So I got a flood of responses from other bloggers to my question: How do you define "customer experience?" Read part 1 here. Listen to my interview of Susan Abbott, which started this conversation.
Adam Lawrence, of Work*Play*Experience writes:
"I can't find fault with your 'inside and outside' thoughts, but I do have trouble with one particular part of Susan's definition—although I love her work otherwise.
If all we do is 'remove irritants,' we end up with something which is unobjectionable—no more. (I'm really trying hard to avoid the 'irritant-pearl' metaphor here—it's too corny!) To me, unobjectionable means bland, tasteless, and unexciting. In designing customer experiences, we should be aiming high and aiming to touch emotions. A good experience design will not only meet and exceed a customers' expectations, it will even exceed their hopes. Thus, our definition of customer experience needs to include the expectations and hopes that a customer brings with them. It will include all their senses—including their sense of timing and sense of humor. Most importantly, it will resonate with their understanding of how the world is put together.
This last point is critical, for everyone understands the world differently, and will find meaning in different things. I firmly believe that is impossible to make a truly remarkable (emotionally affective, fan-creating, discussable) experience which everybody enjoys. Like good products and good services, good customer experiences are in some way unique—and are thus not for everyone.
I disagree that the customer experience ends when the customer leaves the site. Experience designers should be endeavoring to create memorable experiences - and that means creating memories. This can be supported by memorabilia, and by community marketing such as websites where the customer can view pictures of their special day. Ideally, a great customer experience will pop up and say "remember me?" just as you were about to forget it..."
For another approach, read Mark Hurst's take from Good Experience.
Here's what Helene Blowers of Library Bytes had to say:
"I think removing irritants is interesting, but personally I think the customer experience is more about the intangibles of making customers feel good about themselves. When they feel good about themselves as a result of your product or service, then you have a win-win in my book."
Read her full post here.
What do you think? Post your comment by clicking "comments" below.
Technorati Tags: customer experience, visitor experience, Adam Lawrence, Mark Hurst, Helene Blowers
