In service businesses and functions it has become normal to talk about and focus on the concept of customer experience. The leaders are talking about how the customer is in the core of everything and the processes are being developed through the methods of service design. This is good, of course, but how is all this implemented in real life?

Creating customer experience

There are many kinds of service functions in the world. In public services the service providers are typically fulfilling the task that has been appointed to them by law. Tasks are mostly fulfilled in the least expensive way. In commercial services the end reason is to provide services that the customer is willing to pay for. Businesses offer wow effects, but as cost efficiently as possible. Does this facilitate a mindset that creates the best kind of customer experience?

The examples of successful customer experience solutions can be found everywhere. In Finland the alcohol retail business is heavily regulated and the government owned monopoly Alko has transformed over the years from a rather grey booze shop to a wonderful and sparkling service provider. Or, on the private side, the service provided at IKEA is very well designed and makes customers feel heard and understood.

The list of miserable cases of customer experience is unfortunately long. We know services that have gone digital and thus, made the whole service idea collapse. There is a global digitalisation fever going on with sometimes more will than skills. If going digital happens without the change leadership and the tuning of the customer service from every aspect, failure is certain.

There are services that basically work fine, but if something goes wrong or if a customer would like to get service out of the normal scope, a hollow situation is formed. The customer is trying to do something outside of the box and the organization cannot handle it and provide what is needed. Unfortunately, I have experienced this lately when dealing with the banking sector.

Taking one extra step further to care for the customer

The customer service people are nice and they want to help you. But they have many times been trained to give certain answers and serve the way the company or function wants them to serve. To represent the organization and the organization policy. How does this ensure the best possible service experience for the customer?

The Japanese expression omotenashi can be translated as hospitality, but more precisely it is about creating an environment of trust, relaxation and respect. Omotenashi in practice means taking one extra step further to care for the customer in every customer experience process or situation. For example Japan Airlines is using this ideology in their service design very successfully. They strive to make sure that the customer receives service that answers to all needs in every situation. For the company the customer´s satisfaction means more than doing things by the book.

Bringing the omotenashi mindset into the public sector, a regulative task can be executed through respectful and service oriented customer treatment. It is possible. Processes can be polished with improved service design and the service culture can be enhanced further. In big businesses, if the execution is done mainly through Excel instead of customer needs, the way of focusing on customers may get arrogant.

Customers love companies that treat them with respect. If customers feel understood, they come back. If customers feel restricted in a service, they go somewhere else. Indifference kills businesses.

Omotenashi is something that every service function and company should have as a base line. It serves the best kind of customer experience. And in the end it opens the customer´s wallet as well.