Would You Like a Pony?
C. S. Lewis writes extensively about what he calls a Law of Human Nature, but I find it more clear to call it the Law of Right and Wrong. It seems that all of us humans are subject to this law just as we are subject to gravity. To put it simply, Lewis states that we are all fully aware of what the right thing is to do in any situation and the wrong thing.
This law hit me in the face watching a TV commercial for Ally Bank.
Two small girls are sitting with a suited man at a children’s-size round table. The man asks one of the girls if she’d like a pony. “Yeah,” she says. And he reaches into his pocket and hands her a toy pony. Then he turns to the other girl at the table and asks, “would you like a pony?” She agrees and out trots a real pony. The first girl looks back at the man while holding her plastic pony and says, “But you didn’t say I could have a real pony.” The expression on her face is one of shock and dismay when the man says, “Well, you didn’t ask for one.”
A narrator overrides the scene saying, “Even kids know it’s wrong to hold out on somebody. Why don’t banks?”
My point is not so much the merits of this commercial, but the fact that kids and adult creators of TV commercials, in fact, all of us do have a sense of when we are being treated right or wrong. The people who left comments on this commercial posted on You Tube by and large agree and feel some sort of anger at Ally Bank for the wrongness of this message.
Which is where I get to customer experience.
Yes, we do all have a sense of right and wrong. It is when companies who want our money and yet treat us badly that this law comes roaring to the surface of our emotions. We know when we are right. We also know when we are wrong. And we know when we are wronged. When this happens, the reaction is always emotional.
Like when I recently wanted to return a purchase back to the retailer and they simply refused to take it back. I pointed out that it was unopened and never even touched. No restocking fee would even be necessary. The woman across the counter simply refused to refund my money. The adrenalin that hit my brain was instantaneous. I slammed the purchase back on the counter (and stupidly) walked out the store — never again to return. I felt like I was being wronged. I felt if I was the woman behind the counter that she knew she was wrong.
Treating children by giving them an unfair situation was Ally Bank’s way of dramatizing that while most banks behave badly, they would never do such a thing to customers.
No company can do well when it treats its customers wrongly. That is the essence of Customer Experience Relationship Building.
Filed Under: Deploying the Experience • Featured
