Freedom of choice

To give the customer more control, the most common approach is simply to offer more choice over where and when they interact with the business, and what they buy. This may provide more control in the literal sense, since the customer has greater decision-making power, but this approach has its downsides. Offering more choice only gives the customer more control up to a point. As we saw in the chapters on stress and effort, the greater the choice, the harder it is to decide. Beyond a point, offering more choice actually makes the customer feel less in control.

Neither does transferring more decision-making power to the customer necessarily result in them having more control. Most people I know who have digital SLR cameras never take them off the automatic mode: if forced to decide the settings manually, they wouldn’t be able to set the exposure correctly to take a nice picture. They may have decision-making power but they don’t really have control over the end result.

Control must be proportional to skill, so competence is a key factor in deciding how much direct control is desirable to the customer. In many situations we recognise that others are best placed to make decisions for us, and so to gain control over successfully achieving our objectives, we surrender some control over the minutiae. This usually also has the welcome effect of reducing the burden of effort. I don’t want to spend my weekends fussing over my accounts – I want to delegate that, and in doing so I surrender control of the task, but gain control of my time. Unfortunately, one type of control tends to offset another.

Switching perspectives, the more choice we offer the customer, the more expensive it gets for the business. The more products we create, the more channels we operate in, and the more hours we are open, the greater the cost. If, for example, we decide to develop a suite of mobile and tablet apps, kiosks and social media offerings to go alongside our shop, website or call centre, we run the risk of spreading our resources too thin. I’ve seen plenty of businesses do exactly this with no rationale for these projects beyond simply offering more choice to the customer. They start off by saying, ‘We want to do a mobile app’, then figure out what it will do later. Choosing between three different channel options all of which are poorly conceived and executed is of no benefit to anyone: the customer won’t use it, and the money may as well have been tossed on a fire.

To create a decent customer experience that works seamlessly across multiple touchpoints can be a massive undertaking. The more touchpoints you add and the more functionality you want to support, the more complex it gets. Some companies are having to redo their whole technology infrastructure in order to try to achieve this kind of seamless experience, at vast expense and, from what I’ve seen, with limited success.

In stark contrast to the omni-channel, 24/7/365, infinite-choice mentality that many businesses have embraced, I believe that we should strive to offer customers appropriate choices, rather than simply the maximum possible. We shouldn’t just throw mud at the wall in the hope that some will stick: choice for choice’s sake is detrimental to both the customer experience and the profitability of the business. The real challenge is to establish how much choice is enough, and what it is exactly that we should allow the customer to choose. Rather than offering a prescriptive solution to this challenge, I will instead look at those elements of the experience that customers commonly seek control over and explain why this is, by relating these factors back to the principles we have covered so far.

There are two benefits to this approach: first, it will allow you to give customers control where it is most effective in improving the experience; second, it will allow you to prioritise your efforts and make the most effective use of your budget. This will also provide a useful recap of many of the principles we’ve covered so far, and offer a glimpse of how they work together in practice. To get started, here are the things that customers most commonly want to control.

Control over when

Time is our most precious resource. The internet revolutionised the way we do business because it allowed us to perform many kinds of transaction when it suited us best. It suited most companies too: servers are cheaper than people and buildings.

Controlling when we do things isn’t about choice per se, it’s about minimising the effort required to complete a task by making it more convenient. As such I find it more useful to focus the discussion on convenience rather than choice, since it keeps the specific needs of the customer in mind: we could keep our call centre or shop open 24 hours a day which gives the ultimate in choice, but it may not be worth it if there is little demand outside certain periods. It may be that convenience can be increased by making more staff available at peak hours to reduce wait times, conversely it may be that staying open late so people can shop after work makes all the difference, especially if competitors have shut at 5 p.m. on the dot. Ask yourself ‘Can we make the product or service more convenient for the customer by changing when they can use it?’

Giving customers control over their time is not just about giving them choice over when they do things, it’s about managing their expectations about when things will happen – anything uncertain is inherently out of our control. Waiting around all day for a courier or service engineer to arrive is frustrating. Furthermore, we often don’t know how long a task will take to complete, so we can’t plan our time effectively. Ask yourself ‘How can we set better expectations about when things will happen? Can we let customers know how long a task will take?’

