336 Paula Courtney Trying to surprise and delight customers is an illusion of progress

Paula Courtney is the CEO of The Verde Group, a leading customer experience consultancy. She recently ran a study of 9,400 consumers with Thomas Robertson from Wharton, to find out what customers consider "wow experiences." Harvard Business Review published an article to summarize the findings called, "Why Customer Loyalty Programs Can Backfire."

The key takeaway for me was the idea that our goal should not be to "surprise and delight" customers. In fact, if our goal is to surprise and delight customers, we end up creating an illusion of progress. After all, what surprises and delights customers changes. Regularly. What works today, may not work tomorrow. We end up chasing an elusive prize.

Instead what Courtney suggests we do is understand that whatever our value proposition is, the number one thing to do is consistently deliver on that value proposition. That seems more reasonable to me. And it's what customers actually want.

More about Paula:

* Her company, The Verde Group: https://verdegroup.com/

* Her HBR article, Why Customer Loyalty Programs Can Backfire: https://hbr.org/2021/05/why-customer-loyalty-programs-can-backfire

* Her Interview on Knowledge @ Wharton: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/want-to-make-retail-customers-happy-give-them-a-wow-experience/

More about ServiceRocket:

* Visit ServiceRocket.com: https://www.servicerocket.com/

* On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/servicerocket/

* On Twitter: https://twitter.com/servicerocket

* On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ServiceRocket/

* On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/servicerocket/

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