Simple experiences look as if there wasn’t much work behind them. In reality, the opposite is true. The simpler the experience is for the customer, the more thinking, design and work went into making it happen behind the scenes.
And the next time a customer tells you how easy it is to do business with you, take it as the greatest compliment you could receive.
Simplicity Is Not a Coincidence
Behind simplicity there are often months of work. Someone had to understand the customer and their goals, ask the right questions, analyze, connect data, change processes and convince three departments that one step could simply be removed.
That is Customer Experience at its best.
Good CX Does Not Impress the Customer – It Helps Them
Sometimes we have the wrong idea of what it means to create a great experience. The best CX is not spectacular:
It happens when a customer gets an answer before they have to ask for it.
When an employee has the authority to solve a problem without asking for approval.
When a process is completed before the customer starts wondering how long it will take.
Every organization develops its own way of working over time. Rules, controls, systems, approvals and exceptions are added and it is very easy to get lost in all of it and forget to ask whether all of this is still necessary for us – or for the customer.
Experience Is What Remains After We Forget the Details
The customer may not remember everything that happened. They may not remember every screen, conversation or form they had to fill in but they will remember exactly what it felt like to do business with you. They will remember whether they could trust you, whether they had to struggle to get something done, whether they spent too much time and whether they felt understood.
That is what remains.
Experience Is the Memory of the Interaction
CX is not only about designing what the customer does. CX design also takes into account what the customer feels while doing it.
And that is exactly why Customer Experience has so much potential.
Because we do not always have to create something big. We need to create something that matters to people.
Perhaps the biggest opportunity ahead of us is actually very simple.
Do not do more. Do better. Remove what is unnecessary.
Because the best experiences are the ones that leave people with the feeling that everything was simple – and that this is exactly how it should be.