The 6 Laws of Customer Experience

Much like the three laws that govern and describe almost all of physics, there are a set of six fundamental truths about how customer experience operates. And whether we know them or are acutely aware of them, they’re operating like software underneath the marketing programs we develop. Marketing might get you new customers, but if you’re not looking after the customer experience, what’s the point?

1. Every interaction creates a personal reaction.
   To be successful, you need to understand your customers — personally, functionally, emotionally, and financially.
2. People are instinctively self-centered.
   Making the shift now to customer-centricity is essential. It’s free and it’s free-ing, instead of thinking your organziation must have all the answers to what customers really want. (Ask them. And ask them some more).
3. Customer familiarity breeds alignment.
   The customer is right. Let them be the entire focus of the organization. Organizations functionally organized around serving customer needs continually yield higher profits, ROI and loyalty.

4. Unengaged employees don’t create engaged customers. Ever.
   Customer experience depends on employee experience. Studies have estimated that for each 1% of buyers who return for a subsequent visit, overall revenue will increase by approximately 10%. In other words, if business-to-business platforms invested in keeping another 10% of their existing customers happy enough to keep buying, they would double their revenue.
5. Employees do what is measured, incented, and celebrated.
   Don’t blame employees; instead, fix the environment in which they’re serving customers, and increase the likelihood that they’ll better serve those customers and keep them coming back.
6. You can’t fake it.
   People are either interested in others or they’re not. If you’re not committed to customer experience, you’re only fooling yourself. Get understanding from people who understand people, and who understand buying and selling behaviors.

Wiser men have all said: “Deal with the world as it is, not how you’d like it to be.” When it comes to customer experience, these six laws describe how it is. While some isolated situations may not follow these six laws, they accurately describe the dynamics of customer experience for large organizations. Anyone looking to improve customer experience must understand and comply with these underlying realities. And as with many issues of today, ignorance of the laws is no longer a valid defense.