When the Granules become Grand – Customer Experience.

In Solar Physics, granules are understood to be visible structures in the photosphere of the sun, where hot gases rise and give off light and heat. Now to a non-physicist like me, this sounds very confusing and I am rhetorically quizzing within myself- what does this have to do with customer experience, at the slightest? My curiosity and yearn for clarity on the meaning of granules, kept travelling across the web and arrive at the geological viewpoint,  which defines it as a clast of rock with a particle of approximately 2-4 millimetres in size. Now to the pharmacist, granules are understood to be small pills made from sucrose and particles gathered into a larger aggregate in which the original particles could still be identified.  I can hear you saying, ‘Enough of these definitions and characterisation of granules,’ you are not alone on the rant- I am also tired of these scientific and geological definitions.

Let me tell you a story of an experience I recently had during my visit to Berlin, for the 40^th  BMW marathon and be the judge to see if there is any relationship between granules and my experience or if there is a far and wide gap? I am quite a decisive individual but it took over three weeks to choose my accommodation in Berlin- due to a wide array of choices and mixed reviews on trip-advisor. After the passage of three solid weeks contemplating on several accommodation options, I finally went for the grand hostel. My marathon buddy used the same hostel about a year ago- I liked his passionate recommendation and owing to the fact it was 200 meters from the Berlin Brandenburg gate, which is viewed as the neoclassical triumphal arch and also served as the marathon hub. A day before my journey, I went on the grand hostel website for directions from the Berlin Schonefeld airport, they provided a vivid direction like… ‘Take exit at the little flower shop and turn right’ and the website also displays this reassuring statement: ‘Got Lost? Just give us a call; we are there for you 24/7!!!’

 
On arriving at the hostel, from my experience in several hostels, hotels and guest inns, the first thing most would ask is: what is your name or where is your ID? I arrived at the four floor hostel, strolled through the doors and met this happy and friendly guy and the first thing he says is: 'Hi, welcome! Can I get you some tea or water?' I was taking aback, by some few meters of shock and surprise. This was strange as most hotels or hostels are more interested in finding out your name and giving you a quote for your stay than offering you a drink at the first instance of meeting.

 

This is a very customer-centric hostel as I witnessed a fellow guest receiving the same kind of treatment from a different member of staff. On the day of my departure, I sat at the Lounge while I casually wait for the clock to tick along to the time of my onward journey. A new guest arrived with her luggage and a female member of staff smiled at her in a genuine and thoughtful manner and enthused, 'Welcome to Berlin, would you like some apple or banana?’ She pointed towards a pile of fruits resting in a little plastic bowl. It dawned on me that this was a pattern and a philosophy entrenched within every member of staff. You could ask, 'What pattern or philosophy is this?' I would say it is the philosophy of : ‘when the granules becoming grand.'

Granules could be the fragments or little substances but may have a great impact not just on customer experience but humanity. Imagine planet earth without light and heat; existence would have been practically impossible. The granules in the photosphere of the sun are tiny but give off a grand impression of heat and light that accounts for our continual existence.  Several customer experience research carried out highlight- the importance of little positive gestures like: showing genuine care to the customer as promoters of brand loyalty and building emotional connection than price reduction and promotion. The little extra- granules or soft impression builds that affinity with the customer and allows the brand to make the grand impression. Stan Phelps, of customer think wrote, ‘Giving little unexpected extras (glue) shows you care.’  Offering me a cup of tea by the hostel, was a granule gesture but left me with a grand customer experience – by the grand hostel!

Managing a customer's perceived waiting time- Part 2

First Impression could be verbal or non-verbal

Queues are a common feature in today's business landscape.

An array of studies carried out reveals that individuals and businesses have about a seven seconds timeframe to make a first impression. Researchers at the New York University further buttressed this point as they came to a conclusion that people make eleven major decisions about one another in the seven seconds of meeting. Carol Goman, a body language expert stated that first impressions are more influenced by nonverbal cues than verbal or spoken words. Other insights have also supported this postulation that non verbal cues have a four times impression about a person than what they actually say. Lydia Ramsey is also a major proponent of this school of thought as she stated that, 93% of an individual or a business is judged during an interaction via non verbal data only 7% is determined by spoken words.

