You’re Only as Good as Your Last Film!

Haven’t you heard this statement repeated often by movie stars, directors, and music directors?

You’re only as good as your last film.

In some cases, they use a more acceptable version of this statement, which is, “You’re only as good as your last performance.”

How true is this statement?

The success of your last film determines your value, and everything around you changes due to your previous performance or the last film’s performance.

How Relevant Is This in the Customer Experience Space?

I recently read the article “Understanding the Customer Experience and How to keep ‘em coming back’ by Joe Watson. He wrote this article from a retailer’s perspective.

In this article, Joe refers to a personal story (I am repeating his story in first person for better understanding), and it goes like this:

When I was a produce manager, one morning, just before we opened, the store director walked over to my department to check my readiness. As he walked away to go and unlock the door to allow customers in, he said in a matter-of-fact manner, “I hope we have customers today.”

That puzzled me, so I asked him what he meant by that statement. He said, “We don’t have contracts with customers. All we have is the last experience we provided them with.”

That was 1989 – the customer experience mattered then, and it matters now.

Let me give you a few examples I have encountered.

Borrowing Experience

In 2002, I was looking at buying a house, and I applied for a home loan with a large bank where I had my savings account.

Everything went well, except the fact that the loan never got sanctioned within the said timeline. So, when I inquired with the bank, I was bounced from one department to another, and I received only vague responses.

It didn’t help.

So, I decided to approach a smaller bank that sent me a couple of text messages with an offer for a loan.

The bank sent timely updates, and they even assigned a loan manager who helped me with the process, and the loan was processed smoothly.

I still stick with this smaller bank for all my banking needs. After all, banks don’t have contracts with their customer either, and it is only the last experience.

The small bank won over me because they focused on personalization and customer experience, kept it simple, and provided all the clarity I needed.

Debt Collections

Debt collections are often treated as a transactional relationship – in reality, it is also about the customer experience.

A few years ago, I missed my credit card payment by a day (in those days, I did not have the comfort of an app to remind me about my pending payment). I received a call from the bank’s collections team, and the person on the line was very rude.

I explained that this was the first time I had missed my payment, and they didn’t have to be worried about me missing the payment. I mentioned that I pay bill-to-bill, and I will clear the entire bill the next day by dropping a check in their collection box. I didn’t have the luxury of Internet banking and UPI then.

The agent insisted that he would send someone to either my office or home to collect the check from me on the same day. I politely refused to entertain him, and I made the payment the next day. Immediately, I canceled my credit card subscription with the bank.

Imagine if the agent had handled it politely and respectfully; they’d still have me as their customer. That’s a lot of money the bank has lost in all these years.

The collections industry has evolved in every way in the last decade or so, and things happen much better today.

To date, I haven’t resubscribed to their credit cards despite repeatedly receiving calls from them.

Coffee Every 30 Minutes

I used to conduct communication workshops at one of my friend’s offices every Sunday before COVID. A few Sundays, his office would not be open – those days, I used a coffee shop near his office for my workshops.

This place never disturbed us and never expected us to order anything. However, we ended up ordering a fair number of things during our workshop. One of those Sundays when the office wasn’t open, this coffee shop was also not open due to some maintenance work.

So, I took my team to another coffee shop a short distance away. As soon as we entered and before we could start the session, they asked us to order something, which we did.

After about half an hour, the waiter came back to our table and asked if we wanted to order something. When I said no, he mentioned that we should order something if we plan to stay there for more time. 

So, I approached the shop manager and explained that we would be there for another two-and-a-half hours and we would order something in a while. I also checked with him if it was alright to hang around for the remaining hours (except perhaps us, the place was just about empty).

He mentioned that we were welcome to sit there as long as we kept ordering something every half an hour.

We did that, and I never went back to that shop ever again.

No business has a contract with customers, only the last experience they provided. So, focus on the experience, and everything else will fall into place.

CX will determine whether your business fails or succeeds. Focus on it, and you will have loyal customers who will give you repeat business and become your brand ambassadors.

Word of mouth works magic. When was the last time you referred a business to one of your contacts, or someone you trust referred a company to you?

I am sure, for any reference, the reason you could attribute it to would be the exceptional CX.