Our companies are created by every action taken by employees. These actions create Points of Experience (POE). Every POE creates an experience for our customers. The sum total of all POEs is our company. It’s how people see us and what they think about us. It’s our reputation, our image and our brand. It’s the reason people do business with us the first time and every time after.
Remember, POEs don’t JUST come from interactions with employees. They also come from web sites, advertising, and other people. When our customers talk about our company, they are creating a POE.
Every POE creates a judgment or conclusion for a customer. As a result, they conclude one of two things:
1. They like our company (because they had a positive POE)
2. They dislike our company (because they had a negative POE)
3. They are indifferent (because they had a neutral POE)
To keep our customers coming back, we need to create positive POE’s every time. To do this the company needs to have the value that says “I care” and actions that say “I serve”. If your company’s core values include caring and serving then the actions of people in your company will reflect this. And you’ll create points of experience that customers like.
What are your company’s points of experience? When and where and how do they happen? More importantly, what do your customers think about them? How do you know?
Other articles you might like:
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- Build Your Brand by Showing Not Telling
- Create your customers by giving them what they want.
- T-Mobile vs. the customer: Round four (getting stood-up)
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“What are your company’s points of experience? When and where and how do they happen? More importantly, what do your customers think about them? How do you know?”
Great, great questions. My guess is that this would prove an exhausting exercise for most companies. As such, they’d equate POEs to something like Channels or “touchpoints”(ie take the easy way out). Which, as you imply, are certainly NOT the same thing at all.
Every POE is an opportunity to wow, to disappoint(or worse) or to do absolutely nothing. Reminds me of Net Promoter Scores(NPS).
Also, reminds me of quantum mechanics, the dual nature of light and all of that good stuff: that light is both a particle(a point) and a wave(let’s say, a line).
POEs are discrete points(time-experience intersections) BUT POEs also exist on a continuum. Multiple POEs make up larger POEs which make up even larger POEs and so on. My single one-hour shopping trip to Nordstrom this afternoon was a POE(in the context of my 12+ years as a Nordstrom customer) made up of many smaller POEs(from being greeted upon entering, to cleanliness of the restrooms, and so on).
It’s also a good thing to know at what “scale”(level) your customers value/measure/notice/remember POEs — to understand the customer’s “Experience Value Chain”, I’ll call it. Know what POEs they most value in their cumulative experience of your business and allocate resources appropriately.
Ok…I’m rambling. It’s time for bed ; )
Russ Hatfield Jr.
Seattle, WA
http://twitter.com/russhatfield
I like the way you think Russ!
Kevin
Kevin, great post. This one really resonated with me because hits home with a subject that I care a lot about: documentation. It’s amazing how many companies neglect their documentation, especially the publishing of that documentation on the web. I wrote a post on my blog talking about documentation as a neglected Point of Experience: http://blog.lugiron.com/2009/05/documentation-point-of-experience/.
Thanks for the great post, keep it up.
Louis
http://blog.lugiron.com
http://twitter.com/marascio
Thanks Louis – glad you enjoyed it!
Kevin