It's the experience, stupid

 

I just heard a psychologist talking about how people perform better when they feel they are being watched or 'on show'. It reminded me of Pine & Gilmore's book, The Experience Economy, and the notion that all business is now theatre and your people are players.

It also reminded me of a recent experience when I accompanied my wife to the Anglesey Tourism Awards dinner.  Each course was introduced by the chef and then the servers swept in, from two doors on the side. taking two tables at a time, each behind a dinner guest .

I watched them step back in unison and glance at the head waiter, who gave a small signal with a nod of his head, like a conductor of an orchestra setting the timing.

All sixteen or so moved forward at the same time, like dancers, and placed the next dish before the guest in front of them. Then they stepped back, all turned as if in military formation, and strode out the door. Some of them were smiling to themselves in satisfaction. I wanted to give them a round of applause. 

They repeated this, serving two tables at a time until all 160 guests had been served.  We were on one of the last tables to be served, but the wait did not seem to matter and all the guests on our table got fresh food all at once. 

This wasn't serving a meal. It was choreographed theatre. It was art.

All work is now theatre. Your customer experience will be all the better for it once you realise that.

 


Outlaw the words "no problem"

A lot of customer service people answer a customer request with the words ‘No problem’. It’s snuck over from the States – as has the word ‘snuck’. And it’s about just as welcome. Ban it. Here’s why.

When you say the words "No problem", for a fraction of a second, you are giving the customer the exact opposite meaning to the one you intended.

We are programmed to listen for ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and react accordingly. For a fraction of a second, your customer’s emotional responses – which by-pass their slower, conscious thinking processes – will respond to the word ‘No’ before the word ‘problem’ comes along to make the meaning clear.

It only takes a fraction of a second. But our emotional responses – fight or flight syndrome and all that primeval stuff – have response rates of milliseconds.

Your customer won’t necessarily know why, but they won’t feel as reassured by what your frontline representative said as you might think.

Let’s promote all the nice things one can say to a customer in stead of those two negative words. “It’s my pleasure,” “I’m happy to help,” “You’re welcome,” etc.

Creating a more POSITIVE customer experience is the goal. Language plays an important, even if subtle part of the whole impression.