Satisfaction is not enough, we need to delight our customers with every interaction. In fact, we don’t want customers at all, we want super-fans! I'm sure you've heard such earnest proclamations from CX gurus, but are they right? No.

In reality:


1. Delight is an impossible goal for most businesses because what they’re selling — parking cones for example — doesn’t have the potential to provoke such reactions, the cost of achieving it is prohibitive or both.

2. Once expectations are met, exceeding them doesn’t have as much impact as we think. We’re so used to poor service that we’re usually happy just to get what was promised consistently (a la Amazon).

3. Brands with super-fans tend to be niche players who deeply satisfy a small group, but at the expense of broader market appeal. So if we're big (or aspire to be) creating brand fanatics is at odds with our growth ambitions / market positioning.

4. Some customers just like variety so can’t be converted into loyalists, however hard you try.

5. Super-fans are typically the least valuable to a business because they're almost always a tiny proportion of buyers, so have limited spending power and capacity to raise awareness.

Be careful — what inspires from the podium may be dangerous in practice!

See this post on LinkedIn