Through the lens of excellence

After summer, I would love to share a personal story with you. It’s about how I could see the world in all it’s beautiful details, for the first time in my life.

Since birth, I was visually handicapped. With glasses it kind of worked, but  clearly I had made my own version of the world around me. For the past 50 years.

Can we truly ‘value’ someone’s experience?

Mid August I had surgery on both my eyes; my natural lenses were replaced by artificial intra-occular lenses. From that day on, I can see as maybe you can already all your life.
Seeing for the first time with this amount of details in sharpness and beauty, it made me overwhelmed with gratitude, hummility. It was one of the most moving experiences in my  life. When trying to explain how I felt, and what I had experienced, can anyone have any idea of what I went through?

Being active in Customer Experience for quite some years now, it gave me some insights in how we value the voice and the ‘experience’ of the customer. Because we rate, we rank, we calculate, but can we actually ‘value’ what they are going through, or went through in paste tense’. As long as we didn’t go through it ourselves; can we ever respond to the voice of the customer if we cannot value it’s message in the first place? Is an experience always measurable, is it always worth measuring? Are we not asking for it too often, after every transaction, encounter.  In an almost disturbing way?

What if we could really see what they mean

Going through this experience of Vision myself, I have realised we are never done listening and interpreting the voice (experience) of the customer. The only thing is, we might think about the impact of the interaction with the customer through the perspectif of their lifes. Some interactions will make a significant contribution, some others will not. 

Customer Empathy and/or Customer Experience

For 50 years, I dealt with the world around me as I saw it. For maybe the upcoming 50, I will see everything in a different light. 

After my operations, I have created a clearer vision on the experience of the customer; it starts with Customer Empathy. Looking through this lens of excellence, will create a brighter light on their day, their life and the place the experience has in the customer’s lives.

Sometimes a touch of Excellence starts with just a clearer vision on empathy.