A few weeks ago I had a truly extraordinary customer experience. The Chris Tomlin Burning Lights Tour came to town. The concert was fabulous and we had a wonderful time! But, that wasn’t the extraordinary part. My story is actually about the process of getting tickets.
Wanting to surprise my husband, I went online to the Ticketmaster website in search of tickets.
- They make everything easy to do yourself online. But that wasn’t the extraordinary part.
- Having a question, I called customer service and spoke with a representative who was able to help me and ensure everything was taken care of. But that wasn’t the extraordinary part.
- The tickets were sent electronically, just as promised. But that wasn’t the extraordinary part.
- Then I received something in the mail from ticketmaster. Here it is…the extraordinary part.
The customer service representative had sent a handwritten note thanking me for my patronage and saying to have fun at the concert. Wow! That note was above and beyond anything I expected. Because of that experience I have an extremely favorable impression of Ticketmaster and I want to tell everyone I know about it. That doesn’t just happen.
So, how does an extraordinary experience happen? One place to start for your customer strategy is with creating a journey map of the customer experience. By investing time in understanding the path a customer takes, the people and functions they interact with along the way, and enablers and obstacles, a journey map will provide a complete picture of the customer experience. Insights from your customer feedback program will help you in this process. The next step is to identify the opportunities and changes needed to provide an extraordinary customer experience.
What are you waiting for? According to Kerry Bodine at Forrester Research, one prediction for 2013 is that emotional insights will take center stage. “The idea that happy customers are more likely to remain loyal, try new products and services, and spread good news about their experiences, has started to catch on.”
