I ain’t proud of it, but I lost my temper big-time last week.

We’ve overpaid our accountants for sub-standard service for years, and although we’d already decided to leave when their last invoice came through, when I noticed a spurious charge for photocopying I flipped my lid and left their boss with a hot ear.

The issue here is accrued resentment. Customers do not treat gripes, grievances and unpleasant interactions as isolated incidents — their impact is cumulative, until one more is one too many. They might keep spending then suddenly leave over what looks like a trivial incident at first glance.

We talk a lot about linking CX initiatives to growth, but it's important to remember that great customer care plays a defensive role too — as a safety measure against the invisible yet toxic accumulation of resentment.

Just as disaster prevention experts think of safety as “A dynamic non-event” — they know processes are working because nothing bad has happened — CX decisions that minimize the potential for accrued resentment may have no immediately visible payoff, but that doesn't make them unimportant. In fact, in the long-run they might make all the difference...

#customerexperience

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