Today, I want to share with you an idea about removing the ‘grit’ from your customer or client experience. But, first I want to start with a story.

Imagine that you are taking a walk from A to B and you notice that you have a piece of grit (small stone) in your shoe. Now, you are in a hurry and it doesn’t hurt that much so you don’t stop to remove it. However, it’s always there and once you arrive at your destination, what do you remember about your journey. The grit in your shoe, right?

I think that’s to do with how the memory works and the fact that we, generally, remember feelings better than anything else.

Maya Angelou had a great way of putting it when she said:

“People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel”

Now, imagine if we apply that same principle to customer service or customer experience.

Is there ‘grit’ in your customer service or customer experience?

When I say ‘grit’, I mean the little things that don’t go as smoothly as they could or the things that are just not bad enough for your customers to complain or do something about. But, they are just bad enough that they’ll remember them.

And, if there is ‘grit’ in your customer service or customer experience then it’s probably affecting your customer loyalty, retention and advocacy as well.

So, how do we go about locating and removing the ‘grit”? I would suggest that the best way to find out is to ask and here’s a question that I have suggested that my clients ask their customers:

Is there anything that we do, however slight, that annoys you or has annoyed you in the past?

To ask this question can take courage and time and we need to be open to the answers. But, it is worth asking.

Moreover, I also don’t think that we should try and second guess what the ‘grit’ may or may not be and resort to using quantitative survey methods to shoehorn customers answers into ‘boxes’, boxes that make sense to us and our systems and processes.

Rather, I find it’s best to leave the question and the responses open. Let your customers answer in their own words as it’ll tell you so much more about how they feel and what they experienced.

So, here’s to finding the ‘grit’ in your customer experience and removing it. Who’s up for it?

This post was originally posted on Forbes here.

Photo Credit: amasc via Compfight cc