Great CX doesn’t have to mean getting everything right all of the time

Yes of course it certainly helps, and I have always noted that consistency is key, and it still is. But we are all fallible, things will and do go wrong. It is how we deal with them that counts and determines a great customer experience or otherwise.

I had the perfect first-hand experience of this the other day, while waiting to pick up my click and collect order - yes this happened during stage 4 lock down!

I turned up and parked outside in the allotted spot, and gave my name to the waiting attendant. But they got my order wrong, and over the next 30 minutes I waited and watched as car after car came and went. Sounds awful doesn’t it?  Well yes, it wasn’t ideal, but also during that 30 minute wait, the attendant came over to me no less than 3 times, apologised and told me exactly what was going on and what they were doing.

I actually quite enjoyed the wait; it was nice to get out the house. But more than that, by being told what was happening and what they were doing, I always felt like I was being looked after and that they were doing their best. I’ll be back.

So yes, consistency is key, but so also is keeping customers informed. We can’t always get everything right, but if we deal with it in the right way, then it doesn’t have to mean a bad customer experience.

Detractors or Ambivalents?

I’ve done a lot of work with NPS (too much some would say), across a lot of sectors, and I’ve read a lot of verbatim feedback. One notion that consistently holds true is that not all of those who give a 0-6 score are detractors. Now this might sound obvious, but how many presentations have you sat in where the pain points and drivers of detraction are presented as results from all of those giving a 0-6?

Unfortunately, tagging them all as Detractors, has led to a general perception that they are all the same.

So, who are the Detractors?  Well it is not the 5 & 6’s and it is not even always the 0’s.In reality, those who give a 5 or a 6 are the ‘true’ Passives. Very rarely do I read verbatim feedback from a 5 or 6 that expresses a strong pain point or negative feedback, most are simply ambivalent and just haven’t been given any reasons to score higher or lower.

And how many times do we read feedback from those who have given a 0, simply stating that they do not make recommendations. Other 0’s I hate to say it are simply the ‘grumpy old men’, who simply won’t give a higher score regardless of what you do.

If you really want to isolate the Detractors and understand the pain points and frustrations that you can remedy, you need to focus on those who give a 1-4. A score in this region is generally more thought out, it is not simply in the middle (5-6), or a 0 for the sake of it. They have thought about the score and marked you down for a reason.  This is where I have found the richest feedback.

Absolutely you need to keep the grouping to calculate NPS, but if you are not breaking this segment down further in your analysis, then you are not going to truly understand what drives detraction.

Good and Bad profits during COVID-19

Working in Customer Experience research, I often take note of great and poor examples as I experience them. It helps me do my job better. Here is my latest in relation to the concept of good and bad profits.

My family and I were due to fly to the US in July, a long anticipated trip for which we’d booked flights a fair while back. As COVID-19 took hold, the realisation slowly dawned on us that we would not be going.

Now I won’t name the airline, I think they were all behaving in the same way anyway, which in itself does to some extent nullify the impact of accumulating bad profits.

On the face of it, the offer of ‘travel vouchers’ is fair and just. It certainly abides by the ACCC guidelines. However, when you dig deeper, this ‘kind offer’ is designed to lock you in with no ability to gain a refund later having accepted the vouchers. This cloak and dagger approach certainly leaves a bitter taste, and from what I have heard, does not endear anyone to the airline, particularly those who took the offer.

Now I fully understand the commercial aspects of why this was and is being done, but it does still represent bad profits. Yes, it secures the revenue now, but what about in 5 years’ time.

Now the good profits! Our particular airline, albeit perhaps with their hand forced, has now cancelled flights well ahead of schedule rather than wait for 7 days before departure in trying to force you to take the vouchers. This allows refunds to be taken. As I waited on the phone for the refund to be processed, I felt good about the airline, they were putting customers first. Yes, they won’t get my money now, but most likely will when we rebook our trip next year or the year after.

Building good profits can be hard, but it secures the long term future not just the now.