We talk a lot about customer scenarios. That’s because customers always come to your business for a purpose, even if that purpose is just to pass some time looking at cool stuff. The customer scenario for what my mother used to call “shmai-ing” (to window shop with a vengeance) has a goal—spending some time enjoyably. Moments of Truth—the showstoppers—for this window shopping scenario (whether online or in the physical world) might include:

• It isn’t easy to find interesting stuff when you don’t know what you’re looking for
  
  
• The company makes me feel uncomfortable for just looking around
  
  
• I feel pressure to buy from a sales associate or from constant emails reminding me what I looked at

These moments of truth and how your customers might measure how well your company might mitigate them (e.g., can search by category within 2 clicks, no associate follows me when I’m in the store, 1 or fewer pop-ups asking if I need help) form a pattern that will hold true for almost any similar scenario. Of course, the details and exact metrics will change depending on the customer’s context, but if you can recognize the patterns for your most common customer scenarios, you’re well on your way to anticipating and responding to your customers’ wants and needs.

This week, I’ve updated another common customer scenario in the customer lifecycle: Reorder/Renew/Replenish products or services. I look at the Moments of Truth, related Conditions of Satisfaction, and sample Customer Success Metrics that would, indeed, turn the showstopper into a win/win for your customers and your business.

So here’s some food for thought from the article: As you work on improving your customer experience and your relationships with your customers, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is there a pattern to the complaints we are hearing from customers?
  
  
• Which scenarios are giving them the most difficulty?
  
  
• Which customer lifecycle phases do these scenarios span?
  
  
• How have customers told us (explicitly or implicitly) that they want issues prevented and/or resolved?
  
  
• Do we have sample customer metrics of customer time, effort, and cost for each resolution?
  
  
• Are we measuring how successfully we meet customers’ desires and expectations for resolution?
  
  
• Have we looked at the business opportunities that may result from fulfilling our customers’ moments of truth?

How Customers Want to Buy More of Your Products
Identifying and Measuring the Key Moments of Truth in “Reorder/Renew/Replenish” Customer Scenario^® Patterns
By Ronni T. Marshak, EVP and Senior Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group, November 6, 2014

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