【中英双语】什么是适合你品牌的客户体验

What’s the Right Customer Experience for Your Brand?

by Luke Williams, Alexander Buoye, Timothy L. Keiningham, and Lerzan Aksoy

What exactly makes a great customer experience?

到底什么样的体验才是优质的客户体验？

Sometimes, it seems the answer is companies that deliver hassle-free encounters. (Think Amazon, where you can seamlessly order just about anything and it arrives at your door, or The New York Times, with its frictionless auto-renew process.) Other companies excel by delivering choreographed, immersive customer journeys. (Think about the experience of visiting a Disney theme park, or an IKEA warehouse.)

有时，答案似乎是那些提供无烦恼遭遇的企业。（想想亚马逊，你可以在那里无缝订购任何东西，然后它就会送达你家门口，或者想想《纽约时报》，它提供无摩擦自动续订流程。）其他企业则通过提供精心设计的沉浸式客户旅程而脱颖而出。（想想参观迪士尼主题公园或宜家仓库的经历。）

But what do customers believe is more important? Do they prefer companies to focus on the experience design, or on flawless delivery and execution?

然而，客户认为什么更重要？他们更喜欢公司专注于体验设计，还是专注于无可挑剔的交付和执行？

To find out, we asked 4,500 U.S. consumers about 134 unique brands in five different industries to learn about a broad range of ongoing purchase behavior, drivers of customer sentiment, drivers of spending behavior and more.

为了找到答案，我们针对5个不同行业的134个独特品牌向4500名美国消费者进行了问询，以了解各种持续购买行为、客户情绪驱动因素、消费行为驱动因素等。

Our analysis revealed three notable findings.

我们的分析揭示了三个引人注目的发现。

First, we found a positive correlation between both frictionless and memorable experiences and consumers’ sentiment and spending behavior.

首先，我们发现，无论是无摩擦的还是难忘体验，都与消费者情绪和消费行为存在正相关关系。

Second, we found that those relationships varied by industry. Neither of these findings are that surprising.

其次，我们发现，这些关系因行业而异。这两个发现均不太令人意外。

The third finding, however, is: At a certain point, there are zero-sum gains when pursuing both frictionless and memorable experiences as a competitive strategy. Brands can only grow so much by pursuing a joint strategy of being both frictionless and memorable. To grow beyond that point, brands must choose to focus on one or the other–to be either increasingly frictionless or increasingly memorable.

然而，第三个发现是：在某个节点，当同时追求无摩擦和难忘体验被作为一种竞争战略时，就会出现零和收益。因追求既无摩擦又难忘的联合战略，品牌只能实现这么多的增长。为了超越这一节点，品牌必须选择专注于其中之一——要么变得越来越无摩擦，要么变得越来越令人难忘。

Unveiling the Frictionless-Memorable Frontier

揭秘无摩擦与令人难忘之间的界线

All brands’ experiences compete on a continuum of being predominantly frictionless to predominantly memorable. Walmart, McDonald’s, and Zipcar are brands that strive for frictionless experiences, while Nordstrom, Trader Joe’s and Ritz Carlton are targeting memorable experiences.

所有品牌的体验都是在无摩擦为主与难忘为主之间的线性渐变层面上竞争的。沃尔玛、麦当劳和Zipcar都是努力追求无摩擦体验的品牌，而Nordstrom、Trader Joe's和丽思卡尔顿（Ritz Carlton）则以难忘的体验为目标。

The conventional wisdom is that a strategy aimed at reducing friction and a strategy aimed at increasing memorability offer equal opportunities for gaining market share. Our findings, however, showed diminishing returns as brands were viewed as more memorable. Brands with high market share tended to be more frictionless, whereas more memorable brands tended to have lower market share with little appreciable growth above a 15% market share cap.

