With the wave of the last few years marketing has been very focused on the digital aspect, which is fine, but as I was reviewing marketing documents, I came across this classic, which in particular lists customer service principles that are timeless.
It is, as the title says: “The 6 Laws of Customer Experience”, written by Bruce Temkin, who tops off the introduction with the quote: The fundamental truths that define how organizations treat their customers.
- Law 1: Every interaction generates a personal reaction.
- Law 2: People are instinctively self-centered.
- Law 3: Customer familiarity generates alignment.
- Law 4: Unengaged employees do not generate engaged customers.
- Law 5: Employees do what is measured, incentivized and celebrated.
- Law 6: You cannot pretend.
And he finishes off after listing the 6 laws, anyone seeking to improve the customer experience must understand and comply with these underlying realities: “The main thing about the six laws of customer experience is that knowing them is not a valid excuse.”
Law 1: Every interaction generates a personal reaction
This is the most important law, and put simply, experiences are entirely in the eye of the beholder. And knowing that not everything satisfies everyone, experiences should preferably be designed for a special group of customers.
- Experiences should be designed for individuals.
- Consumer segments should be prioritized.
- Customer feedback should be the key metric.
- Employees must be empowered.
Conclusion: You need to understand your customers personally.
Law 2: People are instinctively self-centered.
Everyone has their own point of view, which influences what they do and why they do it. And since employees also have their own points of reference, if they are not trained, they will transmit their own mental frameworks and not those of the company. And this law has implications.
- You know more than your customers, figure it out.
- Don’t sell things, help your customers buy.
- Don’t complicate the customer with your bureaucracy.
Conclusion: make the shift from being you-centric to customer-centric.
Law 3: Customer familiarity generates alignment.
Sometimes employees or managers make decisions that frustrate, annoy or anger customers, often due to a lack of cooperation or coordination within the company.
- If you have a clear vision of what your customers want, you can align decisions and actions to achieve it.
- Don’t wait for organizational alignment. There are no perfect organizations, they all have mistakes. Focus on the customer.
- Share customer feedback widely.
- It speaks to customer needs, not personal preferences.
Conclusion: External focus is the antidote to internal policies.
Law 4: Unengaged employees do not generate engaged customers.
If you want to improve your customers’ experience, it is obvious that you must focus entirely on your customers. And this is achieved when employees are not committed to what they do. If there is low morale in the work team, it will be impossible to surprise customers.
- Don’t stop investing in education and training.
- Makes it easy to do the right thing.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate.
- Find ways to celebrate.
- Measures employee commitment.
Conclusion: Customer experience depends on employee experience.
Law 5: Workers do what is measured, incentivized and celebrated.
Many managers rack their brains to understand why their company delivers better customer experiences, which shouldn’t be a mystery. It’s all about how you treat your employees; they are, to a large extent, the ones who create the work environment.
- Don’t wait for people to do the right thing. Generate customer experience metrics.
- Clearly define what good behavior is.
- Pay attention to mixed messages. Incentivize and celebrate what you measure so that the worker is clear on what to do.
Conclusion: Don’t blame the employees, improve the work environment.
Law 6: You can’t pretend.
Employees perceive whether the customer experience is the priority or not, it also shows in marketing actions. No advertising can convince a customer of what it is not.
- Don’t put it below the fourth priority. Sure, there may be a long list of priorities, but if customer experience goes beyond the third, it’s not really a priority.
- Sometimes it’s better not to start. If you are not committed to the customer experience, it is better not to start with a major initiative; it would be a waste of effort.
- Advertise to reinforce, not to generate positioning. Customers know how they are treated, so it is best to reinforce the truth with communication.
Conclusion: If you are not committed to the customer experience, the deception is to yourself.
Closing
Bruce Temkin concludes that these 6 laws are not to constrain workers’ behavior, but to empower them to be effective.
- That by understanding these fundamentals of how people and companies behave, managers can make better decisions.
- Failure to comply with these laws will lead to poor results.
- Implementing the laws correctly will help to improve the position to enhance the customer experience, and therefore the company’s profitability and growth.
