Most companies will agree with the importance of issue-free and seamless customer service. However, they often fail to understand the importance of process as a part of strategies to improve customer experience. The process of building customer experience can affect the overall results, whether they are good or bad. In the end, the process affects how the customers view the organization as a whole.
Sometimes, it takes only simple things to improve customer experience. Listening to people, who are directly involved in the service delivery, can provide you with some insights on things to improve in your customer services. You can also get some insights by listening to the customers, who receive the services from your company.
Strategies to Improve Customer Experience: Story from Disney
As an effort to emphasize process as a key differentiator in building customer experience, Bruce Jones from Disney Institute shares some stories on strategies to improve customer experience on Forbes. Process and policies become the foundations of customer service in business. Disney successfully obtained an idea to improve its Guest experience based on the stories shared by Disney Cast Members.
In the past, Walt Disney World Resort received thousands of Guest visiting the Epcot International Foods and Wine Festival. They come to taste the foods from different countries. You can imagine how busy were the Disney Cast Members to serve the Guests, who are always the top priority of the company.
Since 2010, Walt Disney World Resort had offered festival passports to the Guests as an effort to enhance their experience with the festivals. The passports also functions as a tool to find the list of menu throughout the festival park. In addition, the Guests can collect customized ink stamp in each of the festival. In other words, the Disney Cast Members needed to stamp the each of the passports physically.
As a result, the more Cast Members were required to stamp the passports, while the customers had to take longer wait time for the foods. The Cast Members began to notice the effects of passport stamping on the Guest experience. Then, they told their concerns to the leaders. Walt Disney World Resort finally changed the passport stamping with stickers already provided in the passports.
Strategies to Improve Customer Experience: What to Learn
What did make Disney successful in implementing the new customer service strategy? Perhaps, the key relies upon the fact that the employees, namely the Disney Cast Members, felt empowered to speak up. They were not afraid of telling their concerns to the leaders. In addition, the employees worked together to come up to new strategies to improve customer experience.
With communication, the Cast Members and the leadership line came to an idea to change the pasport stamping with stickers. Now, the Guests do not have to stand in line to get the stamps, while the Cast Members can focus on serving the customers. This eliminates additional hassles, which the Cast Members face while delivering the service.
A streamlined process eventually lead to improved customer experience and improved company image as a whole. The story of Disney above highlights the importance of process in affecting the results.