What is customer experience? That’s a question many people are still trying to answer. It’s easy to get confused and overwhelmed by the various definitions floating around the web. While many have tried to capture the entire subject in one confusing run-on sentence, I like to keep things simple. That’s why I’ve always preferred Bruce Temkin’s customer experience definition:
The perception that customers have of their interactions with an organization.
The other reason I prefer that definition is because it focuses on what I believe is the most important component of customer experience: Perception.
The Perception Baseline and Customer Experience
In order to understand the impact on customer experience from what I’m calling the Perception Baseline, we should take a look at a simple example of a customer experience. I’m using a recent Apple store experience for my example.
In this graphic, you can see all of the different touchpoints that occurred during my experience. It starts with the entry into the store and moves clockwise all the way to post-purchase support. This, for me, made up one experience with different points of contact that I can clearly remember. Each of them had different durations, emotions, and interactions.
Now, let’s take that experience and flatten it out.
Each touchpoint now has a corresponding rise or decline in my impression of the interaction. Positive interactions create an increase in the overall customer experience, while negative interactions have the adverse effect.
Note that all interactions are different and not all of them are necessarily positive. However, the sum of my interactions created a positive customer experience. This has altered my overall perception of the brand and has created a new starting point for my next experience.
It has heightened my Perception Baseline.
Now let’s look at a series of customer experiences.
As you can see, each experience has an effect on the starting point for the next.
The starting point is our Perception Baseline.
My various experiences with Apple have changed my viewpoint of the brand. Not all of my experiences have been positive, but when viewed as a collective series, you can see that the momentum of each has raised my overall perception. My loyalty to the brand has changed, as have my expectations of future interactions.
Why Does This Matter?
It matters because we need to sell to survive and prosper. It’s much easier and less expensive to sell to an existing customer than to acquire a new one. I haven’t put all of my ideas to paper yet, but I believe that momentum is incredibly important to customer experience and thus additional, repeat sales to customers.
With emotions constantly changing in our what have you done for me lately culture, it would seem that the baseline for that feeling is extremely influential in our buying decisions.
What I know is that my expectation, my perception of what I’m about to experience, when walking towards an Apple store is completely different than when I walk into a Sony store. That’s because of the series of experiences I’ve had with each. My memories of each interaction have altered my perception and my likelihood to purchase additional products.
It also means that I’m more likely to forgive and forget a minor issue for one brand, while chastising another. I have yet to write a post on the absurd phone service Apple offers through AT&T (it may be coming), but I was quick to ridicule The Gap when they failed to provide a consistent experience across channels.
If customer experience is all about perception, then what should we really be managing?
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Tim:
This is a great post. I also use the Bruce Temkin definition of customer experience at my firm as I educate/evangelize those around me. Perceptions that are formed, at the end of the day, are what we as service providers are judged by and there is no doubt they are tough to manage. Many things about the customer experience are in “our” control when we interact with customers, but there are others that are not. To take a retail example, my bad mood that started in the parking lot due to a rude driver comes into the store with me. So my baseline on that day is affected not only by my expectations of the brand/store I formed previously but also what's going on around me that day. That raises the stakes in each interaction – making awareness, empathy, and ensuring that our “Sunday Best” is on every day so important in those who engage with our customers in each interaction point.
I agree with your point regarding “forgiveness” of minor issues more quickly with those brands I have a favorable perception of. I also wonder whether if a customer's baseline sets the bar high does it put us at risk for greater service-level sensitivity in customers and higher chances of disappointing them. When there's a negative situation in the Apple Store for instance where the customer thinks “I'd expect that from The Gap but not Apple,” does their baseline reset a little lower for next time making it easier to delight them (because deep down they do want to keep liking us), or do we have to be sure to perform far better in the next interaction just to get back to even par with them (and then not drop the ball again)? Not sure there's an easy answer to this, and it probably differs by customer, but it runs through my head each time I challenge those around me to do things that set the bar high for the next time.
- Aimee
Tim – Nice post and the part that really resonated with me: “As you can see, each experience has an effect on the starting point for the next.” Customer experience is really about the relationship between company and customer. So just like any relationship, there is a give/take. We expect to get as much as we give or more. If we feel we are giving too much (money/time/effort) then we feel cheated and carry that baggage around. Think of the last family reunion you attended – cousin Jimmy was mad at Cousin Ellie because of something that happened last month, last year, or 10 years ago. So Ellie has a chance of getting back into his good graces, but is starting from a negative position. Same is true for companies.
This is getting me thinking…it'll probably turn into a blog post! Thanks!
Great post Tim!
One thing that I would like to have seen addressed (and touched upon by Aimee) is how the baseline, whether increasing or decreasing, affects expectations for future interactions.
If a company consistently delivers horrible experiences, then one satsfactory experience may be perceived as extraordinary. Whereas the same level of perceived experience in a company that is known for great service would negatively affect the baseline.
As I mentioned in my blog post about defining the customer experience a few weeks ago and as Aimee mentioned, it's also important to consider outside factors. We cannot always do much about things like rude drivers in the parking lot but there are things that we can influence.
As an example, I hate it when parking spaces are narrow and customers bang their car doors on others. I've noticed that some stores (Costco comes to mind) have wider parking spaces and I appreciate it. So, we can't always control outside experiences that will alter the customer's perception but with some creative thinking we can sometimes influence it.
Having said that, I think we should alter the definition to “The perception that customers have of their interactions pertaining to an organization, service or product.”
Thanks again for an excellent post.
