We recently celebrated 30 years of marriage, and to mark this milestone, we were blessed to enjoy a seven-day cruise in Alaska. Having been back home for a couple of days now, I was reflecting on our trip and was once again reminded that, in my view, exceptional customer experience comes down to three words, each beginning with the letter “P.” The first “P” is product .
The ship was simply awesome. We were both awestruck by its size and grandeur when we first saw it at the port of Seattle. Inside, we were amazed by her grandeur and how sparklingly clean she was.
Speaking of a different type of product — the food and beverage options were abundant and extravagant. Each dish we encountered was exquisite. The product was, indeed, pretty much perfect.
In my view, the second “P” that contributes to an exceptional customer experience is process, and this was exemplified perfectly by an app the ship’s company designed primarily for customer use. I say “primarily” because I can also see how the app helped staff processes as well. The app listed all the daily events on the ship’s schedule.
As customers, we could bookmark events that appealed to us both (or individually), building a daily schedule to follow together or separately. The app directed us to our chosen events and helped us locate each other if we decided to go in different directions for a while. We also wore a medallion that allowed the crew to instantly identify us and our cabin number.
This enabled .