Control over where

The promise of multi-channel customer experiences has been to give the customer more control over where they interact with us: they can order online and collect from the store, or shop in-store and have it delivered to their home. They can follow their favourite brands on social media, and access many services from a smart-phone. Again, much like giving the customer control over when things happen, this isn’t really about choice, it’s about convenience – reducing the amount of effort required from the customer.

This is where I think the omni-channel advocates have got it wrong. Many people believe that the Holy Grail of customer experiences is to offer everything through every touchpoint. I disagree: to do so is hugely expensive, and different touchpoints have different capabilities and are better suited to different tasks. A smart-phone, for example, is not ideally suited for entering large volumes of data: for those kinds of tasks a device with a larger keyboard and screen is still preferable. Before extending a service to a new touchpoint, ask yourself ‘Why would the customer want to do this on this touchpoint? What is unique about the touchpoint that we can take advantage of? Is it genuinely more convenient, or are we just doing it to offer more choice?’

Control over what we spend

One area where businesses have been reluctant to offer their customers more control is when it comes to their spending. Quotes can have a nasty habit of escalating, and hidden charges, complex and confusing pricing models and poor communication can combine to rob us of control. This may earn the business a quick buck in the short term, but it creates a simmering resentment among customers. Given half the chance they will go elsewhere, and certainly won’t be singing your praises.

Ultimately, offering customers greater control over their spending is just another form of expectation management. If your competitors are sneaking a profit by robbing the customer of control over their spending, they are opening the door for you to compete on honesty, transparency and simplicity. Ask yourself ‘How can we offer the customer more control over their spending?’

Control over who we spend it with

At the most basic level we want to control who we do business with – we want to decide whether we stay on as a customer or take our business elsewhere. Unfortunately we often find ourselves locked into contracts that give us little room to manoeuvre, and can end up feeling beholden to the company, rather than the other way around. The longer the term of the contract, the more of a commitment it is, and so the more time and effort must be put into making the decision. These kinds of agreements can put customers off. Some companies have made this easier by allowing the customer to try before they buy through free trial periods; others have gone a step further, eliminating almost any on-going commitment at all.

There is a big difference between staying on as a customer because you are satisfied, and staying because you have to, and it shows far greater confidence in your offering if you give customers the freedom to walk away. If all your competitors are locking their customers in, why not stand out from the crowd, and give them the freedom to choose? Get the rest of the experience right and they’ll stay with you voluntarily and appreciate the goodwill on your part. Ask yourself ‘Can we let customers try before they buy? Should we give customers more freedom to come and go?’

It’s not just choosing who we do business with that matters; we often want to choose who we deal with at that business. As we saw when looking at the social dimension of the customer experience, building personal relationships not only builds loyalty, it builds trust too. When we trust somebody we feel far more comfortable relinquishing control to them. Being able to specify who we deal with can also reduce the effort required to complete a task. It can be very frustrating explaining the details of a problem to five different people when what we really want to do is talk to the first person we dealt with. Ask yourself ‘How can we give customers more control over who they deal with?’

Accommodating unique customer requests is another opportunity to show that you care and add a personal touch to the experience. It may be as simple as taking an ingredient out of a meal, or posting something to their work address rather than their home, or working out of office hours to help meet a deadline. Either way, in a world where we must often jump through hoops to do things in the way that best suits the company, those experiences that offer a bit of flexibility are much appreciated.

Control over what things look like

Mass customisation and personalisation have been a reality for many years now, giving us unprecedented control over the appearance of things: we can customise everything from Zippo lighters to Nike trainers, and are shown personal recommendations when we shop online. Customisation and personalisation are hugely popular because they increase our control over how accurately our identity is reflected: it allows us to express our individuality. The challenge is to strike the balance in such a way that the choice is not overwhelming – the greater the choice, the more must be done to make that choice manageable.

Control over what things do

Every product or service we buy is in the service of an objective. The closer an offering is to matching our exact requirements, the more likely it is that we will choose it. Unfortunately, our requirements, even within a relatively narrow field, can be very diverse. The result has been an over-abundance of choice as product ranges have swelled to accommodate our every whim. The net result is usually less control rather than more since we often lack the competence to know which best fits our needs. I don’t encounter many businesses that wouldn’t be better off by cutting the number of products they offer.

