Do you delight your customers?

We believe in Customer Delight. That’s the Advocacy box. Maximize the outcome AND the experience!! Think about what you get back when you have advocates.

Most organizations set the bar at Customer Satisfaction. That’s the center box. They are at risk because someone will come along and deliver a better outcome … or experience … or both … and the customer leaves.  One study says that only 4% of customers will tell you that they are leaving and why. That means you’ll find out by accident (if at all) with 96% of them. Often that happens because the customer doesn’t know it can be better until they experience it.

There are studies that talk about how many people share a positive experience when they are delighted and how many share a negative experience (they can call it Customer Rage) when they get that.  Obviously, you don’t need a study now – use Yelp, “X/Y/Z haters” sites, or other internet sources.

We use this model to do assessments of where the “supplier” thinks their customer is (simply by placing a dot in the appropriate box and location within the box) … then … have the customer do the same (without seeing/knowing the supplier’s score).  Compare them.  If they are pretty close, then great … the supplier knows his/her customer well. If they are moderately or greater different, there should be a conversation on why and how to move toward delight/advocacy.  That conversation really matters. We try to make measurement simple.

 As an aside, you can use this same model for Employees (Employee Delight) and for Volunteers (Volunteer Delight). We have examples for both.

ACTION ITEM:

Choose a couple of customers and complete the exercise above. Start out with a known and trusted customer … then move to one where you’re not really sure where you stand. After the scoring, have a discussion about specific likes and areas to improve. Consider implementing policies to improve or sustain areas that keep you from getting advocates. 

Customer Delight is a real differentiator. Call us for more ways to use this approach.