I recently saw a list of “Six ROI-Friendly Goals for Customer Experience Initiatives” that contained the following:

• Improve customer acquisition
• Up-sell, cross-sell or increase purchase frequency
• Increase retention, active usage, or share of wallet
• Increase pricing power
• Generate awareness
• Reduce costs

To most people, these might seem innocuous and perfectly reasonable business goals, however, I was struck by one big bothersome thing.

Not one mention is made about customers and how serving them is a ROI. Instead, everything on this list is self-serving.

Now, while it might be hard to see ROI as other than self-centered, there can be more to it.

Is helping more people not a ROI? Is making more customers successful not a ROI? Is providing the inspiration for innovation not a ROI?

Bottom line, is every investment we make only for us or is it possible to see it as how it benefits others first, and then, by extension, us?

At Disney, when a child drops an ice cream cone, I have seen a Disney cast member come along and replace it, no charge. ROI? A happy child. I have never seen someone from accounting stop by to ensure there was a number on a spreadsheet put against that simple act of human kindness.

Sometimes, serving others and creating happiness is the ROI. In fact, I would submit that it is those acts of humanness that create most of the things on that self-focused list above.

I would love to see a customer experience ROI list that looks something like this:

• Improve relationships
• Increase smiles
• Decrease effort
• Generate goodwill
• Reduce unhappiness
• Be a place people love

While these returns cannot be put in the bank, they are things that lead to things you can put in the bank.

We wonder what’s wrong with service these days. Well, maybe it’s largely misplaced priorities. Companies are there to serve customers, not the other way around.

==> If you liked this post and would like to know when new posts are published, CLICK HERE to subscribe.