MARKETING
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The write stuff
A great customer experience can be found in the quality of written artifacts, says Jon Picoult
More and more companies are working to enhance their customer experience. But they might be focusing on the wrong thing. In their haste to make quick improvements, firms neglect to step back and truly understand the universe of touchpoints that comprise their total customer experience. Instead, they target the usual suspects, such as the physical design of a product, the soft skills of sales and service people, or the answering speed on a freephone line. Those are all legitimate areas for attention. The problem, however, is that companies tend to overlook parts of their customer experience that appear unimportant and mundane, yet actually exert a meaningful influence on customer perceptions. A great example of these oft-ignored interaction points are the static, written artifacts that accompany the customer experience. These include sales proposals, contracts, instruction sheets, correspondence, account statements, and invoices, just to name a few. Many companies view such documents as mere administrative details. From the customer’s perspective, however, these materials often are the experience – or at least a significant part of it.
The real experience
A great example of these oft-ignored interaction points are the static, written artifacts that accompany the customer experience Dialogue Q4 2018
A classic example of this dynamic comes from the ‘explanation of benefits’ (EOB) statements sent out by US health insurers. Every time an insured customer receives medical care, an EOB is triggered. In theory, EOBs are meant to explain what a practitioner charged, what insurance covered (and didn’t cover), how much the insured is responsible for paying and why. In practice, many EOBs are practically indecipherable – one was even recognized by the Center for Plain Language as one of the most confusing customer statements on the planet. The typography of such statements, the lack of white space, the absence of clear headings – all makes such documents visually unappealing and difficult to navigate. EOBs are a great example of written experience artifacts that confound rather than clarify; that generate more questions than they answer. What’s fascinating, though, is that for most consumers the
EOB is the face of their health insurer. The EOB is, by far, the most frequent touchpoint consumers have with the company that pays for their medical expenses. Yet few insurers treat it as such, and instead continue to issue EOBs that cement health insurers’ position at the bottom of most customer experience industry rankings. For a contrasting example, consider Delta Airlines’ redesign of the passenger boarding pass back in 2012 – a change which, in part, has helped elevate Delta’s standing in airline customer experience rankings. Here, again, we have a physical document that largely fell under the radar in airlines’ passenger-experience improvementefforts, despite being an important navigational tool during travel. If anything, it seemed that airlines were in a competition to create the most cryptic, perplexing boarding document that made it difficult for travellers to quickly find the information they needed (such as final destination, boarding gate and time). Delta’s redesigned boarding pass exhibited a much cleaner design and organized information in a way that was much more relevant to their customers. For example, most boarding passes display the passenger’s origin and destination city in the same font size. What Delta realized is that people know what city they’re currently in. Of greater interest is to make sure they’re headed to the right place. So, Delta made the destination city – in name, not three-letter airport code – more prominent on the new pass. In addition, by eliminating clutter on the document, Delta was able to include information for multi-leg trips, obviating the need for passengers to keep track of multiple boarding documents. Delta also emphasized information on the new pass that would be of value to its employees. The passenger name is printed in a larger font, and presented by first, then last name, thereby making it easier for Delta staff to address customers personally.
The ripple effect
Whether it’s an EOB, boarding pass, or any other customer experience artifact, the influence of these materials goes far beyond the creation of a