All I Want For Christmas Is You!
My 3 best customer experiences in 2022. Please feel free to share your experiences!
We are approaching Christmas time and the important Christmas shopping season where the customer is in the centre of everything, in other words it should be You!
Therefore, I would like to reflect upon my own best customer experiences during 2022. I call this the Dinner Table stories. I learnt this from Jacob Schram, previous President and CEO of Circle K/Statoil Fuel&Retail Europe and previous President and CEO of Norwegian, the airline company:
When you are with family or friends for dinner, you often share good or bad experiences during a day, very often consumer or customer related, and you don’t share the average experience, but you share something which was great or bad during that day or during that week, the dinner table story! Being part of a dinner table story as a company or as an institution can be great for your brand if the experience is positive, not so if it’s the opposite.
My number 1 customer experience 26 November 2022:
Apple: I had been trying to get hold of the Apple watch series 8 through traditional online and multichannel retailers for a week, without any success. Turned out Saturday afternoon, a bit frustrated, that I went directly to apple.com, and what an experience for several reasons: The information available about the watch, the lay-out and the design at the web pages, but more importantly how easy the order and check out process was and the information around stock availability. But there is more: Just after the order made, I got useful information about the delivery process. Monday afternoon at 6 pm almost the exact time announced on Sunday through messenger from Apple on my I-phone, I received the watch delivered at my doorstep by a DHL Express man, properly dressed in a nice uniform, with free freight included in the price, and with gift wrapping with a personal message, just as told on the web site.
My number 2 customer experience 1 July 2022:
REMA 1000 Norway: In Norway, during July you normally just get Norwegian tomatoes for different reasons: It’s politically correct, toll barriers and probably some other reasons as well. Problem is that the taste is not that great, or at least it varies. At REMA 1000, a discount retailer in Norway, you can also get the Italian tomatoes, Miss Perfect, during July, and they have a perfect taste, shape and with attractive price points. The taste is very consistent all the time. I have heard people saying that the tomatoes are so good that it’s worth a trip to the store in itself, just like a 3 star Michelin restaurant. The tomatoes have become a differentiator factor. More choices for the consumers.
My number 3 customer experience 1 October 2022:
Lufthansa. On our way to the Sardinia from Oslo via Frankfurt, we stopped by the Lufthansa Lounge in Frankfurt as we had an hour between the flights. We were met by a friendly staff, who immediately informed us that the flight was on time (with a smile saying as we always strive to be on time) and where the gate was, and with a walking distance of 5 minutes and we should leave the lounge in 35 minutes. But the staff also informed that since you have a SAS diamond card they would recommend the Lufthansa Senator lounge, just 1 minute’ walk where they would have even more space and even better food and drinks.
Forgive me if these examples are too simple, or too “premium” or too obvious, but it’s my own experience, as a consumer, not as a consultant or as a business leader! I am taking the freedom to tell my own consumer stories.
But what does this all boil down to, the way I see it?
It boils down to 2 things from my side:
It´s all about customer centricity. What does the customer really want? Taste for tomatoes for example is important for many customers, and then one should deliver on that. Stock availability and quick delivery is important for many customers and the information during the delivery, so deliver on that, all the time. And an extra smile with some extra information in an airline lounge, doesn´t cost you that much; it´s customer oriented.
Exceeding expectations is not that difficult, probably because customers very often have low expectations. That could be related to the fact that are many poor performers out there, so it´s a huge possibility to exceed expectations, both for small and big companies. There is more to do for almost all companies to be more customer oriented.
Do you have any good customer experiences during 2022? Please feel free to share them. I don’t want the bad ones, just the good ones!
A good dinner table story before Christmas!
