“What is Hospitality: Graciousness; the art of making people feel welcomed, comfortable, and at ease, preferably in a seemingly effortless manner.” — Abigail Charpentier, human resources VP, ARAMARK Sports, Entertainment & Conventions

A Customer Effort Score is a metric that businesses use to measure the effort a customer has to exert to resolve issues, have their requests fulfilled, find answers to their questions, or return a purchase. Matt Dixon, at Corporate Executive Board (CEB) consulting firm, introduced CES in 2008. Gained a lot of traction after an HBR article.

Actionable Insights - The UNCXE Way

Check each process for UNCXE - UNwarranted Customer Effort

psst! - There is no full form for this term on the internet, we checked. So as far as we know, we coined this term!

How Does One Check UNCXE?

1. Record customer interactions - videos, audios and watch, listen with your team. Look for body language that displays irritation, exasperation, etc. Look for tasks or information that a customer has to repeat. Look for the effort a customer has to make just to be served.

2. Do role-plays with your team. Choose the team member who has an opinion on everything and someone who nitpicks. Ask them to be exasperated at everything. Make a note of all such moments.

Look for best practices elsewhere. 

If your customers get an immediate refund from eCommerce and apps, then why does it take your business so much time to first accept a refund and then process it?

Paul Roberts, CEO of Village Hotel Club, highlights the simplicity of Amazon’s sales process. “We need to look at the customer journey, at making it frictionless”

Real-World Examples

Check-In

If you know you will need an ID proof at the time of Check-In, ask the guest to mail it to you prior to their arrival if they so choose. You can confirm the ID at the time of the physical Check-In. It can take a long time to get a copy of the ID card and have it signed by the guest. Print a copy and keep it ready for signature or if you do not want to waste resources, ask the guest to carry a self-attested copy. A faster process for everyone and a little less friction.

From Video Recordings

• In restaurants that offer buffets, notice if guests need to criss-cross a lot to get to the dishes they want. Find a way to reduce all that friction.

• For the hotel lobby or even an event, notice if guests are looking around wondering where the restrooms are. You either need better signage or better orientation or just some more staff to offer helpful directions.

Desserts

What can you do to make dessert ordering effortless? Yes, there is a menu that the guest can order from (QR coded ones included), but what is better is a steward or host describing a scrumptious dessert and offering to get you one. 

A dessert counter or display is another way to let diners see and choose a dessert. As a guest, you just need to point.

What is even more effortless for a guest? A dessert trolley. The guest does not need to leave the table.  

Sales or Reservations

Can a guest just drop a WhatsApp message saying:

"next Friday, 2 rooms, 3 nights"

If not, you need to work on your processes to make this a reality. Natural language use is the cornerstone of so many apps and programs now that very soon your guests will find it cumbersome to do it any other way.  

In the example above, replace WhatsApp with any tool the customer likes to use and it should still work.

This is not to say that your reply confirming this message should be a 👍. Your confirmation can still be as detailed as you need it to be (considering it can be a legal contract, put all details in there), but do reduce the friction for the guest with a short message that might say 'done! look forward to hosting you', and then a full confirmation can follow. 

To make this happen you will need a robust CRM and an omnichannel presence with the ability to seamlessly move. The guest may send the details on WhatsApp and then modify the booking using Twitter. Don't even get us started on IG. In essence, you follow your customer to the channel she is using right now. That is making the service effortless, for her.

Want to make this WOW? 

While you set out to do this for your customers, work on doing this for your teams/people. If the process of getting a new A4 ream for the printer at the Front Desk includes 3 signatures on a triplicate form and a personal pretty please to the stores and purchase department, you will see that friction show up in the interactions of the Front Desk with customers.

Do this right now!

Think of a situation, with a company or a service provider that you thought would need you to lose your temper or at the very least show anger to get it done. Then when you called or visited or wrote to someone, it was done/fixed without a fuss. In fact, it was so easy and pleasant that you felt a little guilty about making it a big deal in your head.

Were you able to think of something? Do share it in the comments. It would be inspiring to us all.

Write to me at p.bedi@eclathospitality.com or WhatsApp me on +919872000604 and let me make one key process effortless for you. It would be my absolute pleasure.

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This is Insight #30. For all the earlier ones, visit https://www.eclathospitality.com/insights