In today’s world, where customers have the power to voice their opinions through various platforms, it is crucial for businesses to exceed their expectations to avoid negative impacts. One example of this is the loss of $1.3 billion in market value that Snapchat experienced on February 21, 2018, after a negative tweet from celebrity Kylie Jenner about the app’s new layout. This incident and many others showcase the high cost of failing to meet customer expectations. In 2016, US companies lost a total of $1.6 trillion due to customers switching to competitors as a result of poor service.
One challenge in achieving customer science is dealing with paradoxes such as the saying “The Customer is King” but many organizations lack a designated individual responsible for ensuring positive customer interactions. This raises questions about the roles of emerging positions like chief customer officer or chief experience officer. Glenn Laverty, former president and CEO of Ricoh Canada, addressed this paradox by integrating customer experience metrics into every employee’s compensation structure, thus fostering a culture focused on meeting and exceeding customer expectations.
At Boeing, there has been an indication that production throughput metrics have taken precedence over safety considerations. Customer science can help organizations create a balanced approach by aligning everyone’s compensation with customer experience metrics. Claes Fornell, founder of the American Customer Satisfaction Index, has highlighted the data paradox in customer science – despite organizations collecting more customer data than ever before, there seems to be a disconnect in understanding how to use this data effectively to improve customer satisfaction. As businesses continue to shift towards customer science, it is essential to leverage data effectively in order to better meet customer expectations and avoid negative impacts.
