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Christmas is a time full of “customer experiences”.

- shopping
- wrapping of presents
- preparation of food
- time with friends and family
- giving and receiving of gifts
- church
- eating
- returns
- sales

For many they all go together in a blur. Christmas is a busy time for many and their “customer experience” in one area really depends on what happened in other areas.

- Making food, wrapping and giving gifts are dependent on shopping.
- Receiving gifts and eating of food depends on …. shopping
- Returns depends on shopping
- For many, sales means shopping

So, does it all boil down to shopping? It might look that way from the examples above and for some it does. Even the time spent with friends, family and at church sometimes depends on how the shopping has gone.

While shopping for many has become the main activity around Christmas, there are others that try to focus on other things. Convention organizers at a local hotel had the hotel take down all their Christmas decorations as it reminded them about the commercialization of Christmas.

Shopping has become an important part of this holidays here in North America. And our experiences when shopping impacts how we feel about this time of year. Poor service and long lineups make this a stressful time for many.

This stress follows us through the holidays. We’re late for church - standing room only. We’re trying to squeeze in another few friends for a get together - people we can see all year round, but “have to” see during these few days. We’re busy! And to this we add more shopping when the sales starts!?!

Christmas is a great example on how things are interconnected. Our experiences when shopping or preparing food often impacts how we feel about other parts of the holidays.

This interconnection is there year-round, but the additional stress at Christmas time makes it more obvious.

This interconnection impacts us both as a consumer and as a business.

As a consumer an experience in one area will impact how we feel about an experience in another area. As a business we’ll see customers react to what we offer of products and service(s) based on what they have experienced other places.

We need to keep this in mind when looking at experiences. When a customer has been treated poorly somewhere else you might have to increase your service level to achieve the same satisfaction level as before. That the last customer yelled at you does not mean you should yell at the next one in the line-up.

To help create a positive customer experience we all need to work hard to break the cycle of stress and negative feedback. First then will the experience improve - both for customers and the employees trying to serve them.

Want to look at inter-connectivity from a different angle? Imagine a glass half full of water. Then you start adding more water - one drop at a time. If you do nothing else the water will eventually overflow. While many will say that it was the last drop that made the water overflow, I urge you to look again. Have you ever tried to find that last drop in the water? Is it still in the glass or on the outside? Does it matter?

The glass of water overflowed because of the combined volume of water was larger than the glass could hold. So is it with customer experiences. Each little item impacts the larger picture. Too many “irritations” and you might “spill”, too many complaints and the response from the store clerk might be very negative.

Next time, let’s keep this interconnection in mind.

By the way. Christmas is not about shopping. For me it’s about a Gift of another kind. A Gift that is free to all those that ask for it. While I still shop for food and gifts and still stress more than I should, no shopping is needed for the true meaning of Christmas!

roar at roarweb dot com

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