Create Powerful Customer Experiences

When a consumer is stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire, and a phone, all they want is a simple, how-to video that explains where to put the jack and how to easily loosen the first lug bolt. The content could even be computer-generated as long as it hits the mark in terms of having the right information.

It seems simple from a consumer perspective, but too often, brands fail to deliver the basic information and experiences that customers expect and need.

According to the 2017 Gartner Customer Experience in Marketing Survey, 81% of marketing leaders responsible for customer experience (CX) say their companies will mostly or completely compete on the basis of CX in two years. Yet only 22% say their CX efforts have exceeded customer expectations.

It starts by furnishing the key information customers need, in their moment of need, such as a how-to video to fix a flat tire.

“CX is not a game of chance,” says Augie Ray, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner. “Get prepared to play the right game.”

CX is underperforming where it matters most — for customers — and what brands can do to move beyond just solving today’s problems for today’s customers using today’s processes.

The Gartner Customer Experience Pyramid is a framework for building effective experiences that lift satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy and start to chip away at the chasm between expectation and reality.

Stage No. 3: Solve my needs when I ask

This stage means it’s time for the brand to address specific needs, wants and requests. For example, when a customer has a flat tire, they want the car to drive as it was before they got the flat. The service agent might arrive with a fully functional replacement tire or fix the flat tire on the spot.

Stage No. 5: Make me better, safer or more powerful

The top of the pyramid is reserved for exceptional CX practices that fundamentally redefine the customer experience and what customers can become as a result of using the product or service. Not just providing customers with superpowers, but making them feel like they have superpowers. This level might be as simple, and as complex, as dispatching a luxury self-driving vehicle to whisk a stranded customer to work at the push of a button — and delivering their fixed, washed and waxed car to their driveway while they are at work.

As companies move up the pyramid they need to take steps to reduce risk, such as gathering appropriate voice of customer data and even expanding their vision to include the entire customer journey.

For anyone who has endured pouring rain while waiting for a cab to arrive, ordering and waiting for transportation from the comfort of home starts to feel like a superpower.

This article has been updated from the original, published on May 16, 2018, to reflect new events, conditions or research.