This is especially the case when buying complex technology products. Friends often ask me for advice about which digital camera they should buy. They’ve tried their best to understand the options but don’t feel confident to make a choice themselves: they don’t feel in control. They always sound a bit crestfallen when I say I can’t help them – I don’t have a clue either. The same is true with almost every kind of technology product. When looking at the range of products you offer try to answer these questions:

1. Does each product or service solve a specific problem that the others in the range don’t?
2. Are offerings differentiated along clear dimensions that the customer understands?
3. Are the differences between each product or service in your range self-evident?
4. Does the naming of each offering help clarify its position in the range?
5. Is the design of each product or service modular?

DOES EACH PRODUCT OR SERVICE SOLVE A SPECIFIC PROBLEM THAT THE OTHERS IN THE RANGE DON’T?

This is fundamental. When a new requirement comes up, don’t release a whole new product if there isn’t enough of a difference to justify it. Just improve the ones you’ve got.

Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of outdoor clothing company Patagonia, makes the point nicely when outlining his product design philosophy: ‘Designing for the foundation of filling a functional need focuses the design process and ultimately makes for a superior finished product. Without a serious functional demand we can end up with a product that, although it may look great, is difficult to rationalise as being in our line – i.e., “Who needs it?” … Make fewer styles; design better.’⁵

ARE OFFERINGS DIFFERENTIATED ALONG CLEAR DIMENSIONS THAT THE CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDS?

On a functional level most products within a range differ along simple dimensions: size, weight, megapixels or horsepower for example. By organising the range along these dimensions, it becomes easier for the customer to choose which product is right for them. Furthermore, by allowing them to work through one parameter at a time, the process of choosing becomes far more manageable.

ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EACH PRODUCT OR SERVICE IN YOUR RANGE SELF-EVIDENT?

Here are the descriptions for two Sony Vaio laptops on their web page entitled, ‘Discover the VAIO Laptops range’: C series – ‘Colourful style and everyday essentials for work and play’, E series – ‘Stand out style and every day essentials for work and play’.⁶ If we can’t easily tell the difference between one product and another, we will likely choose neither.

DOES THE NAMING OF EACH OFFERING HELP CLARIFY ITS POSITION IN THE RANGE?

Here’s a quick question for you: which of these Sony Vaio’s is a desktop computer and which is a laptop: the L series, or the T series? Which is the thinnest of their laptops: the Z series or the S series? On their website the order actually goes: T, C, Z, S, E, J, L.⁷ Obviously they aren’t ordered alpha-numerically, but they aren’t ordered by price, size or weight either. When I stepped through to look at the C series laptop the product name changed to VPCCB3P1E.⁸ Choosing a product is far easier when we can see how it fits into the range. It also helps if the product name makes its function self-evident!

IS THE DESIGN OF EACH PRODUCT OR SERVICE MODULAR?

There is a lot to be said for making products or services in small modules that can fit together like Lego bricks: it’s a situation where both the business and the customer usually win. Modular products allow us to upgrade individual parts without replacing the whole, and if one part fails we can repair it rather than throw the whole thing away as we have to do with many modern electronic products. It also allows the customer to configure products to their specific requirements, and from a business perspective it makes product development simpler too since these components can often be worked on in isolation.

Control is a resultant force

Imagine a ball on a table that has several forces working on it, each of different strengths and directions. The direction the ball will move in is determined by how all those forces add up into a resultant force. The overall amount of control the customer feels is like this resultant force, and each dimension of control we’ve covered – the who’s, what’s, when’s and where’s – contributes towards it. Sometimes these work in harmony, sometimes they work in opposition.

We might give customers complete control over their spending by offering a fixed monthly charge. This sets clear expectations that the bill will be the same every month, and has the added benefit of requiring less effort to understand; yet to make this profitable, it requires that the customer operates within fixed parameters of usage: in gaining control over their spending, they have diminished control over what they can use the service for. We may decide to give the customer more control over how the product reflects their identity by increasing the number of colour options available, but if we keep increasing the number of choices, stress factors start to work in opposition, and the overall sense of control is reduced.

