The Hidden Power of Your Customers: Four Keys to Growing Your Business Through Existing Customers

DESIGN THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE END-TO-END

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: Never leave the customer experience to chance. Your organization can create an experience that consistently meets your customers’ needs and supports your brand.

To achieve that, you need to design a plan for how customers will engage with your business, across all the areas where they interact with you—the customer touch points with your organization and its people.

Crafting the Customer Experience

When you examine the customer experience you provide from your customers’ point of view, you will likely find that they interact with your organization in various ways—some that you expect and some that you don’t. “Customers Rock!” companies understand the various experiences of their customers and design improvements and make adjustments with them in mind—including how best to handle potential pain points.

Let's look at a laudable example of such a plan, “imagineered” (to use a Disney term) by Walt Disney Theme Parks. The following lists itemize a few of the concepts Disney has introduced in planning the theme park experience from a guest's (customer’s) point of view.

Time Savers

• FastPass: This brilliant—and free—service allows guests to reserve a window of time for going on some of the most popular attractions. Guests receive a piece of paper, branded with a logo for each ride, that tells them when they can join the special FastPass queue. This queue puts them on the ride after little or no wait ...