As a prelude to an Asian tour that will include Bangkok later this year, well-known speaker and author Scott McKain presented some key insights from his latest book "The Ultimate Customer Experience" at a recent event co-hosted by the Thailand Management Association. The Nation's Pichaya Changsorn was there to cover the event:
Scott McKain's all-time favourite song is John Cougar Mellencamp's "Small Town", in which the singer extols life in the small town of his birth.
The song takes McKain back to Crothersville, in the US state of Indiana - the same "small town" - where he grew up, and where his parents ran the only grocery store in town.
McKain said he still remembered clearly the day when the owner of a nearby cloth shop rushed to his family's grocery store to tell his parents that building works had begun to make way for construction of a supermarket.
"Our fear and excitement rose to the same level [as his]," he recalled.
When the supermarket opened, it was another day that McKain would never forget. The supermarket's parking lot was already full, even before the doors opened, while at his parents' store it was already 11am, the doors had been open for four hours, and not one customer had come in.
Then, unexpectedly, a farmer stopped his car outside and jumped into the store.
"At 12 [years of age], I became fascinated by what it took. Why did that customer chose to do business with us? Why didn't he use our new competitor?"
The young McKain waited until the farmer came out and asked: "Why did you shop here?"
Appearing embarrassed, the farmer took a while before replying: "Oh, you know. Because you guys like me!"
The farmer's response, McKain said, taught him a fundamental lesson about business: that, in addition to products and services, customers are looking for "experience". Consequently, "all business is show business," he said, using the title of one of his three business books.
McKain said nothing was required for something to be regarded as a commodity. What a business has to do is find ways to distinguish itself from the rest.
"It's not about the price. It's about differentiation. You can drink free water from a fountain, but other people can still sell their water. This is the same for currency [in the case of Master Card and Visa], water, or coffee," he said, pointing out that Starbucks can sell its coffee for US$4 (Bt129) a cup.
In order to differentiate, businesses need to gain insights into what their customers "really want". McKain's studies have revealed that regardless of the products and services being sold, anywhere in the world, there are six things that customers really want:
1. A compelling experience (in the course of being served).
2. Reciprocal loyalty (despite endless prospecting).
3. Differentiation (in the midst of sameness).
4. Coordination (in the midst of confusion).
5. Innovation (while maintaining the status quo).
6. Personal focus (despite a focus on the product).
McKain said there were three possible levels in a customer's interaction with a business: process, service and experience. The factors that create a "level-three" organisation, which excels in offering a memorable customer experience, are:
-Superior information. Do you know more than your competitor?
-Systemic empathy. Do you care more than your competitor?
-Obsession for sensation. Do you focus more sharply than your competitor?
"It's at level three [experience] that new business is created. That's when I feel that your organisation truly cares about my needs," he said. However, he pointed out that customer experience would only become meaningful if the first two steps, process and service, were fulfilled flawlessly.
In his latest book, McKain provides five steps that an organisation or a person can take to create the "ultimate customer experience"; to excite their customers, expand their profits, engage their colleagues and enjoy their work:
1. Make a great first impression.
2. Don't make it right...get it right!
3. Serve with empathy.
4. Connect with emotion.
5. Take personal responsibility.
McKain told his audience how he became a customer for life of rental-car firm Hertz. Driving in New York City for the first time, his rental car was involved in an accident with a truck. Shocked by the incident and the air bag that inflated with a thunderous sound, McKain said he called the police and checked the condition of the truck's driver. Then, "like a robot", he read the rental record number and told a member of Hertz's staff the exact spot on the highway where the accident had occurred, and began to tell her that he needed a wrecker for the car, a ride to the airport and assistance with the accident claim. However, before he could get that all out - and just after she received the record number - she interrupted:
"Mr McKain - I understand. Sir, first off...are you all right?"
"Well, I'm a little wobbly right now, but I'm not injured."
"I want you to be completely, absolutely positive that you are uninjured," she said. "Hertz can always get another car. But we can never get another Mr McKain."
The story exemplifies how perfectly the Hertz staff had followed the three levels of customer interaction. Firstly, the staff member got "the process" right by quickly finding information from the rental record he had provided, got his name correct while offering him the services he needed, and then moved up to "level-three" by making a personal and emotional connection.
"That's what customer experience is all about. That's when new business is created," he said. From using Hertz services half of the time, McKain said he now used Hertz all of the time and had become an advocate, telling other people about the company.
Scott McKain is also co-founder and principal of the Value Added Institute, a think tank that examines the role of customer experience in creating significant advances in the level of client loyalty.