A wise friend once told me that relationships are like banks…you can only make withdrawals if you’ve deposited enough. The same is true for customer relationships.
My friend Tim Sanchez, a fellow customer experience provocateur, wrote a compelling blog post titled The Perception Baseline and Its Impact on Customer Experience. This post, and the comments that followed, got me thinking about this idea of give and take between organizations and the customers they serve.
My comment focused on this idea from Tim: “…each experience has an effect on the starting point for the next.” It’s like family, right? We all lug around emotional baggage from the past and it heavily influences how we see the present. Ever attend a family reunion where Cousin Jane is upset with Cousin Bubba about something that happened 30 years ago? Bubba might be making extraordinary efforts to win Jane’s approval today, but her past experiences have had an effect on the “starting point” of where they are at that reunion. If customer X feels he or she has contributed a significant amount of anything (money, time, energy, attitude, patience, effort…) and doesn’t get a return on that investment, Customer X will feel:- betrayed
- disappointed
- hurt
- angry
- or all of the above.
Often, companies assume it’s about money. In this economy, sometimes it is. But often it’s investment of another, less tangible and more emotional, kind.
Think about the give and take between customers and a service company. If the first experience is excellent, the employee likable and empathic, the next less-than-wonderful experience might just slide. There is enough in the “bank” of the relationship to weather a small hiccup in service. If it is rectified in a timely and compassionate manner, customers are more than likely to feel even better about the relationship.
On the flip side, think of those times when you as a customer have invested. You are standing in line, filling out forms AGAIN, frustrated with processes or people that don’t work and you get nothing but a simple, yet emotionally lacking, transaction at best. There aren’t enough deposits in that bank to allow for those kind of withdrawals. When I interview customers, a lot of the time I hear about one employee who made a difference. “I was beyond frustrated with Joe, but once Betty stepped in I felt like she cared about me.” So even though Joe had not made the proper deposits, Betty was making up for it by working double-time on the relationship.
So think about what you can do to make deposits into the bank of the relationship BEFORE you need to make withdrawals. 
What are you doing TODAY to prepare for those hiccups in the future?
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- jeanniecw: Nice post. RT @ginidietrich: Guest blogger @LenKendall RT @spinsucks Crowdsourcing Means More Work for You, Not Less http://bit.ly/aU6Ucx
- jeanniecw: @redinthecity I might have to take your advice!
- jeanniecw: @blfarris Um, that's pretending. Can I draft some employees I don't have to pay?
- jeanniecw: T-2.5 hours until a gathering of grown men pretend to draft famous football players at my house. I'll be hiding upstairs.
8:36 AM on July 12th, 2010
Great post! Fry’s electronics is a good example of a company that began to withdraw from my account before any deposits were made. I like Fry’s because of the massive selection. I stopped by to purchase a new Flip Slide Hd Camcorder the other day and was instantly met with the upsale warranty pitch. Then they would not let me take it to the cashier and insisted insisted it would be at the desk when I was ready to pay. When I got to the cashier the camera was no where to be found. I was a bit amused when the poor cashier had to call the department and find who was dragging their …. in the process. They had a little cabinet where items like this were supposed to appear for the customer to buy. After waiting for nearly 8 minutes I watched a disinterested employee walk up and unlock the cabinet with my device and relock it, all without telling my cashier. Finally she called ( I was pretty interested in how long this would take them without my help) the department again, who told her the camera was now in the cabinet behind her. She was very apologetic and embarrassed as she went to retrieve it. She explained that they do this to prevent loss. Well after withdrawing all the capital they had with me and then some, they lost me. Plus, look at all the wasted employee time that was used to transfer the thing. Large companies are very slow to realize the capital they need to build with customers. Again great post.
8:52 AM on July 12th, 2010
Great post Jeannie! I so agree with this.
Psychologists have even documented the number of positive interactions that are necessary to counteract a negative interaction.
I blogged about it in my post entitled “Bad is Stronger than Good: The 5 to 1 Rule” (http://ericjacques.org/2010/05/13/bad-is-stronger-than-good-the-5-to-1-rule/)
Cheers!
Eric
@ericjacques
8:54 AM on July 12th, 2010
Thanks, John. Excellent example. Employees have everything to do with experience, and yet it seems (especially in retail) that as they move up, they become more disengaged in the emotional connections with customers. That cashier was trying to do the right thing, but left with a broken system and a bad colleague = too many withdrawals for you, the customer!
12:48 PM on July 12th, 2010
Interesting, Eric! Thanks for stopping by and sharing this. Humans are so tricky, right!?
7:03 AM on July 12th, 2010
Great post!
RT @jeanniecw: Inspired by @deliverbliss – The Give & Take of Customer Relationships http://bit.ly/avfmHM
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
2:17 PM on July 29th, 2010
The Give & Take of #Customer Relationships – Terrific insights from @JeannieCW – http://bit.ly/9NUdvz – #CustServ
This comment was originally posted on Twitter