“In 1992, campaign strategist James Carville coined a slight variation of the phrase ‘it’s the economy, stupid.’ At that time, Carville was attempting to emphasize the importance of the struggling economy in then-candidate Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Although originally intended for an internal audience of campaign workers, the phrase became a de facto slogan for the entire campaign.”
Any brand in the business of serving customers can replace the word economy from Carville’s phrase with experience. It’s the experience, stupid. Customer experience is the main reason customers stay or never come back and say good or bad things about you to their friends. Nowadays they have social media to tell the world about their experiences with your brand.
A recent study by the Walker Group showed that customer experience is likely to get even more important in the future. (see chart above) So why is this subject not getting the attention of corporate leaders in T&T? Here are three possible reasons:
- It’s bad everywhere. We’re all in the same boat, so no need to fix it
- People don’t stay long, so why train them and waste time and money
- Training is too costly
Can you imagine what would happen to your customer loyalty and new customer acquisition, if you’re the only brand in your sector delighting customers? It’s the experience, stupid.
Bar chart source: http://www.walkerinfo.com/customers2020/
