Customer Experience — Imagine. Experience. Analyze.

Imagine.

Imagining what customers are going through on a day to day basis will help us understand what they go through and identify any issues that need to be fixed.

For this article, let’s imagine…

Imagine if you were the customer and you felt like you were being tossed around the place.

Imagine if you were standing there requesting for service or a product but the employee was just staring at you like you were a corpse.

Imagine if you were repeating yourself, trying to be as calm as possible, but their reaction to you was — anger.

Imagine if you weren’t accommodated by the service team because they have a ‘rule’ (wherein their interpretation is totally off) that they strictly follow.

Now, the big question, what would (or should) happen next? As a customer, you’re always waiting to see what the business/company will do to fix the situation.

Experience.

What is your worst experience, as a customer?

I really hate how processes and delivery become such a routine that the delivery team doesn’t seem to “care” anymore about the customer’s experience.

You may not have experienced it yet, but others may be experiencing it at this very moment.

Imagine if you were sitting in a restaurant, your order was taken when they come back after 30 minutes only to say that your order will be delayed for another 10–15 minutes? And, that the reason is that they ran out of chicken so they need to thaw out more.

Now, any person would get annoyed and irritated because they’re there to eat! You’re hungry and can’t wait to get your fingers on that hot, juicy fried chicken that you’ve been craving for.

You’d be even more annoyed if 15 minutes went by and still, no chicken!

The worst thing about an experience like this is if the manager was aware of the situation but did nothing about it and the one attending to you just says “it’s coming” but it only comes when you’ve already finished all of your other food and you’re ready to go home.

If I were in a situation like this, I’d want to feel their generosity and kindness to help “fix” the situation. But then again, no one should expect anything in return, right?

We can only hope for a “fix” because there are businesses and companies who haven’t experienced it for themselves so, they don’t know how to remedy the situation.

This is a task that only a few are willing to take on, imagining, experiencing and analyzing.

The typical business/company doesn’t spend enough time doing these 3 things and, in return, they get negative feedback, backlashes on social media and etc.

If you’re reading this section already, you’re doing great. You are one step closer to understanding more about customer experience.

So far, I’ve had you imagine and I’ve given you experience. Now, the next section is all about analyzing, which is to always come last, in the 3 steps to understanding customer experience.

Analyze.

Not too many people are good at analyzing while others are so good at it that they’ll pick your brain to find out so much about you that you’ll be left embarrassed.

Once you’ve experienced something, you begin to imagine what could’ve been better, or what the service team shouldn’t have done.

We all imagine things on a daily basis. I imagine myself sitting on the beach facing the ocean on a cool summer evening.

You just imagined that, didn’t you?

So, if you’ve experienced something and you were able to imagine different scenarios and processes that could be put into place, you’re now ready to analyze the situation.

In order to make the customer service better, you need to analyze the processes that are currently in place, understand why they were put there, and how you can improve them.

The most common mistake is that leaders and business owners tend to do this in reverse. They analyze a situation that they have never imagined or experienced. You can have a ton of ideas but if you don’t experience the current process and user journey, you won’t be able to fully understand what’s going on in order to imagine how you can “fix” it.

I have said far too much already but here’s my point.

Imagine what could be better, go out and experience it for yourself, and then, analyze the process. Doing it this way will give you more to think about and consider what could really be ‘fixed’.

So, here are some questions to end this long, maybe nonsense, maybe ridiculous article…

• Was that good?
• Did I get you to start thinking?
• What is the most recent experience that you can’t get over?
• What would have you wanted to happen instead?
• How would you make the change and implement it?

By standing in a corner and just watching people's work will give you a clear vision of how others react and engage in an experience.

Be that person in the corner ready to give insights but never be the person who gives insights without considering all factors first.

Cheers, Wes