14 YEARS LATER, RESEARCH IS UNCHANGED, CUSTOMERS DON’T WANT TO BE DELIGHTED.
14 YEARS LATER, RESEARCH IS UNCHANGED, CUSTOMERS DON’T WANT TO BE DELIGHTED.
Two days ago I got an email that made me question my life’s work. So much so I suspect I’ll eventually arrive at my care home with a look of perpetual astonishment on my face.
“Old Mr Corrigan’s had a fright again.”
“No. That’s his Kenneth Williams impression.”
“Nah. Someone pissed him off one year. He never really got over it.”
Here’s the story.
Two weeks ago I was pitching a podcaster.
The basic pitch was this.
Standard faire:
The claims sector is going to hell in a handbasket.
Customers are furious.
So furious they’re hunting for an old biro in the kitchen drawer, heading to WHSmith, finding the last surviving pack of Basildon Bond and writing a letter in a furious voice.
Then finding a stamp, walking to the postbox and thrusting it through with sufficient force to register on the Richter scale.
Good, well-meaning, God-fearing leaders are concerned.
Very concerned.
They’ve been taught the answer is to delight the customer.
Surprise them. Exceed expectations. Create memorable moments.
My pitch was that perhaps we’ve got this wrong. In fact we’ve know this for 14 years.
Because when you’ve crashed your car, flooded your kitchen or you’re waiting to find out whether someone will pay you £40,000, you’re probably not hoping to be delighted.
Or sent a toy meerkat.
You’d settle for knowing what the hell is going on, and not having to phone again on Thursday.
So I suggested 30 minutes on whether Low Effort, built on research involving 75,000+ customers, might matter rather more than delight.
There was only one small problem.
He wrote back:
“I’m not sure there’s enough material here to fill 30 mins.”
Fair enough.
Thirty minutes is a long time.
I’ve been pondering things that are difficult to keep going for 30 minutes.
There’s the obvious one, of course.
Listening to someone explain the rules of pickleball.
And the sheer horror, just as you’ve finished dessert, when your host says:
“Shall I get the holiday pictures out?”
Still, I pressed on. Up the stakes.
“What about the relationship between effort and trust?”
Now we’re talking.
And you’ll never guess what happened last week.
Rory Sutherland ran an entire conference on trust.
But what does he know, eh?
He’s on TikTok.
Can’t even take him seriously.
Rubbish.
Hmm, how about I lower my expectations pitch to the guardian.
But no.
“I know exactly who I’ll ask.”
Me.
And it turns out I was delighted.
And just look at my newsletter circulation - 793
It was a real coup.
Anyway, I managed to eke out around 7 minutes on effort and trust in yesterday’s newsletter.
If you’re remotely interested in loyalty, profit, less churn, lower costs and happier staff, that’s not changed in 14 years, you can read it below.
Unless you want the full 30, right?
Ignore this link then:
https://lnkd.in/eHMQXuve
Right, therapy fee saved for the week, anyone know a good care home?
