What do you do when a customer is unhappy with your service? Do you know how to improve customer experience at your business?
A crucial part of ensuring your company’s success is improving your most valuable customers’ experiences. This will further increase their value and help your company succeed.
Let’s focus on Mike Michalowicz’s method for turning customers’ dissatisfaction into delight.
Turn Dissatisfaction Into Delight
You can learn how to improve customer experience by turning their dissatisfaction into delight—or fulfilling their wish lists, as Michalowicz frames it. Michalowicz says that your customers are likely dissatisfied with your industry in some way. If you can identify what irritates them or what they want done differently, you may be able to alleviate this dissatisfaction. Since these are industrywide problems, being the only one solving them will make your customers happier and make your company more unique and attractive (as discussed in the section on differentiation).
(Shortform note: When identifying customers’ irritations, you may want to focus on ones that are long-lasting, as well as industrywide. In Perennial Seller, Ryan Holiday says that successful, long-lasting products address timeless issues, not trends. Other business experts recommend researching why other companies in your industry haven’t addressed widespread issues yet. By learning what they’ve tried and why they haven’t succeeded, you can avoid making the same mistakes and instead find a truly unique and innovative solution.)
Michalowicz suggests interviewing your most valuable customers to identify the reasons for their dissatisfaction. Your questions should be industry-focused, not company-focused, he stresses. If you ask customers what they want your company specifically to change, they may be uncomfortable giving an honest answer. If you focus on the industry as a whole, you’re more likely to get a real answer. (Shortform note: Even with industry-focused questions, you may struggle to get real answers. In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell says we often struggle to articulate how we feel about things because our perceptions rely on intuition, not logic. When we try to verbalize what we feel, we end up inventing explanations that sound logical but are inaccurate.)
Once you’ve identified why your customers are dissatisfied, brainstorm ways to improve their experiences. The method you use will depend on your industry and the source of dissatisfaction: If you run a grocery store and customers complain about long lines, you may offer self-checkout as a new service, but if they complain about high prices, you may make deals with local farmers to buy produce more cheaply so you can then lower your own prices.
(Shortform note: You could also potentially identify customers’ dissatisfactions by noticing when and why they feel intense emotions like anxiety. This is especially important for companies in industries that already carry emotional weight, some business experts say, like funeral services or insurance companies. Customers are usually emotionally charged for one of four reasons: They’re unfamiliar with or don’t understand the service you’re providing, they can’t control your process, there will be serious consequences if things go wrong, or the service takes a long time to complete. To improve their experiences, identify which parts of your process will likely trigger negative emotions, respond to those emotions quickly, and help the customers feel in control.)
Finally, propose your solution to your most valuable customers, and ask for feedback. Since they’re the ones you’re trying to help, they’re the best people to judge whether your plan will work. Michalowicz says to revise your plan until customers ask follow-up questions like how much the new service would cost or when you’re going to implement the new strategy. These questions show that customers are excited about your solution and that your plan would significantly improve their experience.
(Shortform note: In How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie recommends a similar process when trying to attract new customers. If a customer isn’t receptive to your pitch, ask what specifically they liked or didn’t like about your product and what they’d prefer. These questions can help you improve your product and pitch to be more effective, like Michalowicz says. However, Carnegie adds that just talking about the product can make people more likely to buy it, even before you make adjustments. This is because people like coming up with and executing their own ideas. It makes them feel smart and in control. So, people become invested by sharing their thoughts about your product and thus think about it more positively.)
