Pausing Can Be Noticed
Over the past month, we had quite a bit going on at QuestionPro. Exciting events with the business and, of course, our annual user conference XDay. A great event that was masterfully put together by our own Crystal Wiese and her team. During that time, with so much going on, I took a short break from writing my Tuesday Morning CX Thoughts. My priority was to take a little burden off the team that was organizing and planning our annual event and, honestly, didn’t think anyone would take notice.
Will Your Customers Miss You?
I guess I was wrong in that assumption. The first week, someone sent me a message asking if I could point them to my article, it happened again the second week. Over the weekend, someone else asked specifically if I would be resuming now that our customer event had concluded. One might say these are not customers, but they were clearly looking forward to consuming the content. I had set up certain expectations, even if inadvertently, and it was noticed when I wasn’t delivering.
That had me thinking – will your customers miss you? It doesn’t have to be from extreme reasons like your business shutting down (however, I don’t think too many people miss Blockbuster Video). During all of 2020, many businesses didn’t get to interact with their customers the same way. Restaurants had to go to carry-out/delivery only models. Most movie theaters are still shut down. Additionally, the personal approach to service is definitely altered.
I must ask again, do your customers miss you? For example, I haven’t missed the movie theater experience. I will not say that I was an avid movie watcher, but I would go a few times a year. That experience not being available to me really has not had any impact on me. If your customers do not have access to you suddenly, and they do not miss you, perhaps it is time to rethink that experience. At the same time, I had missed dining out in restaurants when it was not available as an option. Like many, I’ll expect the experience to be different, particularly when it comes to sanitation, but I welcomed the opportunity to dine out again when it was available. Do Your Customers Miss You?
Experience, Expense and Sharing
I encourage you to think about your own company, would your customers miss you? If you were not available to them for any reason, would they wait for you? Would they move to your competitors? Would they simply stop purchasing from that category?
It is a big factor in why we rolled out NPS+ at QuestionPro. In most CX programs (it should be all, but that is another discussion), Closed Loop Feedback helps identify concerns with customers that have a grievance, but I might contend that the Detractors place value in your offer which is why they bring a concern to your attention. The Passives may just see the value decreasing over time, then when a “better offer” comes along, they move on to that brand. You may not even notice immediately, they won’t miss you – though you’ll eventually miss all of them. Our NPS+ uses a model to identify which Root Cause may be causing the value in those customers’ eyes to be eroding, even when it isn’t yet obvious. It also allows customers to co-create and identify ways that value can be brought back into your offer.
Turbulence In Travel
One place this disconnect from customers has shown itself is in the travel industry. While I recently started flying again, I have noticed more and more about the things that I certainly did not miss in travel. However, the journey and the destination are two very different things. I hope you’ll join me November 12th as I speak with Travel & Tourism expert James Sauter about the bumpy road ahead for this industry. You can register here.
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