CX & Behavioural Science

Customer Experience is without doubt a perfect testing ground for applying the principles of behavioural science.

Every day, thousands of customers interact with a brand across multiple channels, and looking at the customer experience and customer service design through the lens of behavioural science can result in immediate improvement with little to no cost investment.

We know that customer interactions with a brand, or more importantly their perception of their interaction with a brand, is influenced considerably by the experience they have. Positive or negative, enjoyable or painful, effortful or effortless – all the elements of an experience, combined with the sequence with which they are experienced, result in the overall perception of, and likelihood to re-engage with a brand.

The increased emphasis on Customer Journey design, and the increased investment in Customer Experience Management (“CEM”) programs indicate that brands have customer satisfaction as a high priority at the executive level. However, despite this investment, the end result doesn’t often reflect the objective. ROI can be mediocre at best.

Customer interactions with the brand continue to be inconsistent, levels of customer service variable and direct interaction with customer support centres can vary depending on the day and the agent motivation.

So how can some of the behavioural science principles help maximise investment in customer experience?

Change is Hard

Acknowledge that change is hard. For most people, change creates a level of anxiety, a feeling of loss of control, some degree of psychological discomfort as the perception is change is equal to a loss.

Ensure that when changes are implemented, the customer is given ways to control and influence the degree of change. Make them feel they have options and choices, even if they are limited. Allow them to feel that they are a part of design- ing the end result. Even with very simple experience changes

– for example, allowing your customers to control the manner and method by which your brand engages with them about the change.

Two industries that have started to embrace this concept are Telecommunications and Utilities. Enabling customers to schedule their own appointments to fit with their own personal schedules has helped them feel they have some control over the situation, and as a result, has increased the level of satisfaction with the brand.

The End is Everything

Understand that customer perception of an experience relies heavily on how the experience ends. It is what sets a forgettable event apart from an encoded memory that drives future preference and action.

There is a reason why Shakespeare’s “all’s well that ends well” is part of our lexicon with regard to life in general.

When an experience ends on a positive note, despite what may have happened previously, the customer has a sense of satisfaction, well-being of reward for the time and money they have invested in the brand. And in some cases, the positive end experience can far outweigh the functional or emotional benefits of the actual product or service itself.

For restaurants, complimentary desserts, additional treats, the way in which the server hands the financial transaction all contribute to this sense of satisfaction. No matter how good the meal experience, a server who is curt, and rushes to hand you the check, tries to hurry you off the table for the next set of diners can mean you leave the restaurant feeling short- changed and your patronage undervalued, whereas the restaurants that empower their servers to create mini “moments of kindness” to customers see a greater level of satisfaction, advocacy and repeat business.

Negative Experiences Don’t Have to be Bad for Your Brand

No matter how hard brands try to control the experience delivery for customers, life often finds a way to throw a curve ball. There are times when things just don’t go to plan. What behavioural science teaches us is that depending on how a brand reacts, the end result in terms of customer satisfaction and brand affinity can often be even better than had everything gone smoothly.

Experiencing the pain of a less than stellar interaction, when balanced by a highly positive rescue interaction, can mean the good/pleasurable part of the experience is even more memorable because they’ve recently experienced the bad/painful.

One example of this is frequent travellers. A stay in a hotel, which is just one of many, that goes smoothly and without any form of disruption, can blend into a sea of experiences that get almost instantly forgotten. The same old same old.

However, the traveller who experiences a hiccough, an upheaval, perhaps a flood from the bath upstairs or a temporary loss of luggage, when faced with a highly proactive, action oriented, show-you-care recovery solution from the hotel, can mean the experience is strong enough to become an actual memory, a positive one, one that is truly memorable and will automatically positively influence hotel selection on the next trip.

Creatures of Habit

There can be no doubt that humans are creatures of habit. We like the familiar, not just because it gives us a sense of control and ownership, but also because it enables us to make a number of effortless decisions. We know what we like and we stick with it.

This is where behavioural science can really come into its own with Customer Experience and in particular CEM programs.

Knowing the customers, understanding what makes them tick, knowing their preferences, foibles, idiosyncrasies and ensuring the brand experience is designed with these in mind to ensure they can stick to their habits whilst positively engaging with and endorsing the brand, is a recipe for success.

And whilst millions are spent every year on qualitative and quantitative research studies to help brands know and understand their customers and potential customers, a CEM program that is focused on utilising the data they get from their programs beyond just service recovery and measuring transactional satisfaction can get an exponential return.

In every piece of feedback there is gold to be found in terms of customer preferences, attitudes, emotions, behaviour. Gold that can influence everything from brand experience design, brand messaging and advertising through to product and service innovation. And this feedback, captured in real time, analysed and assimilated by relevant departments within an organisation, can ensure the brand experience as a whole, and in all its parts, feels like it was “made for” each target customer.

The above are just a few examples of how applying the principles of behavioural science can impact the customer experience in a quick, painless and highly rewarding way.