Beware, Customer Experience Is Not Discovered In A Customer Satisfaction Survey.

by ray stasieczko September 10, 2023

Beware, Customer Experience Is Not Discovered In A Customer Satisfaction Survey.
So, the leadership decided to survey their customers; please tell us how we are doing. Most organizations perform this exercise, some so much it's annoying, and some hardly ever.
The results are always the same:
Our customers love us!
Our customers would most definitely buy from us again.
Our customers say that they are completely satisfied.

Oh yes, there is always one or two who complain and wish they never met us; of course, we often determine that the complainers are unreasonable.

Yes, knowing how your customers feel is essential. However, customer satisfaction is not an accurate measurement of customer experience. Too many confuse Customer Experience with Customer Satisfaction. Let me explain my thinking.

Customer Satisfaction - I define it as a relationship-driven process based on our customer's satisfaction with the current circumstances of our product or service. The customer bases this satisfaction on an unawareness of what could be better. They evaluate what and how things currently are.

Customer Experience - lives at the intersection where customers and products or services meet. The experience is determined by how easily they can navigate through this intersection, where the roads are paved increasingly with digital asphalt.

Great Customer Experiences will always win against Customer Satisfaction. The customer was completely satisfied with an outdated or complacent deliverable until a new, better experience became available.

"You can be the vendor with the greatest relationships in the world and lose to the new competitor who delivers a better experience."

In today's ever-changing world, customers are seeking great experiences. Customers will leave great long-term relationships to benefit through better experiences.

Those who fool themselves that their customer satisfaction scores will translate to customer loyalty will find themselves asking - What happened?

The legacy deliverable of any industry is constantly threatened by innovation, and it's through innovation that better experiences are born.

Those legacy organizations who stubbornly refuse to accept their deliverables current value. Will be vulnerable to innovators who bring the awareness of a better experience.

Innovators are determined to create exceptional experiences; they base those new experiences on what they believe the old way refuses to improve.

Then, the innovators set out on a path to educate the old way's satisfied customers on the better experience.

It's customer experience that feeds customer satisfaction, so don't let your customers starve in satisfaction.

"Status quo is the killer of all that will be invented."

Ray Stasieczko, Host - The End Of The Day With Ray!