Article

Getting clued-in to managing customer experiences

Satisfaction, loyalty and invested customers are based on deeper emotional engagement and less on rational thought.

August 12, 2013

By Lou Carbone, founder, president and chief experience officer of Experience Engineering

Your guests cannot NOThave an experience. The question is how managed or intentional is the experience they have!

When customers come to your restaurant they are filtering a barrage of clues that effect their emotions, which influence their attitudes and ultimately their behaviors. What they see, smell, hear, taste and touch create their experience and affect them emotionally — even though they aren't conscious it's happening.

Researchers have found that 95 percent of our mental processing takes place unconsciously. Guests' impressions and loyalties are not based on conscious rational thought. Which is why understanding and acting on howthey think and how to affect that is today's most definitive competitive edge. Much research and effort is expended on what customers think — their opinions. Time and time again what customers say they want or positively react to is actually contrary to their actual behavior.

What emotions are evoked by the music played in your restaurant? How do the words and gestures of your counter employees make guests feel? The signage, the look and feel of the menu board, the lighting, the cleanliness in the restrooms, the flow of traffic in the parking lot — your customers are unconsciously processing all of these sensory clues. And they're forming attitudes and opinions about your brand accordingly. The ultimate value is the effect you have on them. How intentional are you in managing all the elements causing that effect.

Traditionally, brand building has been about what the brand needs to project to affect customers' impressions of its product or service. In the 21st century, however, the focus must turn to being about how the brand experience makes customers feel. What is the effect of the total experience on the customer? Customers need and want to feel certain emotions when experiencing a brand. They may want to feel significant when dealing with a bank, understood when at a hospital, lighthearted when dining out, or relaxed when checking in to a hotel. Designing and consistently executing "clues" in an experience that elicit these unconscious emotions and build sustainable customer engagement is what sets beloved brands apart from the rest.

A customer-back business

To understand how your customers want to feel requires thinking and framing a business "customer-back," rather than from the company-out. When companies think and look at everything from the customer's perspective rationally and emotionally it helps decipher the emotional code customers want to feel and use this intelligence to design and unlock delivering compelling customer experiences.

It's critically important to remember that customer satisfaction isn't a predictor of customer loyalty. Most defectors are actually satisfied customers. Satisfaction, loyalty and invested customers are based on deeper emotional engagement and less on rational thought.

A case study in customer experience

We recently worked with a fast casual restaurant chain that features Chinese cuisine to measure its customer experience. It's important to note that when visiting a restaurant, customers process two primary types of clues to judge their experience: 1. Mechanic, which are the ambience and other design and technical elements, and 2. Humanic, which are the performance, behavior and appearance of the employees. The latter has been proven to be a primary driver of customer engagement. The successful fusion and mechanic and humanic clues is what makes a meaningful and distinctive experience.

Research revealed that while the restaurant chain excelled at delivering an exceptional mechanical experience, the humanic side of the equation was lacking severely. There was nothing personal in the experience — no greeting from employees, no personal attention — just a well-rehearsed and albeit expertly delivered process.

Upon further examination, the chain learned that because of this imbalance, customers were satisfied but detached. Opting for a more exotic fare instead of the standard burger and fries meal, customers reported they wanted to escape, to feel a sense of adventure when eating at their restaurants. Diners wanted to feel refreshed, renewed and energized — feelings that were lacking because of the gap in the humanic clues.

Armed with this intelligence, the restaurant chain was able to intentionally redesign the dining experience. Its goal was to balance the reality of serving Chinese fast food while giving the guests a memorable experience. Too much of either will destroy the other. To do this, the way the employees serve the food was carefully choreographed to reflect the Chinese culture — demonstrating reverence to the food.

As for the three key emotions customers want to feel when eating at one of the chain's outlets, management committed to "Energizing our guest with the aromas, flavors and culinary skills of China, enlightening our guests about the wonders of Chinese culture, and caring for them with gracious hospitality."

Understanding how customers want to feel brings clarity, purpose, and alignment. Using the unconscious emotions desired by customers as a guide provides an effective alignment mechanism for ensuring all your actions are headed in the same direction. Adopting this customer-centric mindset will help your restaurants transform from selling a meal to delivering an experience that evokes desired feelings and engages customers. Purposely designing and delivering the full spectrum of clues in order to reinforce specific thoughts and emotions —how customers want to feel — is proven to help companies to optimize the value of the experiences they create.

Carbone is founder, president and chief experience officer of Experience Engineering, Inc., a Minneapolis-based experience management firm, and the author of Clued In: How to Keep Customers Coming Back Again and Again.

Cover photo: Courtesy of flickr