Comments on: Ryanair – a branded customer experience? http://www.smithcoconsultancy.com/2009/12/ryanair-a-branded-customer-experience/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ryanair-a-branded-customer-experience Customer experience consultancy. Defining your customer experience from Shaun Smith + Co. Shaun Smith helps companies create a customer experience that differentiates the brand and builds customer loyalty. Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:01:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Sampson Lee http://www.smithcoconsultancy.com/2009/12/ryanair-a-branded-customer-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-215 Sampson Lee Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:01:19 +0000 http://www.smithcoconsultancy.com/?p=1226#comment-215 Shaun, Nicely written! It's a controversial article which could stir up discussions and perspectives. My comment will focus on the "Pleasure-Pain Gap" which you'd mentioned. “As human beings, we all want to maximize pleasure and avoid pain. Pain makes customers feel uncomfortable and drives them away. We can’t afford for that to happen, especially in a recession so we will offer less (no) pain.” However, pain is a necessary ‘angel’ – the same pleasure feels more pleasurable when contrasted with pain and allowing pain frees up resources and releases constraints. In fact, pain may trigger customers to push the BUY button on the spot. It just doesn't sound logical. Think about the queuing up at Starbucks, DIY service at IKEA and flights without meals on Southwest; these are all examples of pain within an experience. Why do customers accept this pain? Because their branding lets customers know that they are not coming to Starbucks for speed and efficiency, they are not coming to IKEA for excellent service and they are not coming to Southwest for meals. Allowing some pain in the process not only helps to set up a contrast with the pleasure peaks within an experience, but also to frees up resources and releases constraints. By maximizing the gaps between pleasure peaks and pain peaks (Pleasure-Pain Gap or PPG), you can reach the optimal point in resource allocation and generate the paramount pleasure peak. This phenomenon is further substantiated in other recently completed consulting projects. Potential automotive buyers with the largest Pleasure-Pain Gap (PPG) during a showroom experience showed a significant increase in their propensity-to-buy. On the other hand, those who experienced a moderate PPG, with a higher level of experience ratings and satisfaction on most of the sub-processes, did not show a higher propensity-to-buy. In another case, we were able to correlate PPG with actual buying behavior. In 1,032 face-to-face surveys conducted with customers immediately following their shopping experience in a cosmetics flagship store, customers who reported a significant PPG bought more items and in higher volumes, than those who had only a moderate PPG. Contrast helps when optimizing resources allocated and drives customers to push the BUY button. However, be cautioned: Maximize Pleasure-Pain Gap (PPG) not for the sake of creating pains but to trigger intra-experience contrast and release resource constraints. Sampson Lee Founder G-CEM Shaun,

Nicely written! It’s a controversial article which could stir up discussions and perspectives.

My comment will focus on the “Pleasure-Pain Gap” which you’d mentioned.

“As human beings, we all want to maximize pleasure and avoid pain. Pain makes customers feel uncomfortable and drives them away. We can’t afford for that to happen, especially in a recession so we will offer less (no) pain.” However, pain is a necessary ‘angel’ – the same pleasure feels more pleasurable when contrasted with pain and allowing pain frees up resources and releases constraints. In fact, pain may trigger customers to push the BUY button on the spot.

It just doesn’t sound logical. Think about the queuing up at Starbucks, DIY service at IKEA and flights without meals on Southwest; these are all examples of pain within an experience. Why do customers accept this pain? Because their branding lets customers know that they are not coming to Starbucks for speed and efficiency, they are not coming to IKEA for excellent service and they are not coming to Southwest for meals. Allowing some pain in the process not only helps to set up a contrast with the pleasure peaks within an experience, but also to frees up resources and releases constraints. By maximizing the gaps between pleasure peaks and pain peaks (Pleasure-Pain Gap or PPG), you can reach the optimal point in resource allocation and generate the paramount pleasure peak.

This phenomenon is further substantiated in other recently completed consulting projects. Potential automotive buyers with the largest Pleasure-Pain Gap (PPG) during a showroom experience showed a significant increase in their propensity-to-buy. On the other hand, those who experienced a moderate PPG, with a higher level of experience ratings and satisfaction on most of the sub-processes, did not show a higher propensity-to-buy. In another case, we were able to correlate PPG with actual buying behavior. In 1,032 face-to-face surveys conducted with customers immediately following their shopping experience in a cosmetics flagship store, customers who reported a significant PPG bought more items and in higher volumes, than those who had only a moderate PPG. Contrast helps when optimizing resources allocated and drives customers to push the BUY button.

However, be cautioned: Maximize Pleasure-Pain Gap (PPG) not for the sake of creating pains but to trigger intra-experience contrast and release resource constraints.

Sampson Lee
Founder
G-CEM

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