Customer Experience Pilot

“Never let your business processes dictate your customers experience.”

A Customer Experience Pilot is the catalyst to implementing the kind of fundamental—yet dramatic—change that wows customers, excites employees, and pleases shareholders. For service brands (like retail, hotel, airlines, health care facilities, theatres, etc.) who are feeling the pinch of commoditization and wish to be truly different, an Experience Pilot lets you prove to yourself and to your leadership team that improving your customer experience can work in your unique environment.

Seeing is believing and clarity is what a Customer Experience Pilot delivers—a visible, tangible, working prototype of the new experience your business can offer. A feasible, practical, scalable, and real experience you can take customers and executives to so that they can see—and feel—for themselves what the experience you want to offer is all about. When people can immerse themselves in a real experience, they understand it faster and deeper, and can contribute improvements and enhancements without resistance.

The Customer Experience Pilos is informed by customer and employee insights, supported by a practical governance structure, and comes with starter documentation that covers linkages between IT, HR, OPS, Finance, and other groups. The Customer Experience Pilot gives you a peek around the corner at not only what your brand’s experience might be—but how it might actually (profitably and practically) work. Your new branded experience is how your brand will become known. It only makes sense to let everyone in your company check it out—and offer their fine-tuning comments—before incurring the expense of a full-scale launch.

How Does it Work?

First, you talk. I listen. Together, we uncover what customers want most and what your business does best. We create an Experience Statement—a starting point for defining the next generation experience. I go undercover as a shopper, guest, or patient to see the kind of experience you have now. Then, I slip over to the other side, put on a company shirt or uniform and get my bearings from the employee’s side.

Right after I debrief you on my findings (expect an objective, untainted view of how your experience is perceived, what needs attention, and what kind of support your employees need to improve their game), we begin brainstorming. We only stop when we reach the triple bottom line—when customers, employees and shareholders all get more through a better experience design. The level of detail depends on you. You’re in control as to depth and breadth of the design as we progress.

With a real picture of the experience and its connections to other parts of the business, attention turns to winning adoption internally. Once the core team and a review group sign off, it’s time to design the implementation, build the experience, prepare any technology, train the people, and make it real. First, we focus the effort internally. Then, we turn attention to the parts of the experience that touch your customer (or patient, guest, visitor, or caregiver). We use the same principles of experience design to make sure everyone’s first impression of the new experience is on-brand, positive, and authentic.

An Experience Pilot creates just the kind of qualitative information you need. Blend it with the quantitative measures you already have to make the best decisions—and get the best results.

Each Experience Pilot is, of course, customized to your specific business or situation.