The Moments of Truth for Contractors

How a Contractor Can Win More Sales and Satisfy Every Customer

What is the “Customer Experience?” The Customer Experience, “CX,” is the total of all interactions between your company and a customer, both direct and indirect, throughout your relationship. These interactions are called “touchpoints.”

Each touchpoint is a Moment of Truth for the customer, and they all add up to the Customer Experience.

The Customer Experience is good or bad based on what the customer perceives is delivered by your company compared to what they expected.

Touchpoint Examples

• When the customer is searching for a contractor, that’s a touchpoint.
• When the customer calls your company to schedule an appointment, that’s a touchpoint.
• When the customer is waiting for the salesperson to arrive, even if nothing happens between the call and the arrival, that’s a touchpoint.
• When the salesperson comes to visit the customer, that’s a touchpoint.
• If the customer receives something in the mail from you, that’s a touchpoint.
• When your crew shows up at the customer’s house to install the job, that’s a touchpoint.

The image shows some of the various touchpoints with a customer. The call, the installation, the timeliness, and any questions or communication to your team.

 
What is the difference between “Customer Service” and “Customer Experience?”

I’ll use a story to answer this question. You have a service done to your home. You’re ok with it. Ten days later you get a bill. But the bill is confusing. You aren’t sure what you are paying for, what the price is, or if you are being charged for something you didn’t get in addition to what you know you did get.

You want to call to talk to someone but it’s the weekend. You forget to call on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday you get an email from the company. The email states that the company hasn’t received your payment yet, that all bills are due upon completion, and that the bill is now overdue.

You are upset because you always pay your bills on time and guard your credit rating. But the bill didn’t come for ten days and it was confusing, so you didn’t even understand how much to pay.

You call the company and get Frieda on the phone. She listens. She repeats the problem back and pulls the records right up on her computer. She apologizes and clears it up for you. She is very empathetic and understands how you feel. She assures you that they will not mark the bill as late and even makes an authentic personal connection with you. You are so glad you called and got Frieda.

That night you get an email from the company asking you to rate the service you got on the call you made today. You report that Frieda was fantastic and helped you out. You felt Frieda gave great customer service. You press send at the bottom of the survey.

But you still think the company messed up. You like Frieda; you don’t like the company.

That’s the difference between customer service and customer experience. Customer service is often associated with just one of the many touchpoints that make up the customer experience. For some people, the term “customer service” is associated with what happens when the customer reports that things went wrong.

You could get great customer service at any single touch point, but still have a mediocre or poor customer experience.

Even though you got great service, you still feel like the whole experience is flawed.

Each touchpoint is a “Moment of Truth” for the customer because it will serve as evidence whether your company is good or bad relative to their expectations.

Each touchpoint is a Moment of Truth for the customer, and they all add up to the customer experience.

In The School of Entrepreneurship, we have a module titled “Moments of Truth.”  In this module, you use our guideline to create a customer experience for your contracting business.

Customer Experiences are created one touch point or “Moment of Truth,” at a time. Business owners can craft these experiences on purpose, or they may form without much thought. But make no mistake, customers will roll up all their experiences with your company into one decision about what your company is to them and how happy they are with it. Good or bad. It’s up to you!

Watch "Moments of Truth: Recognize and Get Them Right" on YouTube. Subscribe above to get more leadership videos.

 

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