Cheers
Eric
@ericjacques
Excellent post Tim, you are putting out some brilliant content at the moment. For me, the perception baseline really highlights the importance of managing the consistency of the service delivery. Whilst it is obviously important to exceed customer expectations at every opportunity, the perception baseline shows that it is perhaps even more important to ensure this level of service can be repeated time and time again. Raising the bar for one-off visits could prove problematic when their expectations rise causing them to be disappointed on subsequent visits.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts on how word of mouth affects the perception baseline? Presumably many shifts in perception could occur without a consumer even being in contact with the service, through hearing the reviews of friends and peers. Once again, for me this highlights the importance of managing consistency over time.
Thanks for sharing another thought-provoking post!
Tim
An interesting post. The definition of a Customer Experience is central to understanding what an organisation needs to do and the scope of the task if you will.. I don't think Bruce's definition goes far enough. For example you mention emotions. We have advocated emotions are key and account for over 50% of a Customer Experience in my past three books. Surely emotions should be included in a definition? We have recently updated our definition. I would like to offer this for debate:
“A Customer Experience is an interaction between an organization and a customer as perceived through a Customers conscious and subconscious mind. It is a blend of an organization’s rational performance, the senses stimulated and emotions evoked and intuitively measured against customer expectations across all moments of contact”.
I hope this helps the debate.
Regards
Colin Shaw
Author and Founder of Beyond Philosophy
Tim,
Agree the customer's perception of the experience is all that matters. A couple of areas I think would be helpful to expound on that are just as critical. You touched on them a bit.
[I think Aimee and Eric are on the same track] Most critical is the pre defined expectation of the experience. In your first chart, it would be valuable to map your perception of the experience at each touch point with your pre-defined expectation for each of those touch points. So, what was your expectation as you entered the store? What was it when you were greeted? And, did you expectation of the next touch point change from your original expectation based on the perception of the experience at the last touch point, or series of touch points. Pre-interaction expectations are all over the map today, depending on the brand, the industry, even your prior experiences. I'm guessing your pre-interaction expectations with Apple where pretty high. For Apple, their goal should be to insure the expectations dont degrade over the course of the interaction and they should still strive to continue to raise your expectations and exceed them from your perspective. On the other hand, when I call my cable company. My pre-interaction expectations are low. How effective are they at raising my expctations (a good thing) as I move through the interaction.
The other note to mention – under your heading Why Does It Matter “It’s much easier and less expensive to sell to an existing customer than to acquire a new one.” I have a bit of a different take on that, but I think that is a whole other conversation. I don't necessarily think it is easier or less expensive to sell to existing customers. If you execute flawlessly on the issues above, it is potentially more profitable to maintain existing customers than acquire new ones, but, again, thats a mathematical conversation for another time.
Thx
Barry
Perception is everything. I think of all the times I've left an party/concert/movie/store/restaurant with a group of friends and:
1) Despite participating in the same experience or event, we all have a different perception of satisfaction.
2) The perception of an experience from one person can change or manipulate the perception of others.
If you can't create an experience that is remarkable in a good way, you're losing.
@Aimee – Great point about awareness. I think it's one of the things that gets overlooked a lot and can make a huge difference in day-to-day interactions. In regards to setting the bar high (and higher each day) I don't see that as a risk at all. I see that as our responsibility.
@Jeannie – I look forward to all your posts, hope this gets you thinking enough to write one on this topic.
@Eric – I believe that expectations rise as our performance rises, and I believe this is a great thing for your business. I'll be addressing this further in a future post. I agree that there are outside factors that will always affect the experience, but if you can't control them, then don't worry about them. Worry about the things you can control, especially the core aspects of the business.
@Jed – Thanks for the compliment, just trying to put down on paper all the thoughts that have been bouncing around my head the past few months. You're spot on about consistency; it's the key to momentum and thus the perception baseline.
@Colin – Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I've learned a lot from your thoughts on CX, so I always value your input. I understand that different people will have different thoughts on the definition of CX. I don't think that's a bad thing; it's much more of an art at this point than a science. I'll be posting further thoughts on this topic soon, so I hope you can come back and give me your feedback on that as well.
@Barry – I want to hear your take on existing vs new. I was probably more blunt in that statement than I should have been. Growth comes from new customers. Sustainability comes from keeping those customers coming back.
@Bags – Awesome point about of one person changing another's perception. Word-of-mouth is powerful and can definitely change our perceptions in radical ways.
Hi Colin,
You might be interested in my posts on defining customer experience from a few weeks ago. (http://ericjacques.org/2010/06/19/enhanced-defi…)
Cheers!
Eric
Tim, thanks for sparking a terrific conversation. I see truth in all of the definitions here, and I admire the discipline of using plain language. I must confess, though, that I read the post and comments a few times and still felt hungry.
I pulled this from the dictionary: ex•pe•ri•ence (ĭk-spîr'ē-əns) n. An event or a series of events participated in or lived through.
Working from this, experience must be the “something” that a person goes through, and feels something about. So I’d like to contribute this definition to the conversation: Customer experience is what happens and how customers feel as they realize a need (or problem or desire), learn about options to solve it, try them out, buy, use the product or service to solve the need, and evolve to a new need over time.
You’ve gotten my juices pumping. I’ll post a continuation of this dialog over on my blog soon (Jeannie – will watch for yours too!).
Linda, thanks for stopping by and contributing to the conversation. Please come back tomorrow, as I'm posting a follow up that deals more with the “how” rather than the “what.”
I look forward (as always) to your post on this topic.