You might be wondering what first impression and non-verbal cues have to do with managing a customer’s perceived waiting time. I remember, running down to my local bank Lloyd’s TSB during lunch time to make an account enquiry. Now, lunch time at this branch is a busy and manic period when queues could travel as far as the main door of the banking hall. On getting to the branch, I was sceptical to join the queue and contemplated checking back at a more quiet moment, this was all going through my mind as I joined the tail of the queue and surprisingly was greeted with a nod and a smile from a cashier at till point 4. That was an encouraging sign that the bank staff acknowledged everyone that had popped in with a non-verbal cue, which made the wait in queue less traumatic. The first impression borne out of the nod I received was that, they appreciated the wait and are trying their possible best to get everyone served as quickly as possible. Acknowledging a customer within the first few seconds is crucial as it leaves a positive first impression and we would now look at an essential point in effectively managing their perceived waiting time.

 

People want to get started:

David Maister on the psychology of waiting times highlighted this proposition and my said visit to Lloyds TSB further strengthens the argument. While waiting in queue at the bank, one of the floor managers went from person to person to find out what their enquiry was about and for some customers he gave them slips to fill whilst they wait to get served by the cashiers and a few others was a quick enquiry, which he answered on the spot, thereby reducing their waiting time and ours as the queue reduced drastically. A plethora of studies have been carried out in looking at how companies can better manage waiting times in a bid to boost sales on one hand and what customer's perceive to be the most essential elements in queue management on the other hand. Several companies have adopted entertainment, scent and an array of technological approaches in keeping the customer entertained and engaged as they wait in queue to be served. The common denominator is that too long a queue negatively impacts on businesses as a research carried out by Mintel revealed that a third of people asked have walked out of a fashion store because of long queues. In the same vein, a survey carried out by Barclays revealed that about two-thirds of people have walked out on a queue in shops because it was taking too long to be served while another  research by a mobile operator, indicates the waiting time limit of shoppers in a supermarket to six and half minute.

Managing the customers perceived waiting times by Dr sue Eccles is not solely relying on entertaining the customers while they wait but also ensuring that adequate staff are deployed to all the tills at busy periods. She summed it up as she enthused: “If you are trying to pay the council tax bill, then you do not want to be entertained. You want simple honesty - no adverts or piped music,"

David Maister in his work also noted that anxiety makes waiting seem longer than it is; as customers are left pondering if they have been forgotten.  Queuing is an anxious and mental energy sapping process for a customer as several thoughts travel through their minds like: ‘would it get to my turn before my lunch time is up?’ Is the queue moving at all or would it be an eternal wait?’  The aforementioned has led to a summary of key points below that would be cardinal in a company’s attempt in effectively managing the customer’s perceived waiting time.

Key points in managing the perception of waiting times:

a) Customers want to be acknowledged within the first few seconds they walk into a bank, supermarket, shop or post office. Verbal or non verbal form of acknowledgement is hugely welcomed and reassuring.

b) Customers want the service to start from the queue by way of having a shop floor manager/assistant finding out about customers queries and pointing them to the right direction.

c) They need reassurance from the staff to quench every form of anxiety. A good example is during a rush hour at a train platform, having the train support officials assuring the passengers that the train has several carriages and that it is big enough to accommodate everyone.

d) Customers want a rough time estimate as they wait in line to be served as uncertain waits are perceived to be longer than a known timescale.

e) Customers need an explanation as to why they are experiencing delays. In the psychology of waiting times, David Maister stated that, ‘Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits.’ All they need, is an explanation to why there is a delay to their flight or why the train is been held up at the platform.

Both blogs highlighted important approaches to managing a customer’s perceived waiting time- ranging from in-store media, scent and television entertainment to human interaction through verbal or non-verbal means. Queues are most times inevitable like surgery but how well the pain and anxiety of waiting is managed and not merely subdued by anaesthetic, would give some businesses competitive advantage over others.

 

Managing the customers’ perceived waiting time – Part 1

Managing the customers perceived waiting time – Part 1

 

Waiting in line or queuing is a social and business phenomenon that occurs in everyday life and could be prominently found in a post office, grocery shops, airports, mobile phone shops or high street retail shops. Queuing as expressed by Moon and Fishbash (2010) comes with psychological and economic cost to both customers and companies respectively. This has informed businesses and academics to conduct wide-array of research and insight analytics geared towards mitigating the negative effects of queuing on the customer’s perceived experience.

