When Does the Customer Experience Begin?

September 4, 2012

In your CX journey, have you given much thought to the customer lifecycle? When does it actually begin? Do you think the relationship between customer and company begins when a customer makes a purchase?

This is an important consideration. You must understand when that relationship between customer and company begins.

Let’s take a look at the popular 1958 McGraw-Hill ad, “Man in the Chair.” The ad (left) depicts a grumpy-looking man (“your customer”), hands clasped, scowl on face, sitting in a chair. With that look, he might as well be pointing and shaking his finger at you while uttering the words that surround him:

I don’t know who you are.
I don’t know your company.
I don’t know your company’s product.
I don’t know what your company stands for.
I don’t know your company’s customers.
I don’t know your company’s record.
I don’t know your company’s reputation.
Now…What was it that you wanted to sell me?

Moral: Sales start before your salesman calls – with business publication advertising.

These are profound words to read, digest, and remember. The customer’s experience doesn’t start when the salesperson comes calling or when your customer first purchases your product. The customer experience begins long before that, when the customer realizes he has a need. By the time you try to sell something to him, it’s too late.

If you take a look at the customer experience lifecycle that I depicted in a previous post, you’ll see that the lifecycle begins when the Need arises. That Need begets Awareness (sometimes it comes after Awareness). If you’re communicating, if you’re getting the word out (through messaging and through actions) about who your company is, what your products do, how your services differ, what value you bring, what needs you meet or problems you solve, and, most importantly, what you stand for, your customers will never recite the words from the Man in the Chair.

I think a simple, yet important, lesson here is that companies should always be doing the right thing, regardless of the time, the place, the person, or the situation. They should always be putting their customers first and their employees more first. When you take care of your customers and your employees, it shows, and people take notice. Those people may be non-customers who have yet to identify, or have just realized, a need.

When companies act with integrity always, good things happen. The brand then speaks for itself – and your customers might even speak for you. And the Man in the Chair knows who you are when you come calling.

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is looking.”

Republished with author's permission from original post.

When Does the Customer Experience Begin?

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ADD YOUR COMMENT Please use comments to add value to the discussion. Maximum one link to an educational blog post or article. We will NOT PUBLISH brief comments like "good post," comments that mainly promote links, or comments with links to companies, products, or services.

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Please use comments to add value to the discussion. Maximum one link to an educational blog post or article. We will NOT PUBLISH brief comments like "good post," comments that mainly promote links, or comments with links to companies, products, or services.