“You’re here for the Valium?” blurted the dental receptionist as they arrived.

The young man looked blankly at her and then at his mother. He was about to have three wisdom teeth removed under local anaesthetic. He had arrived early to be prepared for the procedure and dutifully took the 20mg of Valium given to calm him without understanding why. The dentist would be with them in an hour. Meanwhile, the receptionist continued through her checklist with the best of intentions, getting documentation signed and giving aftercare advice. The boy’s Dad pointed out three mistakes on the consent form before he signed it. All the while Sesame Street blared away on the television in the background of the otherwise empty waiting room.

Regardless of whether the procedure went well the level of empathy, attention to detail and care could have begun long before the patient sat in the dentist’s chair.

Every day we take our customers on a journey, along that journey there will be ‘moments of truth’—opportunities to either disappoint or delight. We often think of ‘moments of truth’ occurring in times of a customer service crisis and focus a lot of our energy on delighting in those moments, but ‘moments of truth’ happen routinely.

There are certain “givens” that customers expect, and they’re disappointed if they don’t happen. Then there are opportunities to create ‘magic’ which is where we often focus our customer service efforts. It’s natural to want to delight but we sometimes forget that focusing on the “givens” is as important as delivering the magic.

In our rush to delight the customer we can overlook the basics.
Paying attention to the ‘givens’ as much as the magic is how we delight. We must do both.

What are the “givens” in your customer’s journey and where is there an opportunity to create magic?

*Download and the Customer Delight PDF to make lists of opportunities you have to meet expectations and to create magic. Use this list to refine the customer experience and optimise for delight.

Image by Miss Messie.