Customer experience professionals have one goal in common. Improve or create the best possible experience. There is no such thing as a magical perfect experience. There is always room for improvement. The hunt for the perfect experience is like the hunt for the Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot. It could be out there and we’ll never stop looking. However, we know it isn’t likely that we’ll catch it.
While perfect isn’t possible, improvement is. Time and effort are spent refining, revamping and upgrading for any number of reasons. Customers deserve better experiences. Organizations see the value of making interactions seamless and easy. Revenue could rise. Satisfaction could increase. Expenses could decrease. Improving on customer experience is the right thing to do. Customers appreciate and want improvement.
The efforts spent on improvement have a dark side. Customers resist change. People don’t like learning new routines or new tools. What was used yesterday worked. It worked well. A change could have an impact on your bottom line. Revenue could decrease. Satisfaction could diminish. Expenses could increase. Customers don’t like change.
People make decisions emotionally. Not based on facts, figures and numbers. Logic and common sense are overruled by emotion.
Can existing experiences improve while appeasing emotional reactions?
Let’s examine an example. A local cable provider changed the user interface for browsing, recording and navigating channels. People watch four hours of TV daily (US & Canada), 16% of their day. Any change could be a big deal. Recalling the mindset of most customers, “I like what I have today, I know how to use it”.
The new user interface makes life easier. Moves frequently used functions up on the menu. Design changes make the experience more graphical. Benefits to user overall.
To prepare for the change, user help guides were posted in the online community. FAQs were added, helping to ease the transition. Videos were posted on social media sites. These are good however, they are all reactionary measures. If a customer needs help they leverage these channels for assistance. Proactive measures would notify customers before hand. Notifications in the mail, on billing statements, or on the existing menu.
As professional customer experience leaders, we are accountable to dig deeper. Addressing the emotional reactions prior to making change is our obligation. Even when the change is for the right reasons considering the “Human Factor” is critical. Humans make decisions based on their emotions.
Before making a Customer Experience change consider these five questions.
1. What habits or patterns have we created that will need to be altered?
2. What is the greatest amount of time I can give customers to adjust to the upcoming change?
3. How will we proactively condition customers to the upcoming change?
4. How will we proactively communicate the reasons for the change?
5. How can I make it easier for customers to get reactive help when we roll out the change?
