Is that all there is to it?

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Mystery of The Mixed Message

“I trust you had an enjoyable Christmas sir,” I said, taking the initiative in today’s conversation.

“Quite so Watson, and I trust you had the same,” came the reply from The Effective Detective.

“Thank you sir, but something has been nagging at me since  a previous conversation regarding customer experience,” I replied, steering the conversation to the subject that had been bothering me.

“And that something would be?” asked The Detective.

“Well sir, I understand that each business has its own experience that it can define. Then it must attempt to find a market that wishes to engage in said experience. However, that cannot be the only thing that matters could it?” I queried, extremely curious to see if I had been over-thinking this.

“Ah, Watson, an excellent question, and one that I wish had your, and most likely everyone else’s, desired answer of yes. Unfortunately it is slightly more complicated, but luckily not all that more complicated.

“Woven into the experience is a little nebulous thing called value. Whilst it is critical, in fact paramount, that you find the audience that wishes to engage in your experience, you must provide one that meets their expectations for such an experience, such that they feel, for lack of a better expression, that they ‘got their money’s worth’. This is the value. Not to pick on Walmart… too much… but let us review that experience again. Cheap stuff at rock bottom prices. However, they cannot just stock the shelves with things that do not work at all, or break as soon as they come out of the box. While people do not expect the quality of a high-end purchase, they do expect something functional for the amount of money that they are spending,” The Detective explained.

“So value is quality,” I said, feeling that I understood.

“To a degree, Watson, but not the only component,” The Detective responded, with a slight smile.

“Ah, I am confused once again, what else is there?” I asked dejectedly.

“How do you attach a quality metric to a presentation, Watson? Some of the most informative speakers out there provide fantastic value, yet in a harsh evaluation of their style, they might not have delivered said information in the highest quality speech. Another example would be information products. Not all of them are packaged in the highest quality cases, with studio quality sound and/or video. Yet many provide a great experience and exceptional value to their purchasers. On the opposite end, one could put on a perfect presentation, but not provide an iota of value, which I believe in anyone’s estimation would qualify as failing.

“Value comes into play even with free giveaways and events, because nothing is truly free, we might extract an email address,  and no matter what, the end-user is giving us their time, the single most important commodity of all. Thus value and the experience are intertwined. We must provide an experience that our market desires, but it must also provide value to them!” The Detective finished with his characteristic flourish.

“A difficult concept to wrap one’s head around sir,” I replied.

“Quite.  But one must consider the return on such an investment. That, dear Watson could very well be incalculable.”