The XLA Pocketbook is both a theoretical and practical beginner’s guide to the art of XLA. In this blog series, we take you through the different chapters of the book. Part 4 of this series discusses the value of a positive user experience.
Enterprise IT is no Disney World: experiences cannot be seen independently of products and services. At Disney World, it doesn’t really matter which attractions a customer visits – they will always have a fun day. With Enterprise IT, however, the product or service is crucial: you cannot simply replace one software package for another, no matter how enjoyable the experience is.
Experience Management (XM) helps design, measure and improve user experiences for both customers and employees. Employee Experience (EX) is equally important as it is often a leading indicator for Customer Experience (CX). The sudden shift to remote working during the pandemic highlighted the importance of managing EX well. Happy employees lead to positive customer experiences.
To delight a customer is all about triggering a highly positive emotional reaction. When an organization is not Disney World nor the Ritz-Carlton, it’s probably not the best move to aim for delighting customers. It’s challenging and expensive for an organization when Customer Experience is not their distinct economic offering. When an organization goes for a ​“wow”, they must keep investing in exceeding ever-higher expectations. It is critical to assess consumers’ expectations to determine if experience needs to be dominant in the design.
A poor experience is one of the biggest reasons why customers churn, or employees check out. A very negative experience is more persistent than an extremely positive one. Instead of delight, it is better to avoid disappointment consistently. The aim of Enterprise IT is not to design services for customer delight, but to prevent terrible experiences by determining the ​“Zone of Good Enough.” There are six experience subzones: angry, frustrated, tolerated, acceptable, satisfied, and delighted. When an experience is tolerated, acceptable or satisfied, it is in the Zone of Good Enough. When customers or employees get frustrated or worse, the organization has missed the Zone of Good Enough.
The Zone of Good Enough is one of the many great topics in the Introduction to Experience Management and XLA at XLA Academy. Read more about Experience Management and XLA in the XLA Pocketbook, which can be ordered here.
Our next blog article focuses on transforming your business into a XM-practicing organization. Missed out on earlier posts? Read previous parts of our blog series, such as a brief history of XLA and the introduction to the XLA 6P Model here.
