Delighting customers – a business imperative

Having been in the USA for a little over a month, there can be a lot said for the customer service I’ve come to expect and how far people will go to make sure you – the customer – are delighted with your experience.  It’s a far cry from Europe where the majority of the time I’m left thinking – “Do you really care about me, the customer, the person who is paying your wages? Would it hurt to smile?”.  As a Brit, I wish it was different, but it’s just not.

Looking back, it is possible to draw parallels between some of Microsoft’s past User Experiences and the customer service Europeans endure.  General consensus: could do better.  You feel the tide is turning though and I get the sense that User Experience is moving up the Microsoft agenda with products like Zune, Xbox 360, Windows 7 and now Windows Live Wave 3 providing excellent experiences across the board.

As Dare points out, the user experience from Windows Live Wave 3 is a real crowd pleaser and the effort the team has put in to delight customers is paying off.  In the game of social aggregation, where your only differentiator is your experience, you better be good otherwise you will fail - delighting your customers is a business imperative.  Moreover, in business software this mantra is also more prevalent than ever before where users expect to be delighted by experiences both at home and work.

Having said all that I look forward to my trip to Le Web next week in Paris and following that London, where I will no doubt receive a customer experience that leaves lots of opportunity to delight.

To get your feel for the new Windows Live Wave 3 user experience check out https://home.live.com – you might just like it.