When does customer's experience actually start?

Do you know when your customer’s service experience actually starts? That is, when it begins in your customer’s mind? Could you be missing something important?

By Nancy Stephens Associate Professor, Marketing

Do you know when your customer’s service experience actually starts? That is, when it begins in your customer’s mind? Could you be missing something important?

A study by marketing students at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University illustrates the point. The students asked hair stylists to describe the steps involved in delivering a haircut. They then asked customers the same question. When the lists were compared, one step — the first one — differed. The hair stylists said the first step was when the customer walked into the shop, while the customers said it was when they called for an appointment.

Anyone who has paid for a haircut knows that things can go wrong in making an appointment. Failures can occur with the telephone system, the employees who answer, the recording of appointments and any number of other things. Hair stylists who do not realize this potential weak link in the process may lose customers without even knowing it. That’s why it’s important to understand the entire experience you are giving customers, from their point of view.

Recognizing the “first ­step problem” is part of a process mapping tool developed at the W. P. Carey School called “service blueprinting.” Unlike other process mapping tools, it does not focus on finding greater efficiency or lowering costs. Instead it concentrates on the customer experience. At each point in a service experience, the tool makes you ask, what is the customer going through? Where might she or he have problems or questions? When do customers find satisfaction and enjoyment? What might a business do to ensure every point in the experience is optimal for customers?

The very first step turns out to be the most important one. When customers decide to try your business for the first they often feel wary and uncertain. Should they really be doing this? What if something goes wrong? If they encounter obstacles or glitches on the very first step, new customers may tell themselves that yes, they did make a mistake in switching to you, and they may turn and run. They make a quality judgment that could be wrong, assuming that a difficult first step or two indicates that your whole service is low quality or that it won’t meet the their needs.

One of the students in the W. P. Carey MBA program was a manager for large sporting events and his most important goal was making the fan experience fun, from start to finish. After studying the experience from the customer’s point of view, he realized that he likely had the first step problem: by the time the fans reached the event, they could have had negative experiences finding parking and the correct entrance. To make the problem worse, security for the events was contracted to a private company. The security employees who roamed outside the venue were neither willing nor able to answer questions or to direct fans to parking lots or entrance points.

My student realized that the security provider had been hired for its security expertise and its bid price. Beyond very minimal expectations, the demeanor, helpfulness and knowledge of security officers was not considered. Neither was training built into the contract. Yet, the interactions between fans and security personnel surely contributed to, or detracted from, fan enjoyment. It wouldn’t be fun for customers to be sent in the wrong direction or treated curtly. Experiences like this might affect their willingness to return to the venue for events.

What are the first steps of your service, from your customer’s perspective? Does your customer’s experience start before you think it does? Have you walked through the experience of being your customer? Try it. What do customers have to go through to find and get to you? Is it easy or difficult? Is it convenient or inconvenient? Where might they have questions or problems, and are you prepared to give answers and solutions? In whose hands are your customers before they reach you? Is it your organization or is it a contractor hired on the basis of price only?

Understanding your customers’ experiences, especially the first step, can lead to satisfied, loyal customers and a successful organization. Not understanding can lead to lost customers.

Emeritus Associate Professor of Marketing Nancy Stephens is a member of the research faculty at the Center for Services Leadership at the W. P. Carey School of Business. She has shared service blueprinting techniques with small startups and Fortune 500 companies. First published in The Arizona Republic, January 12, 2016.