David mainster(1985), a great contributor to the research on the psychology of waiting times came up with a formula:   S=P-E. According to him ‘S’ stands for satisfaction, ‘P’ for perception and ‘E’ for expectation. He further enthused that P and E are both psychological in nature thus highlighting the point that ‘S’ (Satisfaction) could be attained when a customer’s perceived ‘P’ experience of a service exceeds their expectation ‘E’.  Have you ever been in a situation when you went into a store for a service and expected it to take quite a while for the issue to be resolved and by a snap of the finger the issue is fixed? If your answer is yes to that, then you are likely to leave the shop satisfied as the perceived experience exceeds the expected service or time frame. The excitement and relief that greets the faces of many customers that go into a store, get served and leave within a reasonable time frame is quite evident particularly in the telecoms sector.

 

 

Hwang and Jones (2005), in their research on the perception of waiting times in different service queues argue that many solutions employed by companies are geared towards cutting down on actual waiting time than focusing on the perceptions of waiting times. They added more dimension to the debate by stating that businesses are confronted with a gap between a customer’s perceptions of waiting times and actual waiting times.

 

This first article in the series of ‘Managing the customers perceived waiting time’ would focus on one of the eight propositions of David Mainster’s   work on the psychology of waiting times.

                                   Occupied time feels shorter than unoccupied time:

Companies are introducing solutions via technological products on the shop floor or service points to help entertain and engage customers whilst they wait. We would look at a couple of these products that could assist a company in mitigating the perceive waiting times of customers.

 

TELEVISION ENTERTAINMENT

Firstly, television entertainment is a common product used by many businesses as the Harvard business review revealed that bank branches with television programming in their lobbies witnessed the overestimation of wait time drop from 32% to 26%. According to axis satellite, a leading provider of television entertainment, a customer’s waiting time would negatively affect their willingness to spend.  They further argued that on the contrary, television entertainment can reduce a customer’s perceived wait time and spur their willingness to spend.

'An unoccupied waiting time provides the customer with much time to consider how the competition could be better'- Dateme Tubotamuno

IN-STORE MEDIA/AUDIO SOLUTIONS

A common feature in the waiting areas of most stores is the music generated from the audio systems. This is a very useful tool employed by businesses to help engage and entertain their customers whilst they wait to be served.  I have had a wide array of experiences when either the in-store audio was too loud, too quiet or just at the perfect level.

'Having a sound system on the shop floor does not equate to entertaining the customer in an engaging manner but not having it too loud as to hamper communication or too low to make them wonder if the speaker is faulty'.- Dateme Tubotamuno

Mood media is an industry leader within providing several solutions in improving the customer waiting experience. Their music solutions help brands engage with their customers and achieve results. They provide branded music, major label music and rights-included music to help make the customer experience memorable. I have had experiences in a queue, waiting to be served and one of my favourite music goes on and I instantaneously sing along, making the queue move along faster than I earlier thought. Music could create the right atmosphere for a customer as it could create a tranquil atmosphere in a morning trading period and an energetic shop floor experience during lunch-time rush hour.

'Customers are entertained when they hum to, sing along or nod to a shop floor music but are engaged when all these stops them from staring at their watch or time-piece fanatically'- Dateme Tubotamuno.

Music seems to be a universal language that helps to improve customer experience by reducing the gap between the perceived waiting time and the actual waiting time.

 

THE ESSENCE OF SCENT

 

This is a very important aspect of the waiting time experience that seems to be overlooked by many businesses. Some people love to go for window shopping in a perfume shop because of the fragrance-laden shop floor environment. There is much power in creating a soothing environment inspired by scent.

 

'When your customers inhale your brand through your unique, fresh and aroma-laden

environment, they would exhale recommendations to family and friends'

         - Dateme Tubotamuno

 

Mood media are among the pioneers of the scent design as a tool to improving customer waiting time with their ScentAir product. They believe that the sense of smell has got a large impact on a customer’s mood, behaviour and emotions toward your brand. They utilised this technology with Guess on the fragrance ‘Seductive’ that are used in the retailers stores. This fragrance creates a lasting impression with the guess brand and engages the customers with its refreshing scent as they queue up waiting to be served.  Scent is a very good way of creating a refreshing and engaging environment that aligns the perceived wait time of a customer to the actual wait time.

 

Scents are invisible but are powerful enough to impact on customer’s behaviour as they wait in line to be served. The rhetorical questions are: would you queue up in a shop floor soothing in a refreshing fragrance or one belaboured in an offensive odour? Scent could be employed by businesses to engage their customers in the shop floor and make the perceived waiting time seem faster than the actual time.

 

If the scent in a shop floor is refreshing and moderately flashy, it makes queuing seem like a snapshot. -Dateme Tubotamuno

As companies get confronted with the business and social phenomenon called queue they have to continuously design and employ strategies in helping improve the customer experience.