The top 10 questions each organization needs to ask itself:
- Who are our customers? How can we know them better?
- Do we want to explore and expand our customer type or differentiate it even further?
- What are the main values we believe and follow- and do they coincide with our branding?
- What is the added value we aim to expose?
- What is the added value of our organization as it is “perceived” by the customer?
- Have you answered different answers to question number 4 and 5?
- If yes – how can we close this gap between perception and goal?
- What are the tools we use to check ourselves and get objective feedback regarding our Customer Experience?
- Do we have inner “customer experience” – “In house” values?
- What is the vision in both our segment and in our organization regarding future revolutions in customer experience?
We believe people no longer buy products, nor do they buy services. People are buying an experience. The 21st century has eliminated the need to hold our instincts. Everything is there instantly and it is not about “getting what you want” – but rather “getting what you want with the right experience.” With a Mark. With a great memory. With passion. Organizations that want to survive the intense competition must create a strong awareness of differentiation. We all need to be “different” in order to be memorable. To be needed. To be wanted. Being “ordinary” is fatal for the organization nowadays. It is not about being “in place”. It is not even about being “right”. It has gone far beyond this. It is all about being Special. Unique. Creative. Different. Innovative.
So how shall we transcend the comfort zones and supply our customers with something unique and special? And how can we do it systematically?
We believe the key for understanding Customer Experience Design is understanding emotions better. The ability to articulate a large variety of emotional colors is the first step to creating those experiences. The very first emotional response that is mutual to all great businesses is the emotion of surprise. It has been proven that loyal customers are ones who are engaged with this feeling of surprise. If the organization has succeeded in supplying its customers with a new feeling which exceeds his/ her expectations- it is bound to be marked in the mind as a good experience that is worth being repeated.
Loyalty to a brand is created when two components are linked together:
- The “familiar” component
- The “innovative” component
When the familiar factor is tied with the innovative one, a great merger occurs. Each customer likes to go back to his familiar, recognized brand. It serves the need for emotional stability and power to choose the “one” which enables us to feel safe and secure. Yet, we also strive for change, for innovation and futurism. We like to feel we go forward and therefore a great brand needs to “walk” along with its customer at the pace of culture, time and era. Once those two elements are tied together the brand has a higher probability of maintaining its strength.
Creative Business Solutions, under the direction of Orit Wolf and her associates, is working on designing customer experience in various international organizations, such as FEDEX, BANK LEUMI, BITUACH YASHIR, CLALIT, and ORANGE.
The process of creating this unique change involves work with all hierarchies of the organization. The power of each employee in the organization is stronger than merely its managers. The answers are hidden in all the various contacts in which the employees, from bottom to top, are engaged with their customers. It’s never the top hierarchy only. Thus, the process creates a double impact that shapes the inner customer experience inside the organization itself. We believe that the inner customer is no less important than the “outer” one- the one who pays for the service. It all starts from home and if we create proud employees who know the power of their brand then the projection of its power will be more genuine and immediate.
Moreover, in this zone of designing customer experience, we believe that people should be co-partners of creating their very own branding. It can never be merely an external realization by a consulting firm, no matter how remarkable it is. It has to be connected to the inner truth of the company and its core values and ethics.