Mark Heymann, Managing Partner. Mark Heymann & Assoc. HFTP Hall of Fame; BA Economics Brown Univ, MS Business, Columbia Univ.
As the use of technology continues to increase in the customer’s buying and product use journey, a question arises as to how this impacts the customer’s perception of service quality and, therefore, their loyalty to a company’s product.
Customer perception refers to the views of your business products and every experience the consumers have had with your company. Key components of this perception are first impressions, consistency, emotional connection (empathy) and any post-service issue handling. Further, perception may well outweigh the advantages of pricing features, and location.
One of the areas that has taken center stage in today’s environment regarding service quality perception is the advent and impact of loyalty programs on the general consumer experience. In looking at my personal, as well as other individuals’, experiences with products, suppliers frequently use a quick automatic reaction of added loyalty points to solve any issues. And in some cases, that may well be sufficient to maintain consumer loyalty, as extraordinarily little we do today doesn’t earn us loyalty points.
But as technology continues to expand and become more intertwined in our customer experience, how can organizations truly create additional competitive advantage by measurably enhancing the direct customer experience.
In our travel today, we do all the buying work. We go online, book a ticket, get a QR code and board the airplane. This has been going on for years and is now expanding into many other service-related businesses in today’s economy. We go to a restaurant, fast-food or table service and order off a kiosk or our cell phones. We make a hotel reservation, choose our room, get a mobile room key and go directly to our room for the length of our stay.
In these and other experiences, we have reached a point where human interaction in some cases has essentially diminished to zero—to a degree completely contrary to the early remarks in this article regarding perception and the importance of first impressions and emotional connection.
Loyalty points and positive service interaction are two sides of the same coin, maintaining customer engagement. Positive service interactions affect customer satisfaction, trust and willingness to engage with the service provider.
The challenge, though, is that our service environments are creating less and less opportunity for this critical service interaction and, therefore, putting far more pressure on creating engagement through loyalty points alone. Further, there are many service businesses whose frequency of service and buying opportunities are limited, and therefore, loyalty points may not be the best solution for brand engagement.
This leads us to having to take a far harder look at every moment of truth (times during the customer journey that they form an opinion on a business) that can occur in the overall service experience. In taking this more extensive look at these interactive opportunities, we need to recognize how critical each occasion has now become. And with this, organizations need to heighten their focus on staff and team training.
Looking at a hotel for the moment and the various roles that team members play, there has long been a division between staff that interacts with a guest and staff that does not interact directly with the guest. It is easy to see the areas where direct interaction can occur, the front desk, the restaurant, the doorman and bell service. Departments such as housekeeping, kitchen and other “back of the house” positions members have limited opportunity to interact with the guest, although their work surely has a strong impact on the customer perceptions.
With the digital world that we have been speaking about, and in staying with our hotel example, I have recently stayed at various properties where I go directly from the front door to my room without any human interaction whatsoever. Yes, I walk past team members, and often, unless I say hello or greet them, silence follows me to my room. This happens also in other service-related experiences where technology has become increasingly dominant, for example airplane travel.
Long-term, what does this mean for the service industry? One reality may be that we can no longer afford to have a difference between staff that have direct customer interaction and staff that do not have direct customer interaction.
Each team member that has an opportunity to observe a guest must be trained to initiate a positive experience. This may be simply saying, “hello,” “thanks for staying with us,” “can I help you with something or clarify anything for you?” or simply looking at the guest with a smile on their face and help ensure the guests understands how important they are to that business.
Even the staff that does not have an opportunity to be face-to-ace with a customer must be trained to ensure that they do their tasks to the highest level of quality. Room cleanliness, proper plate presentation for the restaurant, utensils and glassware needs to be spotless. Food that is delivered to a table needs to be done in a manner where the guest feels welcomed and appreciated for their patronage.
This heightened experiential, interactive approach may well demand new levels of service training, but if an organization is to continue to drive competitive advantage, it cannot afford to only depend on loyalty points for success. Heightened levels of training will set the foundation for the creation of additional advantage. Regular follow-up with team members, periodic performance appraisals, frequent surveys of attitude and leading by example will be critical as the face of service continues to change.
Organizations need to ensure that human resource management is put on a par with all other operating aspects of the business. As investments continue to be made in product quality, marketing and customer outreach, especially in the technology sphere, those same investments need to be made in the human capital of the organization for success and optimization to be fully achieved.
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