人们普遍认为，旨在减少摩擦的战略和旨在提高难忘性的战略为获得市场份额提供了同等机会。然而，我们的研究结果表明，随着品牌被人视为更令人难忘，回报率呈下降趋势。市场份额高的品牌通常更无摩擦，而更令人难忘的品牌所占市场份额通常较低，几乎很难超过15%的市场份额上限。

One may assume, then, that brands should abandon a focus on memorable experiences and instead make their customer experiences as frictionless as possible. This presumes that brands can easily migrate from being memorable to being frictionless and vice versa. While that may be theoretically possible, it means completely abandoning a brand’s strategy and positioning. Companies should instead embrace their fundamental brand characteristics and subsequently plot their best course of action for improving customer experience, and financial outcomes, according to their brand DNA.

那么，人们可能会认为，品牌应该放弃对难忘体验的重视，而尽可能让其客户体验无摩擦。这事的前提是，品牌可以很容易地从令人难忘转变为无摩擦，反之亦然。虽然这在理论上存在可能性，但这意味着完全放弃某品牌的战略和定位。相反，企业应该接受其基本的品牌特征，然后根据其品牌基因制定出提升客户体验和财务结果的最佳行动方案。

Competing on Experience

体验上的竞争

The first step to a successful customer experience strategy is to be clear about what type of brand you have. Fundamentally, brands exist on a continuum from bigger established brands to smaller challenger brands. These differences inherently impact how brands compete with one another. They also impact the type of customer experience that is most likely to have the greatest impact on customers’ buying behaviors.

成功的客户体验战略的第一步是明确你拥有何种品牌类型。从根本上讲，各种品牌以一种线性渐变方式存在，从较大的资深品牌到较小的挑战者品牌。这些差异内在地影响着品牌之间的竞争方式。它们还影响到最有可能对客户购买行为产生最大影响的客户体验类型。

By incorporating a brand’s market share and how customers perceive their experiences with the brand (as either more frictionless or more memorable), you can place the brand into one of four categories, as shown in the “Customer Experience Matrix.”

通过结合品牌的市场份额和客户对品牌体验的看法（要么无摩擦，要么令人难忘），你可以将品牌归入四种类别，如“客户体验矩阵”所示。

But with so many opportunities to differentiate and make gains, what kind of experience management strategies should you apply to different segments?

然而，面对如此多的差异化和收益机会，你应该对不同的细分市场采用什么样的经验管理策略？

Mass Market Brands

大众市场品牌

For the vast majority of brands with high market shares, the answer is simple: Make the experience as frictionless as possible. Mass market brands, such as Uber, McDonald’s, and Amazon, tend to invest widely from placement to supply chain to automation to support these strategies. Mass market brands compete on price, assortment, availability, and relative ease.

对于占有高市场份额的绝大多数品牌来说，答案很简单：让体验尽可能无摩擦。优步、麦当劳和亚马逊等大众市场品牌通常广泛投资，从地理布局到供应链再到自动化，以便对这些战略给予支持。大众市场品牌会在价格、种类、可用性和相对易用性方面展开竞争。

This doesn’t mean having pleasant customer experiences is not essential. Rather, it is the recognition that mass market brands typically achieve growth through frequent usage. Almost by definition, this gives them an incentive to focus their strategy on reducing friction. Frequent usage also makes achieving memorable experiences difficult to maintain, since customers quickly habituate to their environment.

这并不意味着愉快的客户体验可有可无。相反，人们公认的是，大众市场品牌通常通过频繁的使用来实现增长。几乎照定义讲，这激励了他们将其战略重点放在减少摩擦上。频繁的使用也导致实现难忘的体验难以维系，因为客户很快就会习惯他们的环境。

Convenience Brands

便利品牌

Convenience brands, such as Wawa, Ryanair, and Do it Best, largely compete on the ease with which customers can fulfill their needs. Convenient, frictionless experiences are expected. Unlike their mass market counterparts, there are typically barriers to further scaling their service environments, such as geographical or market size limits. Convenience brands often have opportunities to have more balanced frictionless and memorable customer experience strategies, but they win share of wallet on their frictionless qualities.

