Would you Deliver the Same Customer Service to Donald Trump as to Ellen DeGeneres?
We are excited to announce our latest article is with Michel Falcon. Michel is a customer experience consultant and entrepreneur, who has consulted for and spoken to executives from a myriad of brands such as McDonald’s, Verizon Wireless, Lexus, Estée Lauder, HSBC and Unilever. Based on his experience, he shared with us three easy to follow tips to make your company truly customer-focused.
Beware of the different customer types.
“You cannot deliver customer service to Donald Trump the same way you do to Ellen Degeneres.” — Michel Falcon
Recognizing different customer types provides employees with a deeper understanding of how their activities affect the customer journey and experience. Both Donald Trump and Ellen Degeneres are customers with different personalities, which means they may have a different definition for a successful customer experience.
Michel shared that he first recognized personality types during his time spent in call centers. He noticed that each caller spoke differently, which requires delivery of service in a different way each time. Therefore, it is essential to tailor the service provided in order to build greater rapport with these customers.
Michel has outlined the three common personality types as:
- Director (straight-forward and to-the-point)
- Socializer (appreciates off-topic conversations)
- Passive (reserved)
The cosmetics company Lush is a great example of a brand that leverages the power of recognizing different customer types. By truly understanding customer behaviours and expectations, LUSH employees offer a very tailored and enhanced customer experience. This approach helped the company became the top brand for customer experience in the UK for 2015. Our readers can learn more about customer personality types by watching Michel Falcon’s video.
Reduce Friction for Customers
An organization must understand that if customer experience is going to be at the core of their company then they must think long-term and find ways to reduce friction for their customers. Friction of any kind consistently makes the customer experience more difficult. If you want to make your customers happier, you have to identify the friction points in their experience, and eliminate them. We asked Michel how does he image people picking-up their dry-cleaning in 2020. Here are his thoughts:
It’s very clear that human interaction is decreasing in customer experience. By leveraging technology a customer can fulfill their request without speaking to anyone which provides an effortless experience. Why must I spend 30–45 mins picking up my dry cleaning? Why can’t I press a button on my phone and have a self driving car pick up my laundry for me? I would pay extra for this my time is more valuable to me than $5. By 2020, our experiences as consumers will require us to exhaust less energy than they do today. — Michel Falcon
Amazon is an excellent example of a brand that is doing a great job at finding and rooting out friction. From Amazon Prime to free shipping and 1-click ordering, the majority of its innovations are geared to the elimination of friction. As a result, it is faster and easier for both customers and Amazon to find, purchase and deliver goods.
Create Micro Customer Experiences
According to Michel, creating micro customer experiences is one of the key traits that differentiates truly customer-focused companies from the competition. Companies that create micro customer experiences become brands that are admired, trusted and ones that have a business model that is difficult to replicate. Michel defines micro customer experiences as “ small, subtle, affordable and memorable gestures that you do for your customers that resonate with them in an authentic way.’’ According to him, these “moments” are often neglected as they are not as glamorous as big marketing campaigns, but, in reality, can yield great results by strengthening the relationship you have with your customers.
In order to create micro customer experiences, you need to be aware of the key customer touch points and identify moments where you are able to deliver these type of gestures. For example, Starbucks leverages micro customer experiences when they write your name on your cup. Multiple uses of the customer’s name — both spoken and written helps Starbucks create an emotional and memorable customer experience. More often than not, Starbucks spells your name correctly and it’s a nice gesture. Uber, highly aware of their key customer touchpoints, has recently announced their Uber Trip Experiences, which connects riders with their favorite apps at the start of a trip when they may have some time to spare. In this way Uber can use such micro customer experiences to drive customer satisfaction. In fact, a recent Temkin Group’s research revealed that customers with a positive emotional experience are 87% more likely to purchase again and 75% more likely to recommend to their friends.
At the end of our talk, we asked Michel Falcon what are his future plans for 2016 and what partners he is looking for.
I didn’t have much of a holidays this year because I’m preparing to launch a 6-person customer experience agency based in Vancouver. I will continue to promote Experience Academy (my online customer experience course) and host workshops, webinars and keynotes speeches that will take me around North America, Europe and the Middle East. In regards to the agency, one thing that I’m particularly excited for is that the company will have an investment arm. I’m looking to invest in entrepreneurs that are trying to leverage technology and customer experience and enter industries that haven’t innovated in years or decades. To date, we’ve made two investments in seed rounds and will look to make five more in 2016. — Michel Falcon
Conclusion
To create experiences that truly delight customers, companies need to build their expertise in recognizing the different customer types, reduce friction for customers and leverage the power of micro customer experiences. Michel Falcon, CX consultant to some of the world’s leading brands, has shown us that these three, easy to follow tips can put companies on the track of becoming truly customer-centric.
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