Poor customer experiences are par for the course these days, almost to the point of being expected. Too often though, we blame these bad experiences on the people who deliver the service when it may not be their fault. Many times the fault lies in the design of things. You see, there are several elements to the experience and all must be equally excellent relationally and technically. For example, while your people need to be caring and competent, your products, places, and processes need to be as well.

Think about your product. Is it friendly for the user and does it functionally get the job done it is expected to do?

How about your places? Are your stores clean and stocked? Is your website easy to navigate with all of the things customers need like easy-to-access methods for contacting you and a simple-to-search catalog?

And finally, what about your processes? Are they easy to understand with little to no effort for your customer?

Each element must be designed with the customer in mind. Each element must be seen from their view.

Do you know how things look? Have you experienced their experience? Have you thought about designing it like you design your product, your marketing, even your emails?

The best tip I can give you for improving your customers’ experience with you is this: Walk through your stores and offices. Use your products. Make a call and complain or ask a question to see how easy or difficult it is to get anything done.

Now, call out everything that made the experience a pain …and then fix it. Ensure your products are friendly and functional, your people are caring and competent, your processes are easy and effective, and your places are pleasing and practical.

Customer experiences are just that, entire experiences, not just customer service, and all of it needs to be designed.

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