With spring boat sales slower than desired, the importance of dealing with customers is even more pronounced than usual. But should the focus be on customer service or the customer experience?
No, they’re not the same thing.
I learned that from Bruce Jones, the retired, 32-year veteran leader and architect of the Disney Institute’s training for business professionals, which I attended a few years ago in Orlando. (The Disney Institute is the professional development arm of The Walt Disney Co.)
It provided me an opportunity to go behind the scenes to observe first-hand some of the methodologies at Disney World, and it confirmed what I always thought: Disney is the model of good customer service. Or is it good customer experience?
If you’re like me, you likely assume they’re one in the same. So here are some of what Jones has said about this to institute attendees, written in articles in the Harvard Business Review and told to audiences at professional group meetings. And his observations definitely call for some serious reflection, as our dealerships are in the prime boat sales season.
“The term ‘customer experience’ is ubiquitous in business these days,” Jones contends. “In fact, focusing on the customer experience has become the single, most important way for an organization to achieve success — often becoming its key differentiator and competitive advantage.”
Defined, customer experience is the sum of all interactions a customer has with a dealership. It includes everything from a customer’s initial awareness or discovery of the dealership, product or service, and progresses through the purchase and use of the products or services. Together these all add up to the critical moments — the touch points — that create any organization’s overall customer experience.
Jones cites an example of a car dealership he worked with to better understand what customer experience is. He analyzed and created in the entire organization an intentional effort realigned and focused around exceeding customer expectations at every touch point. Over time, sales in the dealership increased 26%.
“The key learning here,” Jones emphasizes, “is that customer experience moves us beyond the traditional definition of customer service, which is those individual moments when employees are providing direct service to customers. It is about the bigger picture of what happens before and after these service interactions.”
This distinction is more important than ever. Customer experience must be approached holistically, with those responsible for each area of a company’s offerings giving intentional focus to how their decisions will shape and impact the overall customer experience. Jones offers three actions dealers can take to raise the customer experience.
1. Create an organizational common purpose. It’s a succinct explanation of what you want the customer experience to be at an emotional level (sound like Disney?), and it is the essential foundation on which all other service decisions can be developed. It represents to the dealer team what you stand for, why you exist, and it’s your primary tool for getting everyone on the same page.
2. Get to know your customers holistically. Your knowledge of the customer must extend far beyond the boundaries of traditional sales and service criteria. Truly understanding their needs, wants, experiences and emotions is key to genuine personalized interactions. And that leads to repeat sales.
3. Don’t view exceptional service as an expense. Rather, it’s an economic asset and should always be considered as such. Repeat business and lifetime customer relationship potential are always at hand. So the return on investment for providing a consistently exceptional customer experience clearly justifies short-term costs.
Customer experience is about much more than just good customer service. It’s about fostering all employee engagement in the dealership. It’s about understanding and knowing the customers. It’s about creating a plan for delivering exceptional customer service and empowering employees to make it happen.
It’s also about training leaders to recognize and reinforce the right behaviors, and take action on the dealership’s areas of opportunity.
The opportunity to attend some Disney Institute sessions was amazing. After all, there are none better than Mickey and Minnie at creating a great customer experience that has millions returning year after year. The methods and business insights shared at the institute are time-tested examples from Disney parks and resorts — “living examples” that can help dealerships develop a customer experience culture.
Click here for more about the Disney Institute.
