Customers don’t care what you do. They only care what they are left with after you’ve done it. Do you notice the customer experience you receive at a business you frequently visit? With most customers, the answer is yes if the experience is bad. The extreme endpoint of the service experience. Occasionally, however, customers make note of a customer experience design that is just average. And average experiences won’t help your business, will they? So businesses should be continually looking to using customer satisfaction as creative marketing, yes?
For example, we often get questions and comments on delivering great customer service and experiences. From clients and customers commenting on our blog.
Many relate to customer service actions that are reminders of what we already know (but we occasionally forget). These are big enablers of customer service.
They usually won’t create Wow service on their own, but their absence is noted by customers and lowers excellent customer service to just good enough or less.
See this short video to illustrate how to improve customer satisfaction.
I often take note of the local company’s customer experience design and think about the changes I would make if I was in charge. My wife and I will visit our local Home Depot store and discuss our experiences. This blog is all about a discussion we had after a recent visit.
See our article on the Random Acts of Kindness for Customer Experience Improvements
For instance, what are the ways this Home Depot was just average in its customer experience design? Consider Home Depot’s explicit operations and design:
Using customer satisfaction … saving time
One of the most important needs of most customers is time … no one ever has enough and if you are a customer like me, you hate waiting for service in anything. There two big-time wasters at the Home Depot.
The first is trying to find what you are looking for. This is almost always an issue for us. Usually when we ask directions we get a prompt answer to an aisle, which certainly shortens the search, but not enough in our mind.
The second is trying to find someone to help you. That also includes someone who can handle 90% of the answers. That rarely happens on the first try.
Show value
In their store, as well as on their website, you can never find product value statements or recommendations. If you want recommendations on the best value you must ask.
And when you do you rarely get a convincing answer. No real unique selling points were obvious for the store as a whole, at least that was obvious to us.
Using customer satisfaction … store to web site integration
I visit both Home Depots and Lowes quite often and use their website even more frequently. In all those visits, I have been shown a terminal where a clerk actually used it to answer my question.
My bet is that there only 2-3 computers in the entire store where a customer clerk could look online to get information and answers on products. And service for products is even a bigger issue. An area where small changes could provide big improvements
Customer satisfaction examples … customer education
Home Depot does a decent job in educating their Do-It-Yourself customers. This is most often achieved by adding a learning center in both the store and online.
The online service is still better than average, but again, they could do a lot more by integrating online and in-store customer education. Many of the employees are just clerks and know very little about products and do it yourself activities.
Customer experience variation
Have you ever walked a large retail store and noticed how one area is outstanding while another is barely holding its own? This is always what we notice at this Home Depot.
And if one area or department can have a great customer experience, why can’t they all? The simple answer is they can and should.
Using customer satisfaction … employee knowledge
Not all employees will be the superstar, will they? But you really notice when they are not motivated to try and be great. Give me an employee that really cares and I can build the superstar in short order.
And so should Home Depot. The trick is hiring employees that are motivated by working with customers.
Importance of customer satisfaction … stand tall on customer issues
Being a customer advocate is often tough for many businesses. Many companies will overcome this by defining a customer bill of rights and displaying in the store and online.
No way to not follow these as they are predominantly displayed. This would be very useful for Home Depot.
Build trust
When you save your customer time, deliver quality service, stand tall on customer issues, and always show your value, you definitely build trust.
And trust is the basis of great customer relationships and follow-on business. A definite win-win. Lots of additional ways Home Depot could improve their performance in this critical area.
Looking for customer feedback
Have you ever seen a suggestion box at a Home Depot? We haven’t, and there have been occasions when we have looked. How about an employee wearing a badge asking for your inputs or suggestions?
Does Home Depot just not care? They care, but not that much, do they?
Immerse customers in brand
At many brands, you can’t look in any direction without seeing the branding all around. In the store or online. It works to surround you with the customer experience at every moment.
And we are not talking about hammering you with sales slogans.
Related post: Building a Customer Experience Strategy for Business Success
This type of customer experience design certainly shows the business appreciate the importance of customer experience, doesn’t it? It’s a culture they seem proud to stand behind.
Companies that are proactively managing all elements of their customer experiences are most successful in achieving customer loyalty.
Here’s the thing, social isn’t just a new way of marketing, it’s really a new way of running a business. Many small businesses certainly have figured this out and are using social marketing and improved customer experience to rapidly grow their business.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative, social marketing and customer experience efforts. Lessons are all around you.
In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
The bottom line
It’s always good practice to meet customers’ expectations and ensure they are satisfied and happy with your business — but if your strategy ends there, you’re missing out on all the value you can drive back into your business.
Make an effort to leverage that superior customer experience into new and repeat business, and pretty soon, you’ll reap all the rewards of satisfied, long-term customers.