Brandy,
I awoke this morning and decided to leave you. I have been thinking about this for a long time and I am just getting the courage to make the move. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate everything that you have done for me up to this moment. I appreciate your loyalty to our relationship. It’s just that I have found someone else. It’s not that you didn’t meet my basic needs. It’s just that my expectations have risen dramatically since the time we first met.
I desire someone who really takes the time to understand me and provide me with personalized attention. I desire someone who empowers me to achieve all that I set forth to accomplish in my life without setting boundaries. I desire someone who can adapt to the changes in my environment and deliver the appropriate support when I need it no matter where I am and no matter what time of day it is.
I know that you value me. I know that you take our relationship serious. I know that you have talked about changing. The problem is that I have only seen superficial changes. Your issue is that you are encumbered with your legacy thinking and your inability to change at my pace. This is a different world and people like me need someone who is up to speed.
This was a difficult decision that I discussed with many of my friends and family to get their opinions. I got a lot of great advice. Along with giving me the support I needed to end our relationship, they are the people that introduced me to someone new.
Please accept my sincerest apologies and know that I wish you all the luck and happiness in your future.
Sincerely,
Brian
Can you imagine how devastating it would be for Brandy to
receive this message? Heartbroken! All this wasted time and energy poured into
a relationship with diminished hopes of an eternal fruitful relationship.
Dumped because Brian found someone better. Dumped because Brian raised the bar
and didn’t give Brandy a chance to adjust her response.
Now if only companies could receive “Dear John” letters like this from all the customers as they were getting ready to leave them. You could at least take a stab at trying to save the relationship. Or worst case scenario, you could at least make the changes necessary to maintain the next relationship that you acquire. Unfortunately, unless they need to call you to cancel service, most customers leave without even leaving a note.
The truth is that you are Brand y, and Brands x and z are busy trying to steal Brian. And every one of Brian’s friends and relatives play a key role in influencing his decisions every day. Not only is he being influenced by his social circle but his expectations are being set by the new standards in mobile and other new digital experiences. He is leaving you because you are not keeping pace with the companies that are leading this Customer Experience (CX) revolution. These companies that are raising expectations may not even be in your industry, but it doesn’t matter. The new competitor is the company who disrupts “business as usual” with “business as desirable.”
In a recent survey performed by O’Keeffe & Company, an independent market research firm working on behalf of Oracle, this same question was asked. How important is it for your business to keep up with new customer expectations, and what are you doing to provide the type of Customer Experiences to meet those expectations?
The results were shocking. Yes, everyone gets that CX is important with 93% say that improving CX is one of the top three priorities for the next two years and that not fixing their CX could cost them up to 20% of their revenue. But the shocking part is that only 37% are getting started with a formal CX initiative today. The speed of change in the market demands immediate change yet very few companies are reacting swiftly.
You are probably asking yourself why. If companies know how important it is, then why are they not reacting quickly enough? The answers from these executives called out everything from inflexible technology applications, siloed organizations and data, and performance tracking to the inability to see their consolidated touch points across the entire Customer Lifecycle. The issues span everything from people to processes to technology.
So where does a company start? My recommendation is to start with your Customer first. Do you really know them? Their needs? The journey they take with your brand and others to fulfill those needs? Do you have a comprehensive plan to build a desirable experience that not only facilitates the transaction but ensures that your brand promise is delivered?
If you want to know more about how to get started, I recommend visiting Designing CX where you will find ideas, tools, and resources for advancing and accelerating your CX strategy.