Experience is the best teacher

It will never cease to maze me the number of people who worry about and fret over customer satisfaction int heir business. Do you know that a satisfied customer is simply one whom you have met their expectations? Did you also know that studies have shown that if you meet their expectations (i.e. have a satisfied customer) that they are only likely to come again and do business with you 50% of the time!

Hello! why do we care about customer satisfaction? What we need to be worried about is the customer experience. There is a huge difference. Why? simple. Even if you have the best policies int he world and the best prices and the best this and the best that, it is still dependant on people to deliver on those programs.

Walt Disney said it best, "You can dream, design, create and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires to people to make that dream a reality." Truer words have never been spoken.

When we spend time with a company its about how to improve the "experience" of the customer (or employee depending on the case) when interacting or doing business with the business. And what is the determinant of that? You guessed it - the corporate culture of the organization.

We need to build organisations that are more concerned with experiences than they are with numbers on a survey. If you have a strong corporate culture with the values of delivering remarkable experiences woven into the fabric of your culture, then you have a chance. But if you are like 90% of organizations our there who do not.... well then we thank you. You provide us job security.

Provide an experience and you will win. Just say that word over in your head and then let the thought sink in. Have you ever been satisfied at retail for example without an experience? Of course. All the time. But are you loyal to that place? no way. They have to exceed your expectations before you become loyal. and they exceed them by providing an experience.

Microsoft is in the planning stages of opening stores. They need to do this to push back against Apple. However, will they open a retail store or an experience store? Or will they open a retail store and call it an experience store like AT&T only its just an experience store in name only. My guess is Microsoft will be more like AT&T than Apple. But that's just me.