Yes, I’m serious with that title. The reality is, your customer experience probably does, indeed, suck right now.
That’s a bold assumption and statement for me to make, but when you ask yourself the following questions, you’ll start to see why I make such an inference:
All of the above equates to the overall customer experience, and I can say with a great deal of confidence that if you’re reading this you are experiencing a pain point around at least one of those questions.
But the good news is, you can fix it.
Let me introduce you to Service Design.
IDEO describes service design as the craft of tying together the human, the digital, and the physical interactions to create a truly differentiated experience for your customers.
In simple terms:
THE HUMAN – is your brand and how people experience it.
THE DIGITAL – is your website, product, or mobile application.
THE PHYSICAL – is your interactions with customers, in person, by phone, and by email.
In an increasingly competitive marketplace, customers have the upperhand these days. As a result, they expect their needs and desires to be met instantly and consistently – anywhere and anytime. They want to see themselves in the brands they support – in the brand story, the content, the website, and the products themselves. Every aspect of your brand should seek to resonate with your customers on a personal level, and exceed their expectations by providing an exceptional customer experience across all channels.
Companies who can understand the world of their customer, adapt to their needs, and design specifically for their benefit, can gain a competitive advantage that wins hearts and business by delivering amazing customer experiences.
So how, exactly, do you do this?
I meet with a never-ending number of clients who understand the importance of aligning all of the experiences I noted above. They know that as a design consultancy Studio Science can assist them in ensuring alignment between the brand, product, and service experiences.
But what I see over and over again is that the same client stakeholder I work with often doesn’t have control over the budget for each individual area of their business. Instead, the company does what most do: it operates in silos. So while they may know what needs to get done in order to achieve the total desired experience across all channels, they don’t have the autonomy or ability to do it.
Herein lies the most common problem I see in business today: no one individual in an organization has the sole responsibility for holistically thinking about the experience they are providing.
A New Year’s resolution that actually matters
As you look for ways to differentiate your organization from your competition, make 2023 the year that you align and empower internal teams to deliver better experiences. Encourage your organization to think holistically about aligning the human, the digital, and the physical experiences, by advocating for budgets that can make improvements to all areas of the business.
Be the internal champion for Service Design.
This is the year you can make your customer experience suck a little (or a lot) less.
