4- Create Breakthrough Experiences

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How do we build a competitive advantage?

Have you ever tried to buy your own product?
Do you know what it is like to use your product?
Have you ever called your own customer service line to get help for your product?
There are five common parts to the overall product experience someone has with your product or service.
1- Discovery

Do buyers eagerly consume your marketing material or is it created using hype and "spin" (full of flexible, scalable, and other gobbledygook phrases)?
2- Using

Is your product intuitive and easy to use?
3- Service

Is your after-sale service a positive referral source for your organization and or is it out-sourced to uninformed third-parties who report meaningless metrics of satisfaction like tickets closed per hour per customer service representative.
4- Packaging

Does the packaging compliment the total experience or hinder it?
5- Buying

Is the product easy to buy?

How do you know if your team is focused on the total experience?
Listen carefully to the conversations around the office about customers. Do you hear:
"Our customers are such a pain; they call instead of reading the manual."
"Customer satisfaction surveys? Why? We know our customers are happy."
"The freight company is so brutal; our products often arrive broken or incomplete."
"Our salespeople sell on price, don't we offer more than the lowest price?"
"Our sales order form is so hard to read, the customers call me to place orders."
"Our billing did not match what the salesperson entered on the invoice."
How do you get focused on the total customer experience?
Measure what matters to the customer, not the Finance Department

Conduct customer satisfaction surveys and post results in all departments

Develop action plans to improve the 5 lowest scores

Tie survey results to cross-functional goals and compensation

Compare new data to old to look for trends