenal, what if your company’s products or services remains blah? What if there are chronic issues with shipping? What if marketing’s promises turn out to be undeliverable half-truths? The point is that investing financial and people resources into creating stellar customer service just through channels like phone, web, Twitter, and self-service is a waste if the rest of the enterprise doesn’t match up.
Finally, I must admit I hate the word delight. Have you, as a customer, been on the receiving end of a customer service rep asking, “Have I delighted you today?” or “What more can I do to delight you?” It’s practically impossible for the use of “delight” to not sound condescending to the customer. And when it comes to building relationships with customers, communication and language matter.
Rather than saying, “Every business must delight (or astonish or thrill or enchant) its customers!” it’s more important to take care of the basics FIRST. Instead of proclaiming fuzzy, high-minded (while no doubt well-intended) initiatives, place initial priority on a steady dedication to practice, reflection, and continuous improvement. Your customers will love you for it.
photo credit: Metro Transportation Library and Archive (via flickr)
4 Responses to “What Does Customer Delight Mean Anyway?”
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Chris,
You raise a bunch of good points.
I'm also not a huge fan of the word delight, but I love the concept of surprise. Doing those 'little unexpected extras' goes a long way towards exceeding expectations and making an OK experience into a great one.
As much as I like surprise, I loathe the concept of a 'WOW' experience. WOW to me is inconsistent, over the top and forced. I prefer the little consistent things that add value. It's what I like to call 'branded acts of kindness'. Do it correctly and you build loyalty, reduce attrition and generate positive word of mouth / mouse.
Best,
Stan
@9inchmarketing
'The average distance between the brain and heart of your customer is 9 inches. How are you bridging that gap?'
My recent post Lady Gaga knows the little extras are important for the little monsters
Thanks, Stan. I'm not at all against those unexpected surprises, particularly if the surprises extend the experience encounter (I believe you've made great argument for this in your work). What I've seen far too often is an impatience to jump into adding all the bells and whistles before doing the necessary work of creating better customer service systems. It's about executing on the small things consistently.
Some great points raised there Chris! I'm with you – it's not about 'gimmicks' or 'have a nice day' falseness. I think 'Customer Delight' is about 'exceeding customer expecations' and it's critical that businesses recognise that 'before you go for 'delight', you've got to get the basics right!' ____Simple stuff I know, but I think a great question to start with to get thinking about this is 'How easy are we to buy from and deal with?' What's even better is if businesses ask their customers this question, listen to their responses and then do something about it!
Cheers
Andy Hanselman
My recent post Now Listen Here!
Thanks Andy and welcome. Your advice to *ask the customer* is spot-on. I have another post in the works that addresses this very concept. So simple (and seemingly obvious), yet it often represents a path not taken by businesses today.
I'm often reminded of something learned from my training as a coach: We can't exceed expectations if we don't even know what those expectations are. Asking, listening and taking action are essential.