One impact of being in a new capability is trying to describe it. My wife doesn’t really know what I do, so how can I effectively communicate customer experience to somebody who’s never heard of it? This is a common topic among my CX friends. How do we explain what we do to others?
If they don’t give me a blank look, most folks hear customer experience and ask, “So, you work in a call center?” After stifling a groan, I go through the standard explanation that customer experience is broader than just service, and how a great customer experience often prevents the needs for a service call in the first place. I explored the difference between customer service and experience in this post about Target’s data breach.
But as my friend Mara Bain says, “When you’re explaining, you’re losing.” So I’ve been looking for a quicker way to grab somebody’s attention. Here’s what I’ve tried:
It’s still new, but so far it seems to make people curious enough to listen to the rest of the story. And it clearly differentiates between customer experience and service.
What do I mean by this? Dan Ariely has written extensively about decision fatigue, which he calls ego-depletion. Making decisions is hard work, and spending too much time deciding causes fatigue, reducing the effectiveness of follow-up decisions.
Isn’t that what makes a poor experience? Too much thinking?
Great experiences help my decision-making:
Great customer experiences use design to help you with your choices, reducing your effort. And they’re rewarded with loyalty – why should I go learn a new store layout and put all that effort in, when I can just go to my favorite place?
So try this line out the next time somebody asks you what customer experience is. And let me know you it works for you. In the meantime, I’m going to spend my decision capabilities on deciding which lake to visit in these last days of summer.
——
To learn more about customer experience, join us at the second annual CX Day on October 7. Go to www.CXDay.org to learn more about all of the great activities planned for the day.