We are all individuals

By Liri Andersson

What should be the major consideration for businesses looking to increase customer satisfaction while simultaneously creating new markets and driving sales? The answer lies in two words: customer experience. At Foviance we realise that to deliver quality customer experiences, you first have to know your customers, and you have to understand what they perceive as a good experience. But why, if it is so important, do we not have more examples of companies that deliver extraordinary customer experiences, or simply good ones, for that matter? Apple is a perfect example of a business that has succeeded in differentiating itself from its competition by understanding exactly how its customers tick, but there are precious few firms out there getting it so right.

In reality, very few companies genuinely know either their customers, or what an experience is.

Efficiently gathered demographics don’t reveal who people really are, what they love, what they hate or even what they do when they are busy being something other than a customer. Likewise, an experience isn’t just a great product, a powerful brand, a flagship store, a sensational ad campaign or a stylish website – it’s all of this and more, expressed as a single feeling or sensation.

A fundamental lack of understanding of these two things means that most companies focus on selling products and services and not on delivering customer experiences. Diverse R&D, manufacturing, sales, marketing, distribution, and customer service departments within an organisation frequently have distinct goals and measures of success. Sadly this often results in a fragmented product or service experience, delivered to a target audience which has been defined by a marketing tool developed for a market environment that no longer exists.

While conducting some recent work for the travel industry, we met customers who believed they were consistently misunderstood, and who felt they had never been able to find the experience they sought. These customers did not see themselves, or define themselves, in the way they were seen or defined by the industry. Agents attempting to sell typical holidays based on age, sex or occupation, for example, were often missing the mark wildly.

So how should these businesses go about creating a better experience for their customers? Developing a memorable end-to-end customer experience isn’t a quick process. It requires companies to observe their customers, to watch them with an objective eye, understand what they do and what they don’t do, to sit down and actually have a conversation with them. Designing memorable customer experiences usually means grouping people together in new ways and experiencing the business from their perspective. Beginning to deliver that experience can even be as easy as asking the simple question ‘What experience have you been looking for that you couldn’t find?’ and immediately starting to provide the experiences long-misunderstood customers have craved.

We surveyed 530 single 31-45 year olds with an even breakdown between men and women, all of whom had travelled at least once in the last year. The report reveals some invaluable insights that are applicable across a diverse range of businesses.

The full research white paper can be downloaded here