The Client Experience
“The customer experience is the next competitive battleground.” – Jerry Gregoire
Can you remember those “wow ! moments that has made you feel this is exactly what i just wanted and am getting it..” perhaps this could be as you checked into a hotel as a guest or when your saloon professional attended on your hair cut or a travel agent organized your trip in a foreign land or just about any thing.
This is what our focus is all about in this topic -the wow ! moments - and in the service industry we generally call this Client Experience. This is perhaps is the single most important factor, next to the service offering that a service provider makes.
So what’s this client experience all about ? its the experience a person wishes to carry with him - sub consciously - when he decides to take up a service offer. This begins at the inquiry stage and goes all the way up to buying the service and post buying.
Lets say , i wanted to check in a hotel in New York sitting in India . I call or write them to know about the hotel .The front office helps me for a booking.Check in experience - My first impression is built here.Then I check in at the hotel and during my stay i engage with the room staff , restaurant, travel desk etc and the stay experience is built here .As I check out on my scheduled date,again i interact with the the front office persons and experience the the closure- thus a closure experience is built here.A sum of all these moments induce an experience in me that decides the image of the hotel ,its policies and practices those smiling and ever-ready- to-help staff ,the way they reached out voluntarily when i needed them most and many more of such experiences in total.This is likely to stay in my memory for a long time.
Why is this important? It is this that gathers mass among other prospects and spreads the good word of mouth which is a back bone of service business,this is what makes clients come back time to time thus creating loyalty and above all this is the purpose of the business.
Remember your favorite lunch place you prefer to host your meetings ? or one of those particular Star Bucks where you want to spend some time contemplating on some thing new or calling over some one for discussion ? Yes this is what client experience is all about.
The service businesses must heavily focus on providing the best experience for its prospects and clients to stay ahead of competition and also stay afloat in business.
Designing a customer experience is the first business of the service provider and we will discuss about this soon in the coming days.
Here is a conversation with Pradeep ,CEO of a multinational OEM manufacturing company .
I look forward to hear from you your experiences as a client (both good and not so good ones) you may post it in the comments section or write to [email protected].