Two Perspectives On Managing The Customer Experience

1. A HOUSE DIVIDED
Two Perspectives on Managing the Customer Experience
Ryan Freitas | ryan@adaptivepath.com

2. “Ideas from Neighboring Fields.”

3. “I stick with subjects I'm passionate about and
avoid any article or subject where I'd have to
adopt the pose of ‘expert’ or ‘authority’.”
- Tony Bourdain

6. “Lin
Visi e of
bilit
y”
Reservations
Database
Ticketing
Flight
Search Loyalty
CRM
Systems
Before they ever get on a flight, Virgin America’s
customers have encountere multiple systems
within the airline’s “Back Stage.”

7. THE “BACK STAGE” PERSPECTIVE THE “FRONT STAGE” PERSPECTIVE
The customer The customer
experience is built on experience is built on
the quality, consistency the intensity, variability
and timeliness of the and appropriateness of
product or service when the service encounter.
the customer receives it.

8. A HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE
“It is essential to consider the entire network
of services that comprise the back and front
stages as complementary parts of a service
system.”
- Glushko & Tabas

9. MANAGING EXPERIENCE
My “high concept pitch.”
Everything you need to know about
managing the customer experience can be
learned from the restaurant industry.

10. “Back Stage” = The Kitchen

11. THE KITCHEN’S PRIORITIES
“Quality” “Consistency” “Timeliness”
Did your meal taste You order the Did the kitchen time
good? Was your porkchop every your meal correctly?
food fresh? Well time. Did they cook Did you wait too
seasoned? The right it the same way the long for a course?
temperature? always have? Did you feel rushed?

12. “Front Stage” = The Dining Room

13. THE DINING ROOM’S PRIORITIES
“Intensity” “Variability” “Appropriateness”
Was your server Did you get the How well did the
responsive to your feeling that your level of service
table? Were they server had the match up with your
overbearing, or freedom to treat you expectations?
invisible? as a special guest?

14. HIGH VARIABILITY
20% tip 25%+ tip
“Maybe they “They love
HIGH INTENSITY
remember me.” me here.”
LOW INTENSITY
15% tip 18% tip
“Y’know. To “They were quite
be polite.” attentive.”
LOW VARIABILITY

16. MANAGING EXPERIENCE
The stakes we’re playing at.

17. £4.3
Billi
on

18. 27 M
arch
, 2008

19. WHAT DOES CASCADING FAILURE LOOK LIKE?
1 2 3

20. WHAT THREE DAYS CAN COST
30,000 bags separated from owners
500 flights cancelled
£16m in losses to British Airways

21. quot;Terminal 5 is like a Formula 1 car that has two-
star petrol in it. It is a perfect storm of poor
infrastructure and over-optimistic assumptions.quot;
- Mike Platt, Hogg Robinson Group

22. “@*
&%$
!”

23. MANAGING EXPERIENCE
What any good chef would tell you.

24. MANAGING EXPERIENCE
From the Back of the House

25. ORCHESTRATE DELIVERY
An essential element of Structure your offering
menu design is ensuring to make efficient use of
no single station will end the resources you have
up being overloaded available.
every night.

26. “getting hit”
“getting slammed/crushed”
“in the weeds/dans la merde”

27. B
Prep e
ared
!

28. OPTIMIZE FOR CONSISTENCY
In the dining experience, Studies have found that
“variability is the enemy.” customers prefer
Consistency is essential, predictable service to
from the dish’s fire time variable service of
to its plating. higher intensity.

29. Lon
gevity

30. MANAGING EXPERIENCE
From the Front of the House

31. PAY ATTENTION TO PATTERNS
“I know what’s up in the Keep an eye on the
kitchen based on how output of backend
fast the food is coming systems to predict
out... and I disregard macro- and micro-trends
everything else.” in production.

32. USE WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL
What happens in the A comped drink or
kitchen is out of the dessert, or a visit from
hands of the service staff. the General Manager can
This can impact their defuse a bad situation
ability to meet the needs quickly.
of customers.

33. SERVICE RECOVERY PARADOX
“With a highly effective This means that a good
service recovery, a service recovery can turn angry
or product failure offers a and frustrated customers
chance to achieve higher into loyal customers. In
satisfaction ratings from fact it can create even
customers than if the more goodwill than if
failure had never things had gone smoothly
happened. in the first place.”
- Bernhard Schindlholzer
http://tinyurl.com/4lzzob

34. netflix envelopes

35. RECORD EVERYTHING, AND SHARE IT
Top restaurants have They also have a second
databases of the usual system of manager
data: your reservation “logs.” Any detail that
history, table size, visit could contribute to
frequency, average better service the next
check amount. night is kept there.

36. WHY SHARE WIDELY?
The restaurant industry Having vital customer
has personnel with data stored in the head
shifting weekly schedules. of a single employee, no
It also has a shockingly matter how senior, is
low employee retention untenable.
rate.

37. MANAGING EXPERIENCE
From the Both Sides of the House

38. Velc
ro!

39. COORDINATE ACTIVITY TO DISTRIBUTE LOAD
Restaurants structure Forget “C.Y.A.” - figure out
service times and promos how to cover everybody’s
to ensure a steady collective ass.
number of customers
throughout the night.

40. KNOW WHERE TO DRAW YOUR LINE
Restaurants experiment If it makes sense to move
with the elements of the elements of production
dining experience that forward, consider it as a
are hidden from their means to build a
customers. compelling experience.

41. The
Ope
Kitc n
hen

42. “Gla VW’s
ss Fa
ctor
y”

43. MANAGING EXPERIENCE
In Conclusion.

44. NO MAGIC BULLET, NO MOMENT OF TRUTH
“A service outcome is never the result of a single
encounter between a service provider and service
consumer. Instead, it emerges from the service
system of back and front stage services.”
- Glushko & Tabas

45. “Our bright and glorious future.”

46. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Ryan Freitas | ryan@adaptivepath.com