If You Had To Pick Only One - The Results

A couple of weeks ago, I asked a simple question here.  Based on some of the recent stuff I've been reading that appears to give the indication that customer experience is an actual, tangible thing that can be made, produced, manufactured, I needed to clarify.  The customer experience can be designed, yes.  But experience is not an input.  Experience is an output, to the right of the equal sign.  I explored this question first in this post a couple of weeks before.

The experience is designed through the design of the inputs that go into creating the experience.  Or, the experience you hope your customer will have.  Because, in the end, the experience is in the eye of the customer.  You can't control the experience.  It's an interpretation of all one's sensory inputs.  So, all a brand can really do is attempt to positively influence it.

With all that background.  I wanted to hear from you what you thought were the key inputs into the customer experience in your industry.  The survey was simple.  Two questions.

1) Which element of your business model impacts your customers' experience the most?
2) What is your industry?

The results:

The "other" category included responses of:

• Expectations 
• Punctuality
• Creativity   

In addition to the responses here, which are represented as a percent of total respondents, other choices which netted zero responses where:

• Marketing/media
• Availability (supply chain)
• Shipping/logistics
• Billing

Industries represented included:

•   Consulting
• Enterprise software
• Insurance/banking
• Telecommunications
• Airlines

This was an intentionally simple survey.  So, the conclusions are neither earth shattering nor statistically relevant.  However, I think I proved my point.  And that is this.  The way we frame conversations influences the conversation.  By framing this topic of customer experience in terms of the inputs to the experience design, rather than as the experience as the input, it's clear that we all understand the causality.   

Experience is the result of the customer's perception of the multitude of components of your business model.  Experience is not something made, inventoried or delivered.

Agree?

If You Had To Pick Only One

As a follow up to my post from last week looking at the various inputs that contribute to the customer's experience with your brand and company, I'd like your opinion.

Based on your business, your industry, your customers, if you had to pick one element of your business model that contributes most to your customer's perceived experience, what would you choose?

Can you please share your thoughts by clicking here to take this quick, two question survey?

I'll be back soon with the results.