I have the opportunity to volunteer every week at the Farmer’s Market, managed by the Kaiser High School Parent-Teacher-Student Association. Even though my youngest has already graduated high school, the need for volunteers (and the fact that I have set up our market management tools using QuestionPro software) has afforded me the opportunity to continue to help out every Tuesday afternoon.
This started back in the middle of 2020 as COVID-19 was shutting down everything. Many local businesses, unable to let patrons into their physical spaces, were allowed to sell food items in these Farmer’s Markets. When I started volunteering weekly, my daughter (who had already graduated from high school) also volunteered. She became a known presence with one vendor because she would purchase Boba Tea from him every week.
When things started to go back to normal, and she returned to both school and a job, she did not have the time on Tuesday to visit her favorite vendor. Last week, she happened to finish classes early and decided she would stop by to visit. I happened to be visiting with this vendor at the time she showed up. When she did, in his excitement, he forgot that he was having a conversation with me and immediately turned his attention to her. “Your favorite?” he asked. Despite the time between visits, he still recalled even some of the small details about her life.
When she and I were speaking about that experience, it reminded me of a pizzeria that I used to frequent in New Jersey. It started with summer visits to my grandparents’ house – maybe one or two times a summer. Back then, their father ran the business, and his two sons supported him. Then, when I started attending college, I would see them a little bit more since I lived there all year. In time, their father passed away, and the two sons took over the business – expanded the pizzeria to include a restaurant next to it.
It was amazing to continue to see them and to see the transformation. A few short years later, I moved to Colorado, where I would start a family and not have the chance to visit as often, especially after my grandparents had passed away. Yet, probably nearly a decade after my last visit, I had the same impressive experience. As I walked in, the son who was working immediately recognized me and first yelled to the kitchen to make my regular order, then confirmed with me that I still wanted that. Indeed, I did.
Both these experiences speak strongly to the value of the reasons behind the customer relationship and the importance of customer experience. While my daughter and I have strong experiences with these businesses that span multiple customer journeys across various customer experience touchpoints, there is a reality that these businesses do not currently fit into our needs at this point. A financial linkage analysis would state we are not customers worthy of being remembered, let alone being treated in a special way. However, when you ask the Net Promoter Score question as we have in our QuestionPro exclusive NPS+ question type, the core of the question is, “Would you recommend this business?”.
I am not here to preach about NPS as being the right measurement (hint: it doesn’t always apply), but there is a reason for this wording. It speaks to the emotional bond of the relationship with the customers and how their customer experience strategy will focus on both retention and winning customers – which is key to a growing and successful business.
I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a customer experience software platform that provides all the necessary tools to run a successful Voice-of-the-Customer: customer feedback loop, sentiment analysis, customer journey mapping, CX Reputation social media analysis, Employee Experience and even Outer Loop closed-loop feedback. Ask any industry analyst, and all of these are the price of entry for any CX Enterprise Software (though – surprisingly – some major providers in this industry still lack some of these). Yet, with all the technology, I still see gaps that stop customers from developing meaningful relationships with the brands they favor.
At times, it may be another layer of technology that limits human interactions. Other times, policies are put in place that “standardize” a process but end up putting distance between the customer and front-line employees. Even workflows for detractor recovery become automated, and the customer does not get to feel any empathy.
There are many ways organizations – large and small – can fail to meet customer expectations. However, sometimes with the most loyal of your customers, the best approach is simply to recognize them. Even if you are unable to get to know all your customers, find a reason to thank at least one customer for their ongoing support of your business.
That personal touch may just lead to recommendations to other potential customers even if your loyal customer moves out of the market or grows out of the need for your business. At the very least, a personal note to just one customer will probably put a smile on someone’s face – maybe even your own while you write it.
Is there something wrong with your customer experience?
When you complete an honest assessment, the outcome can be beneficial, particularly when it comes to your Customer Experience program.
Take five minutes and complete an audit for your organization here.
You may discover a gap in measurement, an opportunity to improve a process, the place where an organizational shift needs to take place or an opportunity to win a greater share of your customers’ wallets.
We all want that bigger “return”. In this situation, the worst case scenario is that you’ll get some information that will help your organization since there is no cost or obligation in completing this audit.
