If you haven’t read my July 21 post, Lunch with Yoda, take a moment and read it. It sets the stage for this post.

My afternoon with John revealed what I submit are six laws for creating a perfect customer experience. While I’m certain there are others (and I’d love your opinions), these are a good start to an important discussion in an era in which the customer experience has never been more important to the marketing equation.

Now for Laws #4, #5, and #6…

I asked John about recruiting and managing staff to create the perfect experience.  His is world class, so what does it take in the way of people to deliver it?

I was encouraged by his response.

He didn’t suggest that somehow he had converted his team into a bunch of perfectionist robots. Instead, he said, “what I’ve got to remember is that this is their job – not their life. But it IS my life. And things will be done the way I want them done…. There’s no magic to this, but you have to have a true passion for making people feel special.”

From this remark, I’ll propose the fourth law.

LAW #4 OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE: THERE MUST BE A JOHN.
To create the perfect customer experience, you have to have a John (literally and figuratively).  Not a team of Johns. But at least one person – the person charged with creating and executing the perfect customer experience – MUST be sincerely passionate about the vision, the customer, and making people feel special. And that person must be empowered with the authority to relentlessly assess and refine all aspects of service delivery.

As we spoke, I was struck by the clarity and granularity of John’s vision for the experience he wanted to create. He had been brutal in narrowing his target audience to none other than the executive golfer. And he had not only the personal experience to know his customers, but he was clearly a student of this audience. He cited a number of facts and statistics as we spoke on trends in golf popularity, the capacity of the average golfer to improve his score, and other nuggets that made it obvious that he hasn’t stopped doing his homework.

From this body of hard-earned knowledge has emerged a vision with terrific clarity of what he aims to provide his members. My sense was that his vision was sufficiently clear to be governed by a set of defined service principles that would guide the moment-to-moment decision making of every member of the staff. The vision and these principles are instilled in every member of the staff from the first day of their arrival.

Let’s face it. In a service environment as demanding as this one, staffers have to be able to make on-the-spot decisions if the customer experience is to remain fluid (and perfect). Thus I propose the fifth law.

LAW #5 OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE: HAVE (AND COMMUNICATE) A CRYSTAL CLEAR VISION.
For a team to deliver a flawless customer experience, each member must be empowered to act spontaneously in the interest of the customer. For this to work consistently, each team member must understand the vision and its spirit in the form of the underlying service principles that support it.

Also at lunch with us was a guy who is not a member here, but a frequent guest and a legitimate prospect (were it not for the waiting list to join). Thinking back on the afternoon, part of my perception was shaped by stories told by this non-member of unexpected acts of service.

For example, as we approached the gate, he mentioned, “if you arrive here with a dirty car, it will be spotless when you leave.”

He told the story of a friend of his who is a member and was struggling with his golf game to the point that he had decided to give the game up. His discouragement was noted by a club staffer, and from that moment on, the whole staff rallied to his support.

When he would come to the driving range, the instructors would make a point to watch him and offer pointers and encouragement.

They offered him free coaching for as long as it would take to bring him back to his previous enjoyment of the game.

Whenever he would play, they tracked his scores and his progress.

They fitted him with a new set of clubs.

Guess what. He has stuck with the game – and with the club. And he has clearly told the story a time or two to outsiders. Now for the sixth law…

LAW #6 OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE: DON’T FORGET THE WOW!
The perfect customer experience involves some element of unexpected delight.  A special WOW! This is the match that ignites word of mouth. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It doesn’t have to be dramatic. But it has to be unexpected - yet perfectly appropriate.

Seth Godin addresses this notion in detail in his book Free Prize Inside (well worth reading). In fact in many instances, this Free Prize… the WOW is more remarkable from your customer’s perspective than the substance of what you are in business to provide.

So here are the six laws for creating the perfect customer experience:

1. Diversity is dangerous.
2. Relentlessly evaluate and refine.
3. Cheat.
4. There must be a John.
5. Have (and communicate) a crystal clear vision.
6. Don’t forget the WOW!

Put them into practice, and report back on the results!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Real-Time Case Studies, Marketing Principles, Customer Experience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.