Every start up today is trying to fill a customer experience gap in a product or its delvery!

Came across these points of major disruptions which have transformed sectors/companies.

· Scanning did not kill photocopying….inconvenience of sending copies did

· Digital cameras did not kill Kodak ….unwieldy & long “click to photo prints” cycle did

· Uber & Ola did not kill the taxi business…limited access and fare control did

· Apple did not kill the music industry…being forced to buy full length albums did

· Amazon & the e-commerce sector did not kill retailers…poor customer service & customer experience did

· AirBnb and travel convenience clones isn’t killing the hotel industry….limited availability and pricing options are.

· Netfix, Prime online are not killing Movie theatre’s and movies – the inconvenience of seeing movies at movie theatres at fixed times and in one ( in a fixed 2 or 3 hour format) is impacting the sector.

· Starbucks and coffee chains are not providing better coffee – but they are offering a unique customer experience (coffee + ambience + no pressure to order or leave + free wifi now)

TECHNOLOGY BY ITSELF IS NOT THE BIGGEST DISRUPTOR – NOT BEING CUSTOMER CENTRIC IS THE BIGGEST THREAT TO ANY BUSINESS!

So instead of such customer experience(CX) gap leading to a new startup, why can’t mature organizations leverage the very same approach of identifying customer experience (CX) gaps – and leveraging the insights to develop new innovative products/services, or upgrade their products/services?

Organizational strengths of an existing mid sized or large organization, should logically help them execute on the identified CX gap faster, leading to improved business results!

Unfortunately, many organisations talk about it, but don’t adequately focus on it; just don’t do enough or despite having good intentions simply don’t know “how” to go about improving or delivering a good product experience or service i.e. don’t really know operationally how to consistently deliver a superior customer experience?”

And so as consumers, we are often at receiving end of sub-optimal product experience!

So how do we identify these “ customer experience improvement ” or “start up” ideas?

Hearing Customers: capturing customer feedback using the right approach, as well as mining service quality data/ analytics: are important tools for identifying these CX gaps & for enabling product improvements & CX enhancements, new product design and development, etc

Customer journey mapping (CJM) is a design thinking led methodology, which is rage globally & in our own view – as Customer experience experts- a great way to get going on this journey to identify some low hanging & quick to implement opportunity areas – i.e. “start up” like improvement areas.

Once some of this is implemented and quick results realised– then to go to the next level of evolution & sophistication we can leverage our 5Ps TICSI customer experience improvement - 1000 point framework https://www.ticsi.org/- to further diagnose opportunity areas in the customer experience(CX) across the organization’s - product, distribution and delivery, product features, people practices, operational processes, measures & KPIs, etc.

In other words by leveraging the right tools & best practices it is possible to deliver not just good but a great & consistent customer experience on an end to end basis across all customer touch points- not when he just calls or reaches “sales” or “customer service”

Many organizations shy away from digging into customer complaints – where there are hidden, diamonds of diagnostic opportunity to improve products & processes… A structured “customer” focused institutionalized service quality or customer experience improvement framework is necessary for every organization and not just on the traditional product quality programs which are often focused on manufacturing end of the business.

And, buttoning down last mile connectivity and cross connecting siloes is as important. In many organizations’, each silo often does a great job, but owing to misses at the last mile or gaps at the inter- departmental “hand offs” or sometimes some departments don’t have a good appreciation of what is really very important for their customer – the end customer gets needlessly mishandled or gets a sub-optimal customer experience.

In the Future:

· Customisation & Customer centric options will increase – and organisations will reconfigure themselves to deliver customized solutions to their customers – both B2B & B2C…as the era of the standard product is likely to get over….even for traditional sectors like automobilies, which are metamorphosing to a adapt to a more demanding customer.

· Organisational manaufacturing, distribution & retailing models will evolve/metamorphise completely.

· Digital – the app will become the most ubiquitous channel of engagement between the organisation & its customers – while all channels will exist – the digital channel will be the King !

Food for thought? Interesting? Questions ? want to share your views on the subject or just your unique experience in your start up or your organisation that you’d like to share with us …go ahead - we are eager to hear from you and would love to hear your perspective…