Services

For CEOs and Managers it’s a constant challenge to really understand how customers perceive the experience they receive.

The main problem they face is not getting a good and true picture of the real experience customers go through, what is important to them, what are the unwanted subconscious clues the organization gives to customers, how do they feel and what are their unmet needs. This leads to loss of customers, value and growth opportunities.

Many believe that they know what customers want as they themselves are customers but this only brings upfront their own biases. Some rely on secret shoppers but most secret shoppers don’t really do transactions or if they do those will be simple ones, not the kind that really affect customer loyalty (like going through the process of getting a mortgage) and those secret shoppers report on things the organization thought are important not what customers perceive as important or what is proven to drive customer loyalty.

The main reasons for the lack of good and quality insights are:

• Often managers believe that they know what customers want as they themselves are customers but this only brings forward their own biases.
• The “secret shopper” programs do not give a complete and reliable picture. Most secret shoppers are not real customers, don’t really do transactions or if they do those will be simple ones, not the kind that really affect customer loyalty (like going through the process of getting a mortgage), don’t walk the full customer journey and report on things the organization thought are important not what customers perceive as important or what is proven to drive customer loyalty.
• Often there is no measurement scheme in place which measures key aspects of the experience that are proven to affect customer loyalty and purchase behavior.

In order to establish the actual experience customers go through and see it from their perspective, we walk the customer journey. With our trained eyes, we pay attention to the subconscious stimuli and emotional interactions, which influence the customer perception and form memories. We also know that customers do not always take the most rational route so we look at the behavioral economics principles which could affect customer behavior.

When being the customer is not possible (as with most B2B journeys) or as an addition, we conduct interviews with customers to get an in-depth view of their journey and establish the moments of truth, their unmet needs, and potential quick wins.

This way we gain “empathy” (walking the customer journey or through in-depth interviews), which is the first step for a more innovative and human-centered design of experiences, products, services and you name it…