Hey, the University of Michigan's (UM) American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) for the fourth quarter of 2007 just came out. And they revealed something that customers around the world all know. And that's that there is a disconnect between the service level and experience they have in a company's store versus their website.


Survey says!... that e-tailers scored an 83 on a scale of 100 compared to an overall rating of 71 for store operators. Here's the article.
The fact of the matter is that the customer controls (for the most part) how the web experience goes for them. And, they're more in control of their environment. Of course, some sites are easier to navigate than others...but the lack of inconsistency in personal service in the stores may be what makes the web experience feel better. In the stores, there are more variables and the customer expectations are higher. You'd expect a sales person to greet you and have an answer to a question. Sometimes you get that, and, well, sometimes you don't. You'd expect the store layout to be easy to understand and even, an enjoyable experience. In the web experience, if the customer isn't thrilled with what's happening, the memory is erased with a click of the mouse. Those store experiences last much longer and from this research, seem to leave a more indelible mark on how the customer feels and rates the experience.
As a customer interacting with a brands' web experience or in-store experience, which one leaves you feeling better and better served?

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Online Experience Trumping the Others!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Jeanne Bliss
Jeanne Bliss began her career at Lands’ End where she reported to founder Gary Comer and the company’s executive committee, ensuring that in the formative years of the organization, the company stayed focused on its core principles of customer and employee focus. She was the first leader of the Lands’ End Customer Experience. In addition to Lands’ End, she has served Allstate, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker Corporation and Mazda Corporations as its executive leading customer focus and customer experience. Jeanne has helped achieve 95% retention rates across 50,000 person organizations, harnessing businesses to work across their silos to deliver a united and deliberate experience customers (and employees) want to repeat. Jeanne now runs CustomerBliss (https://www.customerbliss.com), an international consulting business where she coaches executive leadership teams and customer leadership executives on how to put customer profitability at the center of their business, by getting past lip service; to operationally relevant, operationally executable plans and processes. Her clients include Johnson & Johnson, TD Ameritrade, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospitals, Bombardier Aircraft and many others. Her two best-selling books are Chief Customer Officer: Getting Past Lip Service to Passionate Action and I Love You More than My Dog: Five Decisions that Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad. Her blog is https://www.ccocoach.com She is Co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. www.cxpa.org
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