Experiencing the final frontier

Without any of us really noticing, a radical concept is invading our business and personal lives. It is emerging strongly as a topic for discussion and consideration as we think about the future of our businesses and the way in which we interact with customers.

It is referred to as the "experience economy" and if you pause for a moment to consider what this means, it is perhaps not too difficult to understand the driving forces behind it.

Customers want that product and service to be integrated into a complete experience.

The experience economy is based on the idea that customers want more than a product and/or service from us. They want that product and service to be integrated into a complete experience. The experience part of this bundle is increasingly being seen as a distinct economic offering. We are all leading increasingly busy and pressured lives, and we insist that every minute of our time should be applied to best advantage.

So, for example, as I have done for the past seven years, I attended the birthday party of my little goddaughter. This year, however, the party was not at her home but at a theme park. The whole party, from invitation through to the food, costumes and activities, was outsourced to the theme park. The kids had an experience second to none and the parents had a chance to relax and enjoy a cup of tea together.

The idea of creating a customer experience is not completely unknown. In the world of entertainment it has been well understood and managed for some time. Masters of the art like Walt Disney have set the experience domain benchmark.

It is also evident that smart Internet companies use the idea of creating an experience by the way they design their sites, offerings and interactions with their clients. Offerings such as chat rooms, interactive game shows, virtual reality, and the integration of call centres and Internet offerings.

It is interesting to witness how "the total experience" is moving into the rest of our lives and to see how far it will extend. Is this relevant only in consumer goods and services, or does this extend to the more serious domain of technology and financial services? Is it only applicable in business-to-consumer relationships or also in business-to-business relationships?

The key element in considering these questions is that an experience opportunity presents itself every time there is an engagement possibility between the organisation and its customer. This can either be just an encounter or it can be a personal, memorable experience. People undoubtedly sit at the heart of this "experience". Whether business-to-consumer or business-to-business, whether leisure-time products and services or business-to-business products and services, each will involve people.

In many ways in our industry, we are already working toward providing customer experiences as opposed to just products and services. The missing element is simply that we have not thought it through far enough, and we are not maximising the potential of each encounter. In the IT area, for example, allowing our clients to interact with the systems they are considering has been done for a long time. It has, however, not been constructed as an experience.

Experiences, like anything else, must be designed exceptionally well, marketed properly and then executed with aplomb. Furthermore, we are so early in the cycle of understanding this issue, that innovation is still a key topic as there are not too many existing examples that one can follow.

So no one really knows what an "experience" should feel like with their technology provider, although you will certainly know when you have had one! By definition "experience" implies some sort of customer participation, whether active or passive, and some connection between the customer and the sights, sounds, smells and goings on of the encounter. The more successful we are in engaging all five senses, the more memorable the experience will be.

Ultimately though, the experience should meet customer needs and it has to work in the context of the engagement with the customer. In thinking about a company such as ours in the IT industry, it might be great fun to stage the ultimate "Disney" experience, but it would fall short of the "experience expectation" if it did not satisfy my customers` need for information, knowledge, discussion or whatever else may be required. Therefore it is really important that these experiences serve and enhance their key objective; whether this be entertainment, educational, aesthetic or escapist.

We are in the early stages of this "experience" thing. It is not yet well understood outside entertainment and should be given careful consideration before being applied in a business as it implies a serious strategic and operational commitment.

Once a firm introduces "experience" as part of its delivery, it becomes part of the customer`s expectation with the firm, which then sets the new benchmark. This means the experience element of your products and services will need to be managed as seriously as the products and services themselves. There will have to be a continuous stream of innovation, renewal and improvement to meet the increasing level of customer expectation.