Mastering The Art of Customer Experience – The Apple, Disney & Tesla Way

What do your customers want? This question has been asked more than any other question in today’s competitive business world. Undoubtedly, this era belongs to customer experience, and every company is striving to provide the best possible experience to its customers.

While it is crucial to understand your customers, it is equally important to explore the fundamentals of customer interaction. Every great business works on the rule of thumb of seeing the world through the customer’s eyes. After all, it is only then that you realize and redesign your business functions to create value in a customer-centric way.

Remember,

“Walt Disney once said, “Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.”

You may wonder how some of the most successful organizations are able to deliver a seamless customer experience? Here we share some really valuable customer experience lessons from the best in the business.

1. Apple Customer Experience – Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty

Apple is one of the world’s most valuable companies. Also, Apple’s customer support is exceptional and highly visible, which helps build trust and improves customer experience.

What Can You Learn From Apple?

• The Custom Model

Apple follows a custom model that is based on the letters A- P- P- L- E. Employees are trained to walk a customer through the following five steps –

A- Approaching customers with a personalized touch

P- Probing into customer queries to understand their needs

P- Presenting a viable solution to the customer

L- Listening to and resolving the customer’s concerns as quickly as possible

E- Ending the conversation on an optimistic note and inviting them to follow up whenever necessary

• The Power of Personal, Engaging Conversations

Customers return to your business when they feel attached to you. Apple believes in having engaging and active conversations with the customers, in person and online via Apple website or social media platforms.

• The “Town Square” Customer Experience

Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior Vice President, Retail, said that the company’s new stores focus more on enriching customers’ lives rather than just selling them things. She says that “We are reinventing the role our stores and employees play in the community. We want to be more like a town square, where the best of Apple comes together, and everyone is welcome”. The Apple store is now the most prominent product from the company with new features like the latest iPads, iPhones, Watches, Macbooks, and Apple TV.

What’s interesting about these stores is that they are not just meant for the entrepreneurs to discuss their ideas but also for kids to learn to code. Apple stores organize ‘Hour of Code” workshops for school kids to teach them the Swift programming language.

• The Importance of Employee Training and Onboarding

Apple’s training manuals focus on communication skills, and it ranges from non-verbal communication interpretation to an empathetic attitude. According to a report by Biddle, Apple employees are trained to utilize a technique called “The Three Fs: Feel, Felt, Found.”

2. Disney Customer Experience – Creating Magical Moments For Customers

Disney is linked with the idea of creating incredible and memorable experiences. In this increasingly competitive global economy, Disney emerges as the king of customer experience. With a business vision to create the most magical resorts to the most memorable characters, Disney has made these fantasies come alive.

What Can You Learn From Disney?

• Create Personalized Experiences

Disney has mastered the art of taking an experience meant for millions and personalizing it for the individuals. Disney, through their smartphone app and MagicBand, creates a customized experience for their guests. When the guests come to pick their tickets up, they can get a button that gives them the reason for celebrating at Disney, whether it is a marriage, a birthday, a first-time visit, and so on.

• Take Constant Feedback

The only way to improve customer experience is to know what customers actually feel about you. It is essential to understand the customer’s pain points and take steps towards eliminating them.

Disney has implemented listening posts where they can directly learn about customer feedback.

It has survey teams in the theme parks that capture customer feedback at the entrance and the exit points. They also have the provision of in-app feedback and welcome suggestions on email from all their guests.

3. Tesla Customer Experience – Quicker Feedback Loops, Creating Better Products

The electric-car pioneer Tesla has paved the way for a new customer experience model in the automotive industry. The engineers at Tesla are involved in a continuous process of achieving customer feedback loops.

That is, customer feedback is essential to Tesla, especially when it comes to creating better products, building customer loyalty, and exploring new business ideas.

What Can You Learn From Tesla?

• Good Experience Creates Loyal Customers

According to CleanTechnica, Tesla’s customers have an overall satisfaction rating of 80%. A staggering 80% of customers buy or lease another Tesla for their next car. From the beginning of the car buying experience, Tesla makes sure that the customers have a hassle-free experience.

The employees communicate the business model and their energy mission effectively to the buyers. Customers have the option to purchase cars either from Tesla’s stores or through their website. The vehicle is customizable, and there is a dedicated team that guides the customers through payment, document signing, and delivery.

• Fast Feedback is Everything

According to Harvard Business Review, the company makes about 20 engineering changes every week in its Model S vehicle, most of which are based on the data derived from customers’ driving experiences. According to the company, “These automobile changes include new battery packs, updated safety, and autopilot hardware”

Tesla incorporates the concept of “Fast Feedback,” that is, the faster the feedback can be gathered, the better. It helps the company to understand what customers are particularly looking for, in terms of features and functionalities.

• Use Social Platforms To Interact With Users

Tesla is an excellent example of how social media platforms can be put to use in improving overall customer experience. No one uses Twitter as skillfully as Elon Musk.

• Be Bigger Than Your Product

Tesla has a mission that is bigger than just cars. Its mission is to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” Every Tesla employee is committed to this purpose and educates the customers about the concept of clean energy.

Every great business is built on a vision, a vision to create something that makes the lives of people easier. It demands the implementation of logical frameworks into executable ideas that can then be turned into actionable steps and help the business evolve and grow.