Who knew that Jan Carlzon would completely alter the then prevailing customer service philosophy when he first introduced the idea of ‘moments of truth’ in 1981.
When Carlzon first became the CEO of Scandinavian Airlines, he turned everything around for the topsy-turvy situation of the company, just by focusing on these moments of truth, seemingly a rather far-fetched idea but can stoke extremely positive results in the customer service sphere if handled properly.
The success of this idea itself depends on how humanised the interactions and how grandiose the responses to the customers are, which of course requires presence of emotionally intelligent front-line employees.
Moments of truth are those interactions where customers put in a high amount of energy to reach a satisfactory outcome.
A company could have thousands of moments of truth in a single day. Whether adversely or favourably, they incredibly affect companies’relationship with customers and their perception about the brand. Some of the examples for it can be flight delay, a damaged product or even an advice to the customer. If companies give customers’ emotional needs precedence over their hard-set agendas, customer loyalty is the consequential emotional behaviour that these moments of truth would result in. And once customers are emotionally connected and rationally satisfied, that is when profitability would also come in.
Disney understands the importance of the emotions as their employees are trained to greet the customer with a smile if they are within ten feet. The rule changes when the guest comes within a reach of five feet, then the employees are required to acknowledge them verbally.
Too often the business fails to get to the emotions of a customer and turns the customer off. When a website is confusing, or when a telephone system is too complicated or in-human. Just removing these in-human moments can turn moments of truth into moments of magic. Therefore, as little as these moments of truth may seem, they significantly add to the overall customer satisfaction. Every point of interaction is an opportunity to create an emotional bond with the customers. Companies should rightly identify these points relevant to their industry and work on them accordingly. For example, according to Jan Carlzon, some moments of truth in airline business are when a customer calls to make a reservation to take a flight, arrives at the airport and checks his bags, goes inside and picks up his ticket at the ticket counter, is greeted at the gate or is taken care of by the flight attendants on board. If a single one of these moments goes wrong, it can easily cause customers to defect and lose confidence in your brand.
My wife recently converted from flying on business from a committed British Airways customer to a committed Virgin Atlantic customer just because of these poor moments of truth.
Therefore, according to Daniel Goleman’s bestseller, Emotional Intelligence, in order to make these moments of truth come through, there should prevail:
Employee empowerment, so that they can make the right decisions if the situation calls for it
Empathy and awareness of other people’s feelings
A positive outlook that gives rise to constructive responses
How to - How do you set out to identify and recognise a moment of truth
Identify the customer surface
Customers interface with companies in many different ways and places, both formally and informally.
The full customer surface is made up of all moments where the customer has an experience and associates this with the name of the company. Thus, the surface includes using products, phoning the company, watching adverts, visiting the company or its representatives, and so on.
Select the critical areas
Investigating the whole surface is impossible in a single project or session, so it is necessary to find a way to focus on areas where you can make a difference.
A useful focus is in interfaces where customers are in a vulnerable state and the company has a critical opportunity to impress or disappoint the customer. These 'moments of truth' are often forgotten events, for example when they walk through the door to a reception desk or when they first unpack the product and try to get it working.
Slow down time and watch every moment
Play through the customer experience during this time in 'slow motion', watching for any moments in which impressions may be formed. If possible, study actual experiences, perhaps even recording them for later study. 'Mystery shoppers' are a way of gathering supporting data.
You can also do it yourself: just try playing at customer for your own products. Phone the hotline. Go to the local discount warehouse and ask for advice. You may experience a moment of truth or two for yourself.
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