Track A: You’re waiting for a train. The platform sign says it will arrive in 12 minutes.
So you relax a bit, maybe read your email or latest celebrity gossip.
When the train arrives, on schedule, you’re a happy customer.

Track B: You’re waiting for a train with no platform sign, no announcements.
You crank your neck hoping, again and again, to see a light in the tunnel.
The train arrives in four minutes. But it seemed interminable. You are not the happiest customer.
Imagine if you were waiting 12 minutes!
What happened? Why was a four-minute wait worse than a 12-minute wait?

Your Brain Wants to Punch Unmet Expectations in the Nose.
And Give a Big Hug (and Money) to Expectations Met.

1. Being let down is like opening a birthday present as a kid, to find a winter coat and socks and mittens inside. When a reward is smaller than expected, dopamine neurons (good vibes) are inhibited.
2. What really gets the reward circuitry jazzed up is the extent to which good vibes exceed expectations.  With things like food and sex, we usually have a pretty good idea of the reward and how good it will be. Variations in dopamine levels signal when something you want is within reach, getting closer, exceeding your expectations, or slipping away and not working out.
3. The brain interprets the absence of the expected reward not merely as a lack of enjoyment – but as a punishment!
4. Consumer expectations, like blind dates, don’t usually match what companies deliver (Forrester Research)
5. Like commuting to work, customers want their journey to be frictionless: fast, easy, connected, direct.

Customer service orgs can’t rely on the current set of silo’d implementations
of digital technologies that don’t share the same data, use the same business processes
or share the same UI and user experiences. This does not support the omnichannel customer
who wants to seamlessly move between channels.  – Forrester Research

Eight Emotionally Brainy Brands
That Understand the Customer Expectations Neuro-Reflex

1. Nissan rewarded the expectations of what was a long-estranged customer, with its Project Titan. Re-entering the truck category after a long absence and less than one percent of market share, Nissan inspired its social community to vote for their own modifications. Nissan then built the truck for two members of the Wounded Warrior Project and created video updates shared across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The result:

• The Nissan Trucks Facebook community grew by 42 percent
• Page engagement increased 159 percent
• The campaign generated 1.45 million views, 6.4 million impression…
• …and helped Nissan increase year-over-year new truck sales by 16.5%

2. Honda earns consistently high scores from the America Customer Service Index for quality, perceived value and expectations. They rated Honda

• Top 8, nine times in last 10 years

3. Lexus/Toyota, since 2006, have met customer expectations in the same index, being valued at:

• No. 1, five times
• Top 3, eight times
• No. 6 in 2010, with a big bounce back to No. 1 in 2011

“Nobody knows more about being hospitable than the hospitality industry.
When you are selling a rectangular room, you have to do everything
you can to move far out of the commodity zone — through service.”
– Micah Solomon, customer service consultant

4&5. Apple and Chick-fil-A developed their customer service by sending their managers to the Ritz-Carlton training program, where they learned how to probe for and serve unexpressed wishes — to meet and exceed expectations.

– Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) With 41% share of the smartphone market and $171 billion in revenue, Apple’s consumer appeal, aside from its technology, is the result of its top-down approach to customer appreciation. CEO Tim Cook  reads customer emails on a daily basis, and Apple’s Genius Bar is a direct hospitality emulation of the concierge area at a large hotel.

– Chick-fil-A’s innovative ideas include the policy of responding to customers with the phrase “my pleasure” from Ritz-Carlton. To demonstrate transparency in the food preparation process, Chick-fil-A invites customers to take tours of its kitchens.

6. United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS), with an average of 14.4 million packages shipped per day in 2013, offers UPS My Choice, giving consumers the ability to specify how they want their packages delivered.

7. Trader Joe’s goes beyond its unique selection of wines and food to offer a unique atmosphere where associates wear Hawaiian shirts and use maritime bells to communicate.

8. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) As the largest online shopping site in the world, the company’s roots as a technology company help its customer service. By maintaining the customers’ purchase history, it makes suggestions for additional purchases that are welcomed and highly utilized by customers.

Customer service leads to better financial performance;
Amazon.com reported sales of $74.5 billion last year,
nearly triple the 2009 sales of $24.5 billion.

Yet, two 2015 joint studies by IBM and Econsultancy of 276 consumer companies found a stunning perception gap between how well businesses think they are marketing… and the actual experiences of their customers.

While 80 percent of brands strongly believe they have a holistic view of individual customers and segments across interactions and channels… and deliver superior experiences… the echo from customers across the gap is: “We don’t, don’t,  don’t…believe you really understand, understand, understand…. us as individuals, individuals, individuals…” (My impression of an echo).

• Only 22% feel brands understand them as individuals

• Only 21% feel a brand’s communications are “usually relevant”

• Only 35% feel a preferred brand’s communications are “usually relevant”

• Customers replied with a strong “No” when asked if brands — even their most trusted brands — “personalize” the shopping experience.

• Result: shopping cart abandonment rate continues to rise; at 73.7% in March 2015.

Funny thing is, the best hope of closing that personalized, human gap — is in technology.

“By increasing investments in marketing innovations, teams can examine…
specific behavior patterns from one channel to the next…. Brands can deliver experiences
that pave the way for a surge in brand advocacy and customer trust.”
– Deepak Advani, General Manager, IBM Commerce.

“At the center of it all is the marriage of marketing and technology and a commitment
to innovation that’s driven by individual customer needs.”
– Stefan Tornquist, Vice President Research for the Americas at Econsultancy

So, make sure your technology has a heart somewhere inside.