The Customer Satisfaction Crisis: Solve It With 3 Strategies

Reinventing the workplace is top of mind for many leaders these days -- for good reason. Employers and employees are renegotiating the who, what, when and where of work.

And yet amid the debates about where and when, we’ve forgotten to answer the most important question of all: Why do we come to work in the first place?

The answer, of course, is simple: to deliver on our promises to customers.

But, that answer is easily forgotten. In fact, it’s so forgotten that, according to the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index, customer satisfaction has tanked in the past five years to near-historic lows, a trend that predates the pandemic by two years.

Customers are not happy. If leaders really want to grow their organization and outperform their competition, they have to turn the ship around on customer engagement.

Here are three strategies to start that process:

1. Stop fighting with your customers and start fighting for your customers.

Check your email inbox right now -- I bet you will find a two-minute customer satisfaction survey there. Everyone is collecting feedback from customers. But what are they really doing with that data? Sadly, most businesses are using that data only to fix problems.

Sadly? Yes. When you spend most of your time fixing customer problems, you are not building and growing customer relationships. In my professional experience, customers with problems likely represent about 10%-15% of your customer base. But many organizations find that the marginal utility of driving down customer problems can no longer improve topline customer results.

If you are spending more than 10% of your time on customer problems, you need to direct some of that capacity toward customer growth strategies. Give yourself and your teams permission to do more with customers, deepen relationships and invest in creating exceptional experiences.

2. Get bold and curious about ways to surprise and delight your customers.

Gallup uses a three-question metric to measure customers’ emotional attachment. We divide customers into three segments: fully engaged, indifferent and actively disengaged. Knowing where your customers stand is helpful, but the true purpose of the measurement is to identify the drivers of full engagement.

One factor that consistently drives full customer engagement is experiencing surprise and delight. When customers strongly agree that they are surprised and delighted by their customer experience, they are five times as likely to be fully engaged.¹

So, what do surprise and delight look like? In New Orleans, there is a French word -- lagniappe -- that inspires everyone to add a little extra for visitors to the city. An example of surprise might include sample or demo days at Sam’s Club. Delight might be when Harley Davidson puts on an annual owners retreat in Sturgis.

But here’s the key: Each of these examples makes the customer feel special, appreciated and important. Surprises can’t be gimmicks. They must invite the customer to have a deeper relationship with you. And like the little extra in New Orleans, it must be a garnish on top of excellence, not a freebie to cover poor quality.

3. Develop and recognize employees in relation to the customer.

Recently, Gallup asked employees whether they feel their organization delivers on the promises they make to customers. Only one in four employees strongly agreed.

That isn’t great. So, what do we do about it?

Start with development. If you look at your most customer-centric workers today, you will likely notice their enthusiasm for what they do. Much of their passion for work comes from how they interact with customers and learn from those experiences. When employees feel the pride of helping their customers, they’re more likely to find purpose in their work and have a reason to take more ownership of their job. They become more motivated to understand how their team and organization ultimately serve customers -- and what they can do to make a difference. So, build development around the customer to provide a virtuous feedback loop of learning.

In addition, recognize employees for delivering an exceptional customer experience. This shows that you value and appreciate their most important contributions and ultimately galvanizes your high standards for customer centricity.

But please note: Recognition for customer experience isn’t just for frontline workers. I’m reminded of the old story of a janitor from NASA who, when asked what his job was, replied, “I’m working to put a man on the moon.” Everyone in your organization ultimately affects your customer. Managers can help teams understand how their work affects customers. Leaders need three or four great customer stories they can repeat again and again until everyone knows that the customer is always top of mind.

Focusing on the customer is a simple idea, but it takes effort. Leaders do well if they can:

• Stabilize negative customer experiences. Make sure you deliver on basic promises -- then shift all additional resources to growing fully engaged customers.
• Get bold and curious about surprise and delight. Skip the gimmicks. Experiment with moments that make customers feel important and seen.
• Develop and recognize employees who deliver to customers. The customer is not an impediment to productivity. Create stories and recognition rituals that celebrate delivering on your promises.

If you need any more reason to focus on your customer, consider this: The best way to insulate your organization from an economic downturn is to keep and grow your customer base. Regardless of what happens to the market in the near or long term, clearly putting customers at the center of your business -- and clearly communicating that -- is job No. 1 for leaders.