Early morning...pouring down rain...bone chilling cold. Not a great start. Adding to the morning, my wife wakes up in the throes of a significant fever. Knowing how flu dominated North Texas recently, we decided to make the trip to one of the ubiquitous corner-lot pharmacy/quick clinic/convenience retail combos for what promised to be a simple flu test, followed by meds and rest. As we pulled into the parking lot, we'd hoped for close access to avoid the rain and give my wife the shortest path into the clinic. Surprisingly crowded for early morning, we notice a space right by the door. As I turned the wheel to turn in, we're shocked to see a sign - "Curbside Pickup Only". Our delight turned to frustration. Not only was the closer space reserved...it was empty!
What?! How much demand could there possibly be for a pharmacy for curbside pickup? Keep in mind, there already was a separate drive through for actual prescription pickup. I'm assuming this customer offering intends to serve the customer base who shops on line for other items in the store such as paper towels, magazines and eye liner. Probably a very small set...if any.
I dropped my wife off so she could have a short walk while I went off to park. It got me to wondering. How often is this space used? Which customer set wants this? How was the decision made to implement this? What tracking is in place to know if the customer loves this?
The "crazy CX" guy in me kicked in so I decided to do some light "research". I made a point to swing by the location from time to time just to see if the space was used. In the multiple times I've gone by, the space sits lonely and remarkably unused. Granted my sample size of one store is nowhere near scientific, nor would chain-wide decisions be based on this observation alone. Yet, we all know of situations where a company launches a "great customer experience" idea that falls so flat you wonder how on earth that decision got made. In this case, not only was the idea of Curbside Pick Up not a delighter...it was a full-on negative experience.
Don't Be a Lemming
When creating an idea for great customer experience, do what's right for YOUR customer, not just what everyone else is doing. The large big box across the street offers a very successful and widely used curbside pickup as harried families delight in the ability to have someone else do the shopping and simply place it in the car. For the pharmacy chain, was there some conference room decision at headquarters thousands of miles away from the customer based on "well...it works for that company. It's clearly what customers want."
Don't just copy others. Be your own brand. Be your own experience. Deliver what YOUR customers want. You might find that giving them what someone else gave them disappoints them way more than it delights them.
I know I'm not the only one who got this response from their parents, "If everyone jumped off the bridge, would you?" Don't be a lemming.
Get Out of the Conference Room
Especially when your experiences are delivered in locations far removed from where the decisions are made, it's VITAL to get out of the conference room. Talk to actual front-line employees. Ask them how customers feel about the experience you created. Get into the space where the customer is and see how they react to the experience. Do they use it? What does the body language say about how the experience is going? When they talk about it online, what do they say?
It's especially important to see how the experience plays across regions, or borders (if you have a global brand). I once posted a comment about a great experience I had with an employee at the counter of a well known hamburger chain. It was insightful to get comments to that post about how that experience, which I loved, might not play as well in other regions such as where the commenter resided. Are you just evaluating the experience at the location closest to your office or are you getting on a plane and seeing what reality is like far removed from your location. Get out of the conference room.
Cliché Alert...Fail Fast!
Cliché but true. Sometimes the best intended idea simply falls flat at the customers' feet. If you're getting the inputs you need about the success of the experience, you should know if you've created something that's not just neutral but actually hated by your customers. If so...stop! End it. Learn and move on. Each time I drive by this location, I'm astounded to see that empty space day after day.
Ensure you have great communication lines from the customer facing team into the CX decision makers. You need to have pure, speedy info about the experience. Break your traditional hierarchical org and communication lines. Make sure the pipeline from customer to CX decision is as direct as possible. Discover something isn't working...and fail fast!
No More Customer Hate
Don't create something just for the sake of creating something. Don't create something simply because someone else did it. Make sure you know your customer and know how they're experiencing your idea. Walk away from ideas quickly when they're not working.
Unfortunately, my wife ended up having the flu (actually all of my family got it this year!) but recovered quickly with meds and rest. Next time we're looking for a clinic for a speedy experience, we may look elsewhere. I'll keep driving by and maybe some day, that space will be returned back to the normal parking mode. Until then...I'll keep wondering about the great experience they created that their customers hate.
My name is Rick Denton and I solve Customer Experience & Business challenges. With 20+ years of experience, I love to Create Customer Obsessed Cultures, Restore Customer Relationships, Deliver Global Results...and GET THINGS DONE.
I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.
Head over to www.ex4cx.com to learn more.
Photo Credit - Tanner Denton