Crafting the Customer Experience For People Not Like You: How to Delight and Engage the Customers Your Competitors Don't Understand

DIFFERENT CUSTOMERS CARE ABOUT DIFFERENT THINGS

Not all customers are the same. We don’t all have the same priorities, concerns, or needs. Many women, for example, are uncomfortable having strangers come to their homes, particularly if that stranger is a man. I have several single female friends who always choose to meet vendors and repairmen at their offices or workplaces whenever possible, because they don’t want a stranger to know that they live alone. But it’s not always realistic to meet someone at your place of work. After all, if you need a plumber to fix your toilet, that plumber must come to your home.

Safelite Auto Glass crafted a customer service benefit that was clearly developed for women. Once an appointment is scheduled, they informally “introduce” the technician to the customer by e-mail and include a photo of the technician who will be doing the work; they also inform the customer what time the technician will arrive. Wow! Although this is a service that everyone can benefit from, it’s clearly designed to put women’s minds at ease. By knowing what the technician looks like and what time to expect him or her, clients’ anxiety of having a “stranger” come to their homes is reduced. What a terrific service! It’s so simple—but it shows how the company really understands women and is working hard to be a woman’s preferred provider of auto glass repair. They are providing a solution to a specific fear or anxiety that many women have: having a stranger come to their home. ...