• Ever been left with a bitter taste in your mouth despite receiving a great product?
• Ever felt the anxiety build as a supplier provides you with a steady stream of reasons to be worried about your order?
• Ever been left on hold for 5 minutes just to learn that the person able to answer your question is out?

We are all customers and we know what we hate. But do we know what it is like to be our own customer?

A great product isn’t good enough if the effort needed to obtain that product is painful. A great service will disappoint if even more was expected. A question without a quick, complete answer will send a customer looking elsewhere. What are your customers experiencing? 

Every touch counts. Think about all the interactions between you and your customer or potential customer. Think about the very first contact and everything that follows. You and your employees may tend to focus on a few main interactions, e.g., delivery, but your customer’s experience is the sum total of every touch. You know this from your own personal experience. You know that an inability to get answers to your questions drives you crazy. You know that not knowing what to expect leaves you anxious. You know that five minutes on hold just to find out the person you need to speak with is out of the shop is grounds for doing business elsewhere. How well are you handling each touch? Are your customers impressed every time they have contact with your company?

Every touch counts and you can make improvements one touch at a time.

Identify the Touches
To really understand the customer’s experience, you must look at each of the existing interactions. Enumerate the contact points from the first inquiry right through follow-up contact, warranty, parts replacement, and more. Keep in mind that the first touch is most likely long before you are aware that a specific customer exists. The potential customer has a problem and may be starting at the very beginning trying to investigate options, costs and risks. The first touch, unbeknownst to you, affects the customer’s ability to find you and know that you can solve their problem.

Get Data
Once you have identified the touch points, the second step is to determine the quality of customer interactions at each. In some cases, the quality may be obviously poor once you look at it. However, it is best not to make assumptions. Get real data. Ask your customers. Shop your own shop. Have an acquaintance place an order or make an inquiry and report back on the experience. Make an effort to look at each touch point from the customer’s perspective. What is their need? Their frustration? Their expectation? Check out your competition. What are they doing to provide excellent service?

Rate Each Touch
Once you have some real data about your customer’s experience, rate each touch point using one of four categories:

• Harmful– Downright poor; customers are left feeling disappointed, frustrated and eager for an alternative; you are driving away business; this requires immediate attention
• Neutral – Not bad, but not particularly good either; probably similar to much of the competition
• Helpful – Clearly above the competition; leaves the customer quite pleased; good enough until the competition catches up
• Winning – Head and shoulders above the competition; gets people talking

Every Touch Point is an Opportunity for Improvement
If you have identified any touch points as harmful, fix those first. Avoid the trap of blaming your short-comings on a few ‘bad’ customers. Every touch point needs to be at least as good as the competition.

To stand out, examine the customer’s perspective carefully. How easy are you to reach? Are you responsive to their requests? Do you understand their needs? How are you affecting their expectations? Do you keep your promises? Are you providing them with valuable information? Do you truly care?

To be winning, you must innovate. You must look at the customer’s situation differently and provide a new level of value.

Time Erodes
Customers expect more over time, particularly as they are exposed to innovations all around them. If you are outstanding today, you will just be competitive tomorrow. Nothing remains cutting edge forever. To attract and retain customers, you must repeatedly assess the quality of every interaction. The key is in understanding the customer’s situation and finding great ways to meet their needs and exceed their expectations.

Remember that every touch counts. End-to-end – probably starting sooner than you think. And don’t forget about the touches that are currently missing.