http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2009/11/10/untangling-brand-and-customer-experience-in-10-minutes-or-less/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+adaptivepath+%28Adaptive+Path+Blog%29

(About 6 mins into video)

If the amount of blog entries etc is anything to go by then there’s a move towards the ‘overall experience’ and away from single products or services.

Do customers really value a good experience and what are they willing to pay for it? How can companies ‘really’ deliver this haloed experience?

When things are cheap people are willing to put up with very poor service. Look at Ryanair; Their customer experience is appalling. Customers and staff are treated like cattle. However people still fly with them. What does that tell us? Maybe people don’t care that much about a good experience if it carries a high price tag. As UxCs are we just jumping on the latest buzz words without researching larger issues such as price and the competitive market?

When it comes to delivering a good expeience so much of this vaulted experience is based on front-line staff being nice and responding intelligently to customers fluid demands. However, businesses consistently underpay staff and exclude them from the decision making process. This leads to high churn rates, the loss of intellectual capital, unmotivated staff, all of which conspires to deliver a poor customer experience.

The only way that companies can deliver a consistently good external experience is to have a unified organisation of equals that internally respect all members. A healthy tree bears attractive fruit.

In conclusion; We need to ascertain what price tag a good experience carries and what structural changes may be necessary to implement if this is to be anything more than a purely cosmetic gesture.

Jesse James Garret gives a good talk on this overall experience: http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2009/10/12/the-state-of-user-experience/