Successfully increasing customer control is not as simple as just increasing choice; it requires striking the perfect balance between competing requirements. We must prioritise carefully: we cannot hope to pursue all available options at once without either exceeding the available time and budget, or compromising on quality.

Build-A-Bear

One example of a business which has managed to get this balance just right is toy retailer Build-A-Bear. You can go into their shop and build your own stuffed toy, either for yourself or, as when I went there, as a present for somebody. When I arrived at the store at first I felt a little overwhelmed: it was much busier than I expected, with lots of kids running around being entertained by the staff, who clearly knew how to make it the most fun experience possible. There seemed to be so much choice I wasn’t quite sure where to start, but almost straight away an assistant came over to help me. He asked what kind of thing I was after, and told me about what was available with real enthusiasm, saying he would help me with it all the way through until it was finished. I explained to him that I’d popped out on a lunchbreak and wouldn’t have much time, but he said not to worry, and that it shouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes or so.

The process of building the bear is actually very organised and structured so that the choice isn’t too overwhelming when you get started. There are several stations that you pass through to end up with the completed product. First you choose the basic character that you want at the Choose Me station.

Next you move onto the Hear Me station, where you can choose a sound module to put into the bear. To make this easy you can choose pre-recorded sounds, or you can even record your own ten-second message that will play. I opted to record my own message and the assistant showed me to a quiet spot at the back of the store where I could record it.

After that was done, we moved onto the Stuff Me stage. Here there is what looks like a giant candy-floss machine that whirls the stuffing around in a big drum where you can see it, with a pipe at the end where the stuffing comes out. The girl manning this stage asked me how firm I wanted the bear to be, and I opted to make my bear quite full so he could stand up himself. A nice touch at this stage is that although they need to stuff the bear themselves to make sure the stuffing is distributed correctly in the bear, there is a big pedal on the floor that controls the flow of the stuffing. They get you to press it on and off, so even though you aren’t doing it yourself you still feel a part of it. Although for adults it’s a bit cheesy, they also insist that you put in a little satin heart that brings the bear to life.

Before they sew the bear up for you – another thing they need to do themselves – they put in a unique barcode, so if the bear is ever lost it can be reunited with its owner. This is fantastic attention to detail: children can get very attached to their toys and this shows great empathy for the customer. With the bear almost finished, I chose some accessories – there is a great range of different outfits and extras to choose from. Then finally, I was shown to a computer where I could give the bear a name and print off their own personal birth certificate.

I actually really enjoyed the experience: the staff were great, the end result was exactly what I wanted, and most of all it was good fun. It’s no surprise the shop was full, and parents and children alike all had smiles on their faces.

What makes the Build-A-Bear experience so exceptional is that they have got the balance between often opposing forces just right, to really make you feel in control of the finished result. The range of options was staggering but a well-structured store layout and friendly, helpful staff made it fun and easy. The clear pricing at each stage made it easy to keep a total of how much my furry friend was going to cost. They also make sure that they do the bits that require skill, like sewing up the bear at the end with the needle and thread, but do so in such a way that you feel that it is still you who is making the bear. I know quite a few people who have taken their children there and they’ve all come away impressed and entertained. We are not alone: since the business started in 1997 they have sold over 70 million bears and have over 400 stores across the world.⁹ Clearly their staff think it’s fun too. In 2012 they appeared on Fortune’s ‘100 best companies to work for’ list for the fourth year in a row.¹⁰

Summary

• Customers don’t just want to achieve goals, they also want to achieve them in their own way.
• To create the best possible experience we need to make sure the customer feels in control at every step of the journey.
• More choice and more decision-making power does not necessarily result in a greater feeling of control.
• Different types of control can offset each other: we may gain control of our time by delegating control of a task to somebody else.
• The more choice we offer, the more expensive it becomes for the business.
• We should aim to give customers control where it is most effective in improving the experience, in ways that make the most effective use of budget.
• Customers want control over when and where they perform a task, how much they spend and who with.
• When it comes to products we want to fine tune what the product looks like and what functions it performs to best reflect our identity and objectives.
• Each dimension of control – the who’s, what’s, when’s and where’s – contributes towards the overall feeling of control. Sometimes these work in harmony, sometimes they work in opposition.
• Successfully increasing customer control is not as simple as just increasing choice; it requires striking the perfect balance between competing requirements.