Articles, Experience Design, Service Design

As an “ex-expat” who has recently returned to Canada from Japan, I find myself suffering from the occasional bout of reverse-culture shock.

From Wikipedia: Reverse Culture Shock (a.k.a. Re-entry Shock) – “Returning to one’s home culture after growing accustomed to a new one can produce (feelings of anxiety, surprise, confusion, etc) . The affected person often finds this more surprising and difficult to deal with than the original culture shock”.

I find this “shock” seems to manifest itself in a rather heightened sensitivity to the customer service experience – including any interaction at the retail level, with call-centre staff, and everything in between. The customer is revered in Japan, and the service provider/customer relationship is one of deep respect, attentiveness, and efficiency. If you think about it, this kind of attitude makes good sense….the customer is the one paying the bills, and therefore, should be receiving a certain amount of deference from the service provider, similar to that which would be given to your boss (who similarly, is the provider and means of your livelihood). To be clear, however, a service interaction is not an invitation for the customer to be rude to the staff – certainly respect needs to run both ways.

This kind of attitude manifested itself in every service interaction I can remember in Japan…upon my walking into any given convenience store, store staff would pop up behind counters, aisles, wherever, and yell “Welcome!”. I could then proceed to stand and read a magazine off the rack for an hour, and head to the door with or without having bought anything….at which point the staff pop out again and yell “Thanks very much for coming”!!!. This level of service contrasts sharply with the hand-written sign that I can see in my local 7-11 in Toronto: “This is NOT a LIBRARY!!! Buy or get out!!!”

Many organizations here in North America claim to provide a superior level of customer service:

“Walmart is committed to giving Canadians the best shopping experience in the marketplace by delivering everyday low prices, exceptional customer service, top-quality merchandise, and extensive community involvement, philanthropy and corporate social responsibility”.
“(Rogers) will:

• Deliver world class customer service to our existing clients and new subscribers by listening, understanding and responding to their inquiries in a positive manner regarding their accounts, services, options and promotions

• Offer solutions that are adapted to the customer’s needs”

Other firms, such as Ramada Hotels, steer clear of making ANY kind of customer service promise on its website (at least, none that I could find). This is perhaps consistent with Ramada’s positioning as a low-cost, value provider, and it is clear that they would like to avoid making any promises that the actual experience cannot match.

I would ask the reader: have you had any recent service experiences with the firms above (Wal-mart, Rogers, Ramada)? Would you describe the experience as “exceptional”, or “world class”, or would you have a different choice of words? What impact did these experience have on your desire to go back?

I know I am not the only one picking up on this….my opinion on service standards here in North America is that a positive experience is either not delivered at all (ie, a company has no clear expectatoins for staff as to the interaction with customers), or service is delivered half-heartedly. In this case, the employee has a clear idea of what needs to be done, but fatiuge or a lack of motivation prevents the experience from being delivered well. Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, (a stellar movie about an average man stuck in a hyper-branded future populated by morons) lampoons this well:

My feeling is that we in North America put up with this kind of experience because we generally have low expectations as to what should happen between a customer and the service staff…we don’t know how good it can be. While an improvement in service design needs to be tailored to the specific industry/interaction, I would further argue that most service interactions should be initiated by a prompt and earnest greeting by the staff, and an inquiry on how to be of service…not the sullen “you-are-disturbing-me” or “I am going through the motions but would rather be somewhere else” attitudes that seems to be prevalent across multiple industries. My evidence of this kind of experience is anecdotal, but I would wager that the reader has had such an experience and knows exactly what I am talking about?

The defence left to the customer is a powerful one: choice. The next time you are experiencing a service interaction where you are not treated both as a person and a valued source of income; consider taking your business elsewhere. I would imagine that you can remember some rather exceptional customer experiences that you have encountered in the past few months. Thinking about that experience, what impact does it have on your perception of the service provider? I recall an exceptional experience at an IHOP of all places, which has made my wife and I plan to visit the chain on every future trip to the ‘States. Perhaps this illustrates the power that great customer service can have on loyalty; there is a lot of empirical customer research that shows that customers who defect often have rated their experience with the company as ‘satisfactory’ – and almost as likely to leave as those who rate the experience as ‘poor’. It is only a truly exceptional experience that can drive the customer into the realm of delight – and thus to loyalty to a brand, product, or service.

The challenge is upon the service provider to continually raise the bar and provide an experience that delights; the old methods of providing a unique customer experience (such as a few mumbled words from a disengaged greeter) no longer provide the delight they once did. The creation of an exceptional customer experience seems to hinge around the service provider first understanding the needs and expectations of customers at a transaction/interaction level, and then finding new and creative ways to engage and motivate frontline staff, (including empowerment techniques) and the linking of compensation to customer satisfaction tracking results.

In an ever-shrinking world, where many CPG companies are looking globally for inspiration, perhaps it is time for service companies to do the same?