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Three Keys to Delivering Great Customer Experiences

The “rule of three” is a writing principle that suggests that a grouping of three things such as events or characters is more humorous, satisfying, or effective than other groupings. Sets of three are also more memorable as our capacity for attention and memory of a simple story wanes beyond this point. Storytellers as well as comedians use the principle to set the stage, build tension or anticipation, and then deliver the close or punchline. Strong presenters and consultants use a version to “tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them.”


The rule of three also applies to the three keys of delivering great customer experiences, and they can be summarized as:

  1. Success

  2. Effort

  3. Emotion

1. Success

Customers don’t do business with you just because they like you. They do business with you because they believe your products, services, or digital and physical experiences solve a problem or need. And if your products or services successfully solve their problem or serve their needs and wants, they will return.

This idea of fulfilling “jobs to be done” was created as a product development framework by Tony Ullwick in his 1991 book Jobs to Be Done: Theory to Practice. It was advanced by famed Harvard professor, the father of “disruptive innovation,” Clayton Christenson in his 2003 book The Innovator’s Solution.


While the jobs to be done theory was largely developed for product development or innovation purposes, it is also heavily used in the customer experience arena because ultimately customers, whether B2C or B2B, are buying your company’s products and services to solve their need. And they will switch products if their needs change and the products or services don’t change with them or they find a different product or service that better meets their need (or, better yet, multiple needs). So success in meeting customer needs and solving their issues is step 1 in creating a repeat customer.


Effort

The second key to a great customer experience and repeat customers is minimizing the amount of effort it takes customers to do business with you or to use your products and services. Simply put, how easy is it to do business with you? In a previous article, I talked about creating habit or inertia in customer buying behavior by removing as much friction as possible in the customer experience.


I love this cartoon of app or digital product design because it explicitly makes the point about the amount of customer effort needed to do business with certain companies.


Compare your own company’s processes or digital experiences against best-in-class experiences from your competitive benchmarking efforts or reputable third-party benchmarks. Remember that customer expectations are created across all of their experiences, so simply being better than your direct competitor is insufficient. A disruptive alternative will enter your market if ease of doing business is an issue across the industry.


Emotion

The final key to a great customer experience is how interacting with your company’s people, products, and services makes people feel. I often write about how building an emotional connection with a customer is the truest path to loyalty.


As you work with your product, service, and experience design teams, including the digital teams, as well as operations or your service delivery and professional services teams, ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Success: What is the customer problem or need that our products or services are solving?

  2. Effort: Have we minimized the amount of effort it takes customers to buy and use our products and services?

  3. Emotion: How does interacting with our company’s people, products, and services make customers feel?

Delivering products, services, and experiences that easily and quickly solve customer needs or wants and leaves them feeling good about themselves and the company are the keys to true long-term loyalty.


This article was first published in my LinkedIn newsletter, Transformational CX. Subscribe to this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericsmuda/


To discuss how I can help your company, please contact me at: eric.smuda@outlook.com

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Eric Smuda

CX Industry Leader | Chief Customer Officer | VOC & NPS Champion | C-Suite & Board Advisor

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