Customer Experience: The Foundation of every Successful Business Model.

How to Grow a Business - The Growth Hack Series I

There are so many ways to be successful as a business or service provider.

There are so many Growth Paths.

But if you get the Customer Experience wrong, your business is over.

Photo by Blake Wisz on Unsplash

EXPERIENCES THAT LAST LONG

Coming back from Accra in 2023, the flight was scheduled for 7am in the morning. I was so excited to finally come back home after 4 years.

The plane took off, and in 1 hour, I was in Murtala Mohammed Airport.

But the thing is, my destination was Abuja and not Lagos. And my next flight was for 3:15pm.

So, we left the international airport to the domestic one, checked in, and had to wait at the lounge the entire time.

Enthusiasm and excitement brewed within me. That anxiety of waiting to see friends and families after so long.

It’s 3pm already and I am still on an empty stomach because I vowed the first food to enter my belly would be a local Nigerian dish.

Then the announcement came,

“Pshhh, Attention please. Passengers traveling on Air Peace Airways flight BA083 to Abuja. This flight is currently delayed due to technical checks. Please remain near gate B12 and check the departure screens for updated boarding information. Thank you for your patience.”

And the murmuring began. But the echoing question was just one word: “AGAIN??”

Turns out, as efficient as Air Peace is, no doubt to their good work, FLIGHT DELAYS are always a recurrent issue with them.

Almost an hour and a half later, we boarded our flight.

But my case was just a menial issue.

Even at that, customer experience should always be the TOP PRIORITY of any business.

I mean, the next time I was getting on another flight from Abuja to Lagos, I had to go with Arik because any delay would have affected the whole of my plans that day, seeing I still had things to do and places to go in Lagos before catching the next flight to Angola that same day.

EVEN BIG COMPANIES SUFFER FROM THIS

It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money.
It is the customer who pays the wages - Henry Ford.

Companies with a huge and Loyal customer base often feel untouchable when these things happen.

Maybe Air Peace knows that we’ll keep coming because they are our best bet. Maybe.

But it is important to know that with social media now, ‘dragging’ companies online can cause serious damage to their reputation.

A very recent case played out this week between the US Department of War, Open AI and Anthropic.

Claude was the official AI partner of the US Defense.

It was used for mission-critical tasks like intelligence analysis, operational planning, modeling/simulation, cyber operations, logistics, and more.

It was even deployed in the capturing of the Venezuelan president, reports say.

However, in February, under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the DoW pushed for removing company-imposed restrictions.

Anthropic refused.

They insisted on two key red lines that their AI must not be used for:

• No use for mass domestic surveillance of Americans.

• No use for fully autonomous weapons (lethal systems without human oversight)

In reaction, Trump bans Anthropic from federal Agencies and terminated their $200 million contract.

Their rivals, OpenAI, agreed with Anthropic’s redlines in the afternoon of thesame day. But in the evening, they were already in the Pentagon to sign the deal Anthropic refused, only with a terminology twist.

OpenAI’s users stated reacting.

They started boycotting ChatGPT. And lots of them.

I mean, who wants to be under the government’s watch?

Before long, Claude hits #1 on the App store (ChatGPT was #1 before - just for context).

The QuitGPT movement alone had over 1.5 million people boycotting ChatGPT and Open AI saw a 295% uninstall surge in the US alone.

This shows what happens when businesses put the “product first” before the customers.

Because whether we like it or not, “The customer pays the wages.”

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE FRAMEWORK

The Japanese proverb “Omotenashi” can be translated to “The customer is always right,” but many in Japan will prefer the literal translation of “The customer is god.”

Before I give you the takeaway, let me give you the lens.

There are five moments where businesses WIN or LOSE the customer experience battle:

1. THE ARRIVAL MOMENT: Does your customer arrive to something that respects their time? Or do they wait, get confused, or feel invisible?

2. THE INTERACTION MOMENT: Does every human (or digital) touchpoint treat the customer like an intelligent adult? Or like a number?

3. THE DISCOVERY MOMENT: Does your business help customers discover things they didn’t know they needed? Or do you just serve what was ordered?

4. THE RECOVERY MOMENT: When things go wrong (and they will), do you recover with grace? Or do you make customers fight for what’s right?

5. THE MEMORY MOMENT: After they leave, what remains? Do they remember the transaction or the feeling?

These are questions all SERVICE PROVIDERS and Businesses have to ask themselves.

It’s sad that sometimes, we fall prey to monopoly and lack of other sustainable options.

If GLO were good with their service delivery, would we still be stuck with MTN, seeing the former’s data is way cheaper?

Customer experience is not a department.

It is not a customer service team.

It is not a complaint resolution process.

Customer experience is what happens in the absence of management.

It is what people say about your business.

Photo by Christiann Koepke on Unsplash

When no one is watching the counter, what does your staff do?

When the app crashes at 2am, what does your customer face?

When the delivery arrives late, what’s the communication process?

And yes, sometimes it’s not about the disservice, it’s that lack of communication that hits home more.

Sometimes, it’s that show of attitude that screams “if you don’t want our product, go elsewhere.”

And it is in this gap that businesses die.

It’s always the customers first.

I mean, you’re not going to consume your goods and services, are you?

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do - Walt Disney.

Whether you’re a freelancer, a small business owner, or a founder building the next ‘big thing’, Growth Path 1 has ONE non-negotiable principle:

The customer must feel something worth repeating.

They must feel something worth telling their friends about.

What you sell might not always be a product.

Even as a Freelancer selling your skills, you also need this.

Don’t sell yourself. Sell their problem and how to solve it.

Always lead with value and respect the other.

Remember, selling isn’t about you or the goods, it’s ALWAYS about the buyer.

They pay the bills.

And that’s where your growth begins.

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Com toda a humildade,

Precious Christopher
Marketing Psychology Analyst