Many organizations aspire to provide intimate customer experiences ; personalized service tuned in to what THAT specific customer wants at THAT specific time.The essence of the strategy is to deliver memorable — WOW! — experiences that will delight customers and enhance their loyalty. It’s the warm caring treatment intended to make the customer’s skin all goosebumpy.The logic behind the personalization theme is that while providing a standard level of service to everyone will satisfy some people, it won’t appeal to all because everyone has slightly different needs. But if service is individualized to reflect the unique characteristics of each customer, mass moments of delight can be created and customer loyalty will increase.
Personalized service is impossible
The reality is, however, personalized service is an impossible dream; it cannot be delivered because of “the noise” that surrounds service delivery in every organization. The noise is represented by all of the activities going on in an organization; they constitute the context within which personalization must be practised.The noise consists of:— repair and service delivery activity— advertising messages—
lengthy call center hold times— social media conversations— customer complaints— internal cost management concerns— new leadership directives— product quality issues— differing business unit priorities— supply challenges
There is too much noise
With this confluence of activity happening every moment of every day, is it any wonder that the art of
creating a memorable personal experience for a customergets lost?Personalized service experiences don’t stand a chance when there is this cloud of activity in conflict with this purpose:
customers wait 45 minutes to get a call center rep who does their best to provide caring service buts it’s ruined by the noise of the wait; customers are told their individual needs are important but the product breaks down after it has been used only a few times; employees are told that responding to each customer is the strategy yet service costs are cut to meet quarterly financial targets and there are insufficient numbers of employees to serve customers; social media conversations are replete with service criticism at the same time as the organization declares its intent to provide stellar personal service; sales solutions can’t be provided because of supply chain problems; a sensitive engagement with a service rep is followed by a disastrous installation that requires multiple attempts to get it right; a special deal is provided to a customer but the bill is sent out with errors.All of these noise factors work in unison to discredit the personal service mantra, it’s not a believable proposition in the face of proof points that counter and undermine it.
A holistic view is required
Polite customer service reps and amazing fulfillment self serving technology won’t bring personalization to life; it’s a bigger challenge than that.All the currency built up by a rep handing the customer in an amazing way is quickly lost, for example, when the product ordered is lost or the promised delivery date is missed.And the caring attitude of a rep doesn’t really count for much when the customer has been sitting in the call queue for the better part of an hour.To really provide a personal service experience requires a holistic view of all service components operating across the organization. They must all work efficiently on their own and work together in harmony to serve the same purpose.If one link in the service chain breaks down personal service is a non starter.
It’s a cultural issue
In the long term, the culture of an organization must be morphed to delivering the personal service experience.Leadership must declare it to be the prime objective of the organization; a strategy must be put in place to make it happen.Related:
Successful Cultures React to the Unexpected These 5 actions should drive cultural change to personalization
define the operations functions that the customer views as key in fulfilling the personal service promise and make sure they operate with maximum efficiency and minimal errors.If call center wait times is critical to them, apply resources to avoid their displeasure when the reach a rep. insource the functions that drive the personal experience, outsource only those that have no influence on it. re-vector your performance management process to prioritize those deliverables and behaviours that are key to the personal service mission; pay handsomely when someone is a champion of the cause. set measurable objectives for the key operations processes that control how the customer feels about the way they are treated and hold management accountable to achieve them. If, for example, keeping promises for product delivery is important, set targets and measure performance. ask the customer “Did you enjoy your personal service experience with us?” as the key lead question to monitor if the new culture is making way.You will quickly find out if customers found their experience with you personal at all and what your organization needs to do to make it more memorable.A personal service experience equals the sum of the experiences a customer has with each touch point they engage with in your organization.It’s not about just the service rep, delivery technician, receptionist, repair person, website, advertising message and bill individually.It’s about all of them, and unless they all work together in the spirit of personalization you can forget about the ideal and claim something else as your end game.
