Self-inflicted Customer Experience
Piotr JJ Szymanski
Insights professional. I help organisations make better decisions faster and drive change by applying agile mindset to data.
At an MTR station in Hong Kong, a few people break into a run on the platform to make it for a train that has just arrived. They saw the train wasn’t packed at all (it's that time of the day), and correctly concluded it was going to depart the station very soon.
One by one, first few rushing passengers reach the welcoming train doors. Each makes two small steps into the carriage and... with relaxed expression on their face... stops abruptly, blocking the entry for those behind them. They made it, after all.
Other runners join just seconds later, trying to squeeze in before train doors shuts on them. With visible effort not to appear pushy, some eventually make it -- thanks to one or two fellow passengers in front of them inching a single small step forward, into the empty carriage. Why would they move any further? They made it, after all.
The doors finally close on buzzer command, and the (almost empty) train starts moving. The group of passengers tightly packed near the doors keep breathing at each other’s neck.
Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is arguably the best metro system in the world. Owning around 50% share of the franchised public transport market in the city, and consistently achieving a 99.9% on-time rate on its train journeys, MTR is a successful railway operation which has served as a model for other newly built systems in the world.
As a public transport service, MTR would have likely achieved the highest possible performance scores in your Customer Experience survey. It would have… If not for one intervening factor: its own customers, the passengers.
In industries where the service is simultaneously delivered to many users/customers at the same physical location -- like public transport, hospitality, or education -- User/Customer Experience is created not only by service providers, but to a large extent, collectively by all participating users/customers. And, it is the latter group who often turn a high-performing operation into one delivering poor experience -- for themselves.
Understanding the 'customer factor' -- not only the who? and what?, but importantly, the why? -- is critical to delivering a truly amazing Customer Experience. In order to collect relevant data, generate meaningful insights, and build holistic customer understanding, organisations need to strike the right balance between talking to consumers vs. just stalking them.
Integrating attitudinal and behavioural data from multiple sources is the way towards better insights, more impactful actions, and driving positive change.
Strategic Leader in Data & Analytics, Financial Services & Infrastructure
7yGreat post. Is this not effectively an instance of the 'tragedy of the commons' where individual actors, acting in their own rational self-interest, behave contrary to the common good? And if so, what are the limits of improvement without changing business models; how can we incentivise people to behave more 'fairly' without monetary expenditure or more direct ownership?
Helping brands and businesses grow responsibly
7yThank you JJ for this thought-provoking post. More often than not, experiences do involve interacting with other people, be it at a store, a train station or at a hospital waiting room. So having to deal with other people’s behaviour is part of most experiences. This is where customer strategy comes into play because good experiences leave little to chance, which is what I believe happens in your example – it was assumed that people would walk down the carriage when getting on the train but, in fact, they stop right at the door and block other passengers’ access. Nudging or, if necessary, actually telling people what to do is part of good customer experience design. For example, travelers going through Changi airport always find the toilets clean and neat, which makes for a positive experience; this is so partly because people are nudged to use their facilities appropriately through, for example, the now famous fly in the urinals. On the London Underground you get regularly reminded to ‘mind the gap’ between the train and the platform, so as to avoid accidents (and, consequently, create disruptions for other passengers). On the buses from Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports you are also kindly reminded not to use your mobile phone so as to not inconvenience fellow passengers. Many more examples exist but I hope these are enough to illustrate the point of I am trying to make: Good experiences start with good design. Thanks again for your post.
B2B Client Growth | Account Management | Partnership Development | Client Community Development
7yIf you care about your customer experience, without a doubt you will carve out the time in your day to do this.