Wawa、瑞安航空（Ryanair）和Do it Best等便利品牌在很大程度上是在客户需求得到满足的便利性上展开竞争的。人所预期的是方便、无摩擦的体验。与大众市场的同行不同，进一步扩展其服务环境通常存在障碍，如地域局限或市场规模限制。便利品牌通常有机会在无摩擦和难忘的客户体验战略之间更好地达成平衡，但它们是凭借其无摩擦的品质赢得的钱包份额。

Boutique Brands

精品品牌

Boutique Brands, such as Grainger, Wegmans, and Pottery Barn, compete primarily on the memorability of their experiences. In some cases, certain types of friction improve the memorability and value of these experiences (e.g., dinner reservations at top restaurant, securing tickets to popular show, etc.). In most cases, however, memorability is enhanced through well planned, immersive customer journeys. While there is opportunity to remove friction, it should be done to make it easier for customers to be immersed in the experience.

Grainger、Wegmans和Pottery Barn等精品品牌主要凭借其体验的难忘程度进行竞争。在某些情况下，某些类型的摩擦会提升这些体验的难忘程度和价值（比如，在顶级餐厅预订晚餐、设法获得流行表演的门票等）。然而，在大多数情况下，难忘程度可以通过精心策划、身临其境的客户旅程得到提升。虽然有机会消除摩擦，但消除摩擦的目的应该是让客户更容易沉浸在体验中。

Gravity Brands

吸引力品牌

These brands are so rare that there isn’t a conventional term for them. Some people think of them as Aspirational Brands. Others think of them as Gravity Brands, because they are able to raise their market share despite the natural forces that tend to limit the growth of companies whose strategy focuses on creating memorable experiences. Though rare, gravity brands such as Disney Resorts, Lego, and IKEA, do exist and are often iconic, emotionally resonant and operate in unique competitive environments that allow them to distinguish themselves and attract customers. Building memorable experiences is typically achieved through investing in superior hiring and training processes, higher quality experience components, and enhanced physical environments.

这些品牌之罕见，以至于没有一个传统的词语来形容它们。有些人认为它们是梦寐以求的品牌（Aspirational Brands）。另一些人认为它们是吸引力品牌（Gravity Brands），因为它们能够提高自己的市场份额，尽管自然力量通常会限制那些以创造难忘体验为战略重点的公司的发展。虽然少见，但迪士尼度假区、乐高和宜家等吸引力品牌确实存在，而且通常具有标志性，能引起情感共鸣，并在独特的竞争环境中运营，这种环境使它们能够脱颖而出并吸引客户。打造难忘的体验通常是通过投资出众的招聘和培训流程、更高质量的体验要素和提档升级的物理环境来实现的。

As customer experience has increasingly become the key differentiator across industries, there has been debate about which approach is the best way forward: frictionless or memorable experiences. The reality is that there is no one right way to manage the customer experience. Different approaches will be more appropriate to different brands depending upon how they currently compete. Regardless, no company should forget that managing the customer experience is equivalent to managing customers for growth. The path to winning in business has remained constant even if the strategies for achieving it over time have changed: Make certain that your customers want to keep coming back.

随着客户体验日益成为各行业的关键差异化因素，人们一直在争论哪种方法是最好的发展方向：无摩擦的体验还是难忘的体验。现实情况是，不存在管理客户体验的正确方法。不同的方法会更适合不同的品牌，这取决于他们目前的竞争方式。无论如何，任何企业都不应忘记，管理客户体验等同于管理客户的增长。即使随着时间的推移，实现这一目标的策略发生了变化，但商业中的取胜路径仍会保持不变：确保你的客户愿意不断回来。

卢克·威廉斯是Qualtrics体验管理研究所（Qualtrics XM Institute)的杰出负责人。

亚历山大·博伊是圣约翰大学商学院（Peter J. Tobin College of Business, St. John’s University）的营销学副教授。

蒂莫西·凯宁厄姆是圣约翰大学商学院电子商务学J. Donald Kennedy讲座教授和营销学教授，在Rockbridge Associates担任首席战略及客户官。

勒赞·阿克索伊是福特汉姆大学加贝利商学院（Gabelli School of Business， Fordham University）战略计划项目副主任、营销学教授。