‘Customer Experience’ – is it complicated?
According to ACSI, a research group based in University of Michigan that measures satisfaction quarterly, the airline industry is one of the lowest scoring industries in Q3 2008. (Others include cable/satellite and newspaper industries).
There are many expert opinions on what customer experience means to the airline industry (or any other industry, for that matter). It is a prevalent belief that ‘commoditizing’ industries, like airlines, cannot create a unique and lasting customer experience. Another industry myth that floats around is that customer ‘satisfaction’ and ‘loyalty’ automatically lead to enhanced customer experiences. In other words, a frequent flier is a loyal customer is a “woo”ed customer. I also feel that experts today have started talking less about the ‘customer’; it’s more and more about the company’s service levels vis-à-vis the competition and the playing field. Best practices and best-in-class processes are free flowing and the inevitable ‘360 degree view of the customer’ is used everywhere.
This recent trend disturbs me (I am keen to know what you think about it). To me, a best-in-class customer strategy is about ‘customer experience’. It is not about satisfaction, loyalty, wealth of information, 360 degree view etc. It is about a 360 degree view FOR the customer.
Let me elaborate on this point with an example for the US airlines industry. My pre-travel planning and shopping for a ticket is an important starting point in my in-flight experience. Another important pre-travel portion is my travel to the airport (by cab or car), waiting time at the security checkpoint etc. Yes, the airline will have minimal to zero control on this process but I strongly believe that my flying experience is influenced nevertheless. Disney, a clear leader in the customer experience space, sees it precisely this way. The Disney experience is not restricted to the theme parks but covers every aspect of the guest’s stay in the area. Their oft-quoted ‘Magical Express’ initiative provides complimentary round trip transportation from the airport to your hotel. In fact, with some assistance from (guess what?) the airlines(!), the luggage lands in your hotel room. No longer is my trip a hassle but infact it ends up being a magical experience.
I am not saying that airlines can influence the guest’s process the way Disney can, but the industry can definitely think in this dimension while attempting customer experience improvements.
Another important dimension is that how you deliver ‘customer experience’ is in your company culture. Ask Nordstrom employees. There is a huge focus on customer experience and it has been this way (The Nordstrom Way) for the past 100 plus years. There are many amazing stories from Nordstrom on how the process was looked at from the customer’s perspective. Like other companies, Nordstrom will face macro recessionary slumps but will continue in profit mode and grow in strength in the future.
Now, coming to the all-important question. How relevant is your customer experience initiative to the profitability and longevity of your organization?
From successful customer experience organizations, we can tell that customer lifetime value has a strong correlation to shareholder value of a corporation. Measuring and quantifying customer experience vs profitability is not prevalent in current CRM initiatives. The role that predictive models and CRM analytics will have to play here in the future is enormous.
In the near term, if you are revamping your CRM technology initiative, look at the number of customer-relevant data fields that are available in your customer information construct. Specifically, data fields that thrill and add value to the customer (this concept is what I referred to earlier as 360 FOR the customer). Maybe, their likes/dislikes about your product/service, ideas on how their experience can be enhanced can all be captured in a few customer-centric data fields. Take that data and use it to enrich your customer experience. As a next step, link this to MDM as a means of consolidating customer information from multiple toiuchpoints and deliver it to your operational and analytics apps.
Try it out and let me know how it goes. I can assure you, if this trend picks up, not only will we have a perfect flying experience five years from now but the airline industry will have some good success stories to share!
