The Cycle of Service - How to See Things from the Customer's Point of View
The Cycle of Service is a map of your company's systems, broken down into increments, steps, decisions, duties, and activities, all designed to take the customer from the front door, through the company, and back out the front door again. While the Cycle of Service says nothing about your hope that the customer will want to repeat the process with you again, this hope should be built into your thought processes.
The power behind the Cycle of Service is the way it helps you see things that are unique from the customer's point of view. The more you can see, understand, and experience the same things as your customer, the better equipped you'll be to fix what needs fixing or adjust what's working well.
Cycle of Service Example—Movie Theatre
Let's choose a common service experience and map it out along the Cycle of Service. As you read and follow the progression, put yourself into that customer's shoes.
In this example, assume you've decided to go to a movie. The following 10 steps give the Cycle of Service from beginning to end, starting when you leave your house and drive to the theater.
Find a parking space at the theater.
Wait in line to buy a ticket.
Buy your ticket.
Enter the movie theater; give your ticket to the taker.
Wait in line to buy popcorn and soda.
Pay for your food.
Go to the restroom before the movie.
Go into the theater and find a seat.
Sit and watch the movie.
Leave the theater and go back to your car.
These ten steps represent a sample of your total customer experience at the movies - a fairly common experience for most of us. What you're experiencing, literally, is ten separate moments of truth.
You, as the customer, are constantly making conscious or subconscious value judgments about each of the moments of truth you encounter. These value judgments go onto that mental report card you carry in your head.
It's just like when you were in school; these events either exceed your expectations or need, meet them, or fail to meet them. All customers give you these kinds of "grades" each time they do business with you. Just because you don't hear them out loud doesn't mean they're not being tallied.
Let's break them down and look at what could go right and what could go wrong during this excursion into movie-time service.
Find a parking space at the theater.
Exceeds expectations: You find a nice, roomy space in a well-lit area, close to the front door, and away from those people with their notorious door-denting cars. You see a security guard working around the lot, keeping an eye on things.
Meets expectations: You find a space not too close and not too far away from the door.
Fails expectations: You do not find any parking space in the entire lot and have to park across the road from the theater building.
Wait in line to buy a ticket.
Exceeds expectations: No line; no wait to get your ticket.
Meets expectations: A short line; not much wait for your ticket; still enough seats left inside for you.
Fails expectations: A long line and a long wait to get your ticket; a long line and all tickets sold out for that showing.
Buy your ticket.
Exceeds expectations: Low bargain prices that you didn't expect; a friendly ticket seller who makes pleasant conversation and tells you to enjoy the show; correct change from your bill and a coupon for a discount on your next ticket purchase.
Meets expectations: Standard prices; a polite ticket seller; correct change; no problems getting a ticket.
Fails expectations: Higher then expected prices; a rude, surly, or downright dishonest ticket taker who snaps at you, talks on the phone to his or her friends during the transaction, or shortchanges you $10 and declares that you're wrong.
Enter the movie theater; give your ticket to the taker.
Exceeds expectations: A spotless lobby; a charming ticket taker who makes you feel glad you chose that particular movie, gives directions to the theater, and gives you a quick reminder about a new movie coming next week.
Meets expectations: A clean, well-kept, and well-lit lobby, and a polite ticket taker who directs you to the correct theater.
Fails expectations: A filthy lobby with food and trash on the floor; a sour ticket taker who shoves your stub into your hand, says, "Next!" and motions for you to move along.
Wait in line to buy popcorn and soda.
Exceeds expectations: No line, a courteous and friendly counter person who explains the best popcorn and soda bargains for your money, and a cheery send off as you head for the cashier.
Meets expectations: A short line, a helpful counter person, the right food you ordered, a polite thank you.
Fails expectations: A long, disorganized line full of angry patrons; a rude counter person who gives you the wrong food and tries to hustle you through his or her station like it was an auto plant assembly line.
Pay for your food.
Exceeds expectations: Lower than average prices, the correct change, and a cheerful cashier.
Meets expectations: Competitive prices, the correct change, and a polite cashier.
Fails expectations: Excessively high prices, the wrong change, and a mean, obviously bored, or angry cashier.
Fails expectations: Filthy, foul-smelling, broken toilets, missing hand towels, soap, or toilet paper, too crowded, too small.
Go into the theater and find a seat.
Exceeds expectations: Spotless seating area; well-designed theater with no "bad" seats; enough light to find a good chair; pleasant background music or slides on the screen; roomy, comfortable chairs that recline slightly; drink and popcorn cup holders on each seat; a pleasant temperature—not too hot or too cold; no gum on the seat or sticky soda on the floor around you.
Meets expectations: Clean theater with good seats nearly everywhere; safe, comfortable, and dark enough for you to enjoy the show when the lights go down.
Fails expectations: Trash on the floor around you as you look for a seat, broken seats, missing armrests, sticky floor with gum everywhere, too hot or too cold, smells like cigarette smoke around you, a movie screen with a tear in it, loud music blaring from the speakers, gloomy lighting, burned-out exit door signs.
Sit and watch the movie.
Exceeds expectations: A fabulous movie in a fabulous theater—great sound system, excellent film quality, no talkers or crying babies around you, and a memorable entertainment experience overall.
Meets expectations: A good movie in a good theater—good sound system and film quality, polite people nearby, and an enjoyable entertainment experience overall.
Fails expectations: A rotten movie in a rotten theater—shoddy sound and movie equipment; a terrible film print, out of focus or threaded in backwards; talkers, smokers, and criers nearby; and an awful entertainment experience overall.
Leave the theater and go back to your car.
Exceeds expectations: Friendly theater staffers who greet you as you leave, an easy trip through an uncrowded lobby, and a stroll through a clean, well-lit, and secure parking lot back to your car.
Meets expectations: No problem leaving the theater: a safe trip to your car.
Fails expectations: Rude theater staffers filing their nails, horsing around, or throwing food at each other as you leave; an uneasy trip as you're herded through a crowded lobby and out the door, only to find that your car is in a dark part of the parking lot, across the highway, or gone altogether.
Mapping Experiences to a Cycle of Service
When you look at these moments of truth individually and collectively from the customer's point of view, what connections can you make with your own experiences? In most instances, a trip to the movies usually meets our expectations. From time to time, something great will happen and these expectations will be exceeded; and rarely, we will experience a total service disaster. But by and large, we get our needs met satisfactorily.
When an organization exceeds our needs or expectations, we're pleased and often shocked. Since most of our service experiences tend to run at an acceptable level, it's a nice surprise when a company or an employee goes above and beyond the call of duty to make us feel special.
And when an organization fails to meet our needs or expectations, we're displeased and again, often shocked. Why? Because we've been conditioned over the years to expect good or at least acceptable service from the places we patronize. And it's an unpleasant surprise for us when a company or its employees goes out of the way to be rude, discourteous, or apathetic. Our mental customer report cards are sacred to most of us. We keep careful tabs on who treats us well and who does not. This reflects not only on our decisions about repeat business but also on the positive or negative things we say (or don't say).
Does Your Company Exceed Expectations?
Use the movie theatre example above to create a separate Cycle of Service for your company. What are the experiences of your typical customers? Do you exceed their expectations and needs?