It is no coincidence; the most customer-focused airlines earn more than two times the industry average.
Introduction
Shortly after to embarking on its Always Getting Better customer experience programme, Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary admitted that its previous customer experience was causing them to lose between 10 to 15 million passengers per annum. Based on company figures at that time, this amounted to between €600m and €900m in lost revenue.
Customer experience is primarily a financial endeavour. In many organisations customer experience is driven by marketing, but we argue that the real driver of customer experience should be the CEO or CFO.
What is Customer Experience (CX)?
Customer experience is the customer’s perceived experience with your brand, and not necessarily your intended experience. Poor experiences adversely impact the bottom line while excellent experiences create positive emotional outcomes for the customer, foster loyalty, increase advocacy, enhance customer lifetime value and so increase revenue and profit.
Why is there a difference between the intended and perceived experience?
In any business there are two clear pillars around which CX is built:
- Brand reputation – the promises a company makes which create expectations in the market and in the minds of customers.
- Business value chain – your organisation’s structure, people, processes and capabilities deliver the actual experience.
Most companies see themselves through the lens of their organisation chart, with lots of different departments or silos that work together (effectively or not) to deliver product and service to customers.
Customers see companies differently – they see the interaction with your business chronologically, or in the form of a journey, and want to have an experience with you that flows and is seamless, with them at the centre.
Gaps generally result from misalignment between these views – the business value chain on one hand and the customers experience of the journey on the other.
