Throughout my time you could say I’ve done a fair bit of research on customer experience, and I have to say the whole concept continues to intrigue me even now, I guess that’s because of the unpredictable human / emotions element … whatever it is it continues to fascinate me. My friends will say I am very, very sad when they read this, and yes, I need to get out more … but I have spent countless hours thinking about “What makes a perfect customer experience?” Not to mention (and this I pondered for an entire rainy Sunday afternoon) “how can companies consistently deliver positive customer experiences to all of their customers when there is “no size fits all” and everyone’s perception of a positive customer experience is highly subjective and dictated by their own pre-formed expectations and emotional involvement”.

Books (great fan of Shaun Smith and Colin Shaw), white papers, blogs (Bruce Temkin is one of my favourites); I’ve read them all. There is undoubtedly a common thread but so many different viewpoints and perspectives on the subject:

Customer experience is the delivery of the company’s brand promise
Customer experience lies in the organisation’s ability to optimally combine core attributes to meet the customer’s needs Customer experience is the combination of product, service, and the “feel good factor”
Customer experience marries the physical and emotional needs of a customer
Customer experience should create a desire for future interactions and transactions

They say everyone has a Eureka moment at some point in their lives and our MD certainly had hers one cold, winter’s afternoon gazing out of her office window (probably taking a break from scribbling furiously on her poor whiteboard!) defining the iCustomerExperience Methodology and Framework that essentially underpins the iCustomerExperience Survey and index:

“Optimal customer experiences are achieved when companies leverage their business assets (change levers) to exceed their customers’ perceived needs whilst simultaneously evoking the most positive of customer emotional states”

Wouldn’t suggest anyone try to repeat that after having a few, but my God, as a methodology and robust foundation for the Survey content and Index metric, it works!!!

You could say “everything else just fell into place!” The Survey content encapsulates a customer’s perceived needs i.e. what they say they want / what they think is true, together with a myriad of different emotions that can be evoked before/during/after an interaction with a company. Crucially because the Survey links these perceived needs / emotions to a company’s assets (or as we regard them “change levers”) such as People, Process, Service, Product, Environment etc. a company is easily able to see which assets are delivering and which assets require attention and should be the focus of further detailed analysis.

Again, call me sad, tell me I need to get out more … but I never tire of reading, learning, and talking about this subject, it fascinates me as much today as it some four years ago.