As a startup, while focussing on our MVP and working to get tractions, we constantly endeavour to delight our customers more and more. A customer is delighted, when the customer gets a holistic customer experience. The experience of walking the journey with us, while availing our services /products.
To delight a customer we need to focus on there key experiences to be delivered.
Functional Experience
The experience felt by the customer as part of the functional features of the offering. The core functional part forms the basic need and purpose for which the customer is facing the need to engage with our product/ service. Eg. The core functional feature of a car is to provide means of transportation under different scenarios of needs along with safety of transportation.
Social Experience
The social experience, forms much more ahead in the journey than undergoing the functional experience. It starts the very time, the customer has started their search for various service providers/competitive product offerings to identify and shortlist one probable provider to finally buy from. This involves two parallel pathways. 1) whole research over the internet, social media, the print media 2) The feedback / opinion of close friends, near & dear ones who might have already availed or are using some product in the similar area. Eg. While buying a car, the social experience forms the research, the various input gathering efforts taken by the customer to refine their thought process and thus shortlist to a few models.
Emotional Experience
The emotional experience is the most subtler but stronger experience that influences every major decision, the buying, the continuos usage of the product, the termination or the repurchase. The important aspect is how our offering/services makes the customer feel,gives the customer something to associate with? The personalised experience that ultimately leads to a long term bonding with us. In the example of buying the car, the emotional experience correlates to how the customer would want to associate themselves with the car ? and vice versa how the car would represent themselves & their personality based on the various features offered by the car all through the years of the ownership.
Functional Experience & Social Experience leads to engagement.
Social Experience & Emotional Experience leads to creating an impression that will start too early and lasts the longest.
Functional Experience & Emotional Experience leads to a sense of fulfilment and content for the customer.
Functional, Social & Emotional experience done well and maintained well is the ultimate delight for the customer.
The surest way of increasing traction and customer loyalty is a three pronged approach of focusing on the emotional experience, functional and social experience.
