Admit it: You worry.
You worry that the new teller who just said “oops” when they mistakenly transferred your money from the wrong account will still get it wrong despite reassuring you it is now correctly transacted. You quietly shake your head as you walk to your car, noting to not go to that teller again.
You worry that the service rep, the 5th service rep with whom you are now speaking, has no idea how long you have been trying to get someone to give you a sense that your problem is understood and that they are authorized to help you.
You worry, that there is a minefield somewhere ahead, as the very enthusiastic people who just sold you a Nook e-reader, can’t actually answer any technical questions, and the nice young guy in the back of the store who can answer your questions tells you that the technical people in Corporate really don’t know what they are doing either: “it’s hit or miss whether you get a helpful response from them”.
These aren’t random, isolated incidents; these are examples of customer experience going in the wrong direction. These seemingly small incidents create a level of anxiety that shakes brand confidence in service representatives, in companies, and even across entire industries.
Haven’t you noticed that with certain providers you worry something is bound to go wrong no matter how much the assure you, but for other providers you never worry: they say what they will do and do what they say.
So it is time to initiate a “Worry Index” within customer feedback surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Time to find out how much your company creates that added bit of anxiety for customers.
Ask your customers:
1. How often have you been worried we will not execute as expected when you have ordered a product or requested service from us?
2. If you have ever received a message from us clarifying an order, did you worry that your order would still not be processed as you had originally expected?
3. How often do you feel confident that our company and its employees will meet or exceed your expectations?
Response to the first statement, ideally, should be ‘never‘.
Response to the second statement should be ‘no‘.
Response to the third statement, ideally, should be ‘always‘.
And if responses indicate that your customers are worried, you now have the opportunity to probe for the reasons behind their concern. Clarity of communication, an explicit plan to follow through on commitments, personalization of messaging in emails, and clear ownership for getting the order correct — absence of any of these can increase the anxiety of customers, over time leading to a lower score on the Worry Index.
Wouldn’t you like to know what leads your customers to worry about the delivery of the goods and services you provide to them?
What would you ask customers if you wanted to assess their ‘Worry Index”?
BestCustomerConnection, by Marc Sokol
