Creating a Consistent Customer Experience Message in Your Company

Have you ever been convinced to purchase something, then come to find out that the offering didn’t quite live up to the hype?  I am not just talking about products, but expectations when you go to hotels and restaurants and other businesses.  If you are like me, you’ve probably said to yourself, “they DO want my business, don’t they?”

The perception we get from these inconsistencies often don’t stop at the interaction that we had, but tends to spread across an entire brand and their products.  Furthermore, we tend to be slow to change our opinion and often happily share our experience with anyone who inquires.

Bottom line – you are less inclined to repeat your experience, and would probably advise anyone you know about your experience, which results in lower revenue for that business.

This is why it is so important to have very consistent messaging.  Messaging is not just the words you use, but everything that relays information to your customers or clients about your company, products and services.  For example, if a company talks about being responsive, yet doesn’t return emails for several days, a message is sent.  There is inconsistency between what you say and what you do.

As your company gets larger, managing the messaging between your company and the outside world gets more complicated.  While public relations is employed to manage certain communications, looking at every interaction between your company and your customers, in particular, will give you a foundation to build on.  This isn’t just about creating value, but rather, creating the desired (hopefully good) customer experience along the whole path.

The other component to that is consistency.  Think about going to a furniture store to purchase new furniture.  Even if you have a good experience in the front of the store, if you go to the back and the warehouse people have you standing around waiting and ignore you, your experience has been ruined.  If you have to exchange the software and they give you a hard time, your experience has been ruined.

As you evaluate your customer value chain, please take into consideration that your ability to give each consumer a positive experience is entirely in your hands.  If you don’t set the standards, check periodically to ensure they are being upheld, and make changes where necessary, you could be missing out on more business for your company.  Don’t settle for ordinary; strive for extraordinary.