Following a recent visit to Disney World to do customer experience observations, I was greeted by a seemingly logical question from a colleague: “Oh … did you attend a conference there?” The answer was, no, I spent a week there as a guest, observing how things work, talking to other guests, asking questions of the cast, taking pictures, and generally ‘soaking’ in their world. In other words, I intentionally took the path of direct experience over learning secondhand. Needless to say, after a week I had new insights into what it takes to provide great customer service that already are reflected back into my work.
Something about the question seemed out of place, and it later hit me. Doing great customer experience is hard, and many have found it difficult to ‘move the needle’ in their organizations. Is it possible that a reason is not spending enough time experiencing great customer experience, or at least hearing firsthand from customers about their dreams of a better way?
So I wondered … does it matter? For example, if you work in the consumer world, do you do home visits to get direct feedback, or do you rely on surveys and focus groups? Should a health insurance plan executive meet with individual members and providers when designing their plans and customer service experience? Should builders of I.T solutions consult intended end users face-to-face and have them describe their hopes and dreams for how to interact with devices, applications, and systems in the real world? And what value is created – and waste avoided — by taking what could be called the ‘experience perspective’ and having the discipline to insist that it be fairly reflected in services and products? How can we sure that we are designing great customer experiences if not immersed in them all the time — from inspiration to design to implementation to measurement — even if it means looking outside our organizations and conventional thinking?
