It's holiday time. And imagine. After a long, tiring journey, you finally arrive at your hotel. The receptionist is smiling. While you are still standing in line for check-in, she comes up to you, calls you by name and hands you the key to your room. 'Freshen up first, then we'll sort out the rest in a minute.' Surprised, you walk towards the lift. Huh, how did she know your name?
Customer experience is not higher mathematics. Or unintelligible language. Whoever you are, whatever you do: the biggest (and smallest) companies make a difference by being just that one step ahead of the customer. And yes, they should. It's a small effort to google your hotel guests.
People are more demanding than ever. More critical than ever. If you leave a bad impression once, for instance by handling a complaint in a messy way, a negative review is posted on the internet in no time. Or worse, your customer switches and never comes back.
Knowing what concerns your customers (sorry for the word customers), what frustrates them, what they want to be guided in. Having the customer journey in the picture is the secret behind the most successful companies. IKEA, Corendon, Disney and Inshared understand this. These are just a few. Small examples, but big in customer experience. This is how they tackle it.
Ikea
Attention makes everything more beautiful, IKEA believes. And by that, the furniture giant is not just talking about its well-priced products. Founder Ingvar Kamprad often found himself incognito on the shop floor, where he could speak to staff and customers. Only in this way, Kamprad believes, did he understand how to make customers' lives a little better.
Take the restaurant. Originated after Kamprad's wife missed a place in the mega-sized shop where she could have a cup of coffee halfway through. Did people used to lug bags across the first floor because the escalator didn't allow shopping trolleys? Nowadays, thanks to a special escalator system, you can load heavy items from start to finish. With 'short routes', IKEA also creates exit moments for rushing customers. They no longer have to take the entire main route, unlike a few years ago. According to Kamprad, as an entrepreneur, your biggest fear should be when the top alienates itself from its customers. (Is that perhaps why the stone-rich man still flies economy class?)
Corendon
Its own airline, carefully selected hotels, managers who get on the plane when something is up. Travel company Corendon tackles the customer journey from A to Z.
Speaking to Customer First magazine, marketing director Martin de Boer said: ,,We go out ourselves. We watch at check-in at Schiphol Airport, travel along in the planes and chat with everyone. Yes, including Atilay Uslu, the founder.'' Corendon knows that its customers have to save up for a long time for a holiday and therefore offers the guarantee that everything is taken care of. From booking to transfer, but also being available 24 hours a day if things go wrong. And perhaps just as important: that everyone who makes the Corendon trip possible thinks the same. From the flight attendant to a hotel employee.
Disney
Everyone knows the story of the ice cream. When a child wants to enter an attraction, he has to leave his ice cream behind, much to his chagrin. A staff member promises to look after it until he returns. In reality, she buys a new ice cream and waits for the child.
Disney knows better than anyone how to leave an impressive memory on theme park visitors. A striking feature is the magicband, a wristband that is handed out immediately upon arrival at the Disney resort. It acts as a key to the hotel room, but also allows visitors to avoid long queues for attractions. By linking the wristband to their credit card, customers do not have to carry a wallet when buying items and food. And because there is a name on the wristband, park staff can see at a glance what someone's name is. Which in turn creates a personal connection.
Inshared
You've just had damage to your car. Or worse: a major fire has destroyed your kitchen. Whatever situation you are experiencing, at Inshared they understand that reporting damage is not something you want to spend a long time on. Their website has a clear overview. Instead of difficult forms or unfindable menus, customers are given two choices.
1. Emergency. Are you in an acute emergency situation? In case of fire, injury, a flood or theft? Then contact us by phone. And since you can also download the dialling menu in advance, you won't have to listen to it in full later. Nice.
2. No worries. You can report your claim online via the online claim form. And are you still really stuck? Then you can always contact us by phone.
It can be that simple.
You've read this article to the end. So apparently you find customer experience super interesting. What are you waiting for? Map out that customer journey. Look at your company from the outside. What impression do you want to leave with your customers? Also read our article on the 6 stages of customer experience to gain insight into how your customers might experience your service. And finally, start small, but begin. Even the friendly receptionist who knows your name makes for a memorable experience.
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