Use Moments that Matter to Impact Customer Experience

Consider the little things you do for the people you love: a note in a lunchbox, a surprise delivery, favorite home-cooked meal, cup of coffee left on a desk. What if we treated our customers similarly? Considering research suggests customer experience is soon to become the competitive differentiator, many companies are already recognizing the importance of connecting with customers, not merely transacting with them.

The first step in connecting is understanding, which is why we recommend customer journey mapping. Through this exercise, you can identify the many important moments, or touchpoints, that occur when customers interact with your company, from making purchases to seeking answers to questions, managing accounts, and so on. While there are many touchpoints, some likely have more impact than others. These defining moments are known as “Moments that Matter (MTM).” According to a recent Accenture study, “In today’s increasingly competitive environment where customer expectations continue to rise, it is essential to get these Moments that Matter right.”

The Accenture research found that 77 percent of customers feel a brand earns their loyalty if they take immediate action when they are unhappy. Reversely, the same study found that, after a bad experience, 38 percent of customers shifted a portion of their spend to another provider, and another 39 percent immediately stopped doing business with the brand. By providing Moments that Matter, companies can increase the likelihood of their customers’ loyalty.

What are Moments that Matter?
MTMs have some common characteristics:

• Personal: Moments that Matter are specifically tailored to an individual or select audience. For example, when you deliver coffee to a co-worker, you choose her favorite double whip latte, not black coffee from the vending machine. To succeed in making moments personal, the devil is in the details. This means you have to know the little things that matter to your customers and devise a way to track that data.
• Unexpected: While not all Moments that Matter are surprises, the unexpected gestures, no matter how small, often have the biggest impact. While most companies don’t have strategies built around “surprising and delighting,” those that do take the time to consider what would make a moment that matters are going to have an advantage.
• Cost: This isn’t to say that Moments that Matter have to be expensive, but rather, that impactful MEMs require an investment of time, effort or creativity. Consider how it feels to know someone went out of their way to do something for you. This point really gets to the heart of recognizing and creating Moments that Matter.

Understanding the importance and effectiveness of Moments that Matter, the next question becomes where to find them. Companies often struggle with identifying the critical touchpoints in which to invest. The Accenture study asked participants to identify the moments that they feel most impact their level of happiness as a customer. Four specific Moments that Matter emerged:

• Resolving a service or technical question or issue
• Paying a bill
• Upgrading or changing service or a device
• Resolving a billing question or issue

These interactions come at different points in the customer lifecycle and represent the key Moments that Matter that are imperative for brands to recognize in order to most effectively impact customer happiness and loyalty.

In addition to identifying where Moments that Matter are most likely to occur, the study also highlighted the importance of omni-channel customer support. “Traditionally brands have a tendency to approach customer experience by breaking down moments and touchpoints to the most addressable segment—by function or channel, typically aligning to their own internal organizational structure. The reality is, customers don’t operate this way.” In fact, 75 percent of consumers indicated they expect to be able to use multiple channels to complete one task. Furthermore, customers who use multiple channel types to complete a are typically 15-25 percent more profitable than customers who use only one channel, despite the channel type.

Through my career in the contact center space I have had the opportunity to work with companies of all sizes, and I’ve seen some who inherently understand Moments that Matter, and those who need some convincing as to its importance. I’d love to discuss with you how CHCG can help your marketing efforts to include more Moments that Matter in order to make a positive impact on your customer experience, and therefor bottom line.