No matter how you strive to improve your company's customer experience, the truth is that the customers won't remember much of it.
That's because our minds aren't wired like a camcorder, recording every second of every experience. Rather, what we should remember are a series of snapshots.
And those snapshots aren't taken at random. Your camera shutter opens to capture the peaks and valleys in the experience – the really high points and the really low points. Most everything else, all of the parts of the experience that are just “meh,” fade in to the background and disappear from our memory.
So, our recollections are less “streaming video” and much more “still photograph.” But what does this relate to the client experience? Well, creating a great customer experience is a lot about shaping memories.
For a business to derive strategic and economic advantage from the customer experience, individuals need to remember it positively. When a friend or colleague asks you – “what do you consider of [Company X]?” – your fact is grounded in your recollection of the experience, that is different from the experience itself.
That's since your assessment from the experience, the basis for repurchase and referral behavior, will not be derived from some meticulous calculation of the ratio between pleasantness and unpleasantness. Rather, you'll be making that judgment just in line with the snapshots that your memory has had in the encounter.
This is the reason why firms that excel at customer experience recognize that they're in the industry of shaping memories, not just experiences.
They take advantage of cognitive science to influence what people will remember, strategically creating “peaks” in the experience that will outnumber and outweigh the “valleys.”
Their success in this regard is the reason why customers can remember the experience so positively, even when every portion of it had not been “delightful.” (DisneyWorld's customers spend considerable time waiting in line at the park, but when they go back home using their vacation, it isn't the lines they remember – it is the attractions.)
There are many strategies exceptional companies use to positively influence customer memories, however they all essentially involve making more and better peaks, as well as fewer and fewer deep valleys.
Great companies also recognize that it's alright if there are areas of the customer experience that are just average (as long as they don't involve interactions which are fundamental to customers). What's more important would be to make certain there are at least certain parts of the experience which will generate those positive, memorable “peak” snapshots.
Conversely, one must address aspects of the experience that may be leaving customers with memorable (but negative) “valley” snapshots. (Note that those valleys don't necessarily have to be converted into peaks, however they a minimum of need to be moved nearer to “sea level.”)
As you're employed to distinguish your company in the marketplace, keep an eye out for all those peaks and valleys. They're the characteristics of the customer experience landscape which will shape people's perceptions and, ultimately, their brand loyalty. And that's something worth remembering.
