Applying The Customer Talk Test

I remember watching a presentation where a restaurant in New Orleans was mentioned, the wait staff at the restaurant would simultaneously deliver the food and plates to 10 diners at the same time. The experience wowed the customers who also said the food was as good as the service, amazing!

Steven Walden's article, "What is Customer Experience Management? Did Pine and Gilmore get it wrong?" discusses the process of testing customer talk. Here's an extract:

 ‘Customer Talk Test’.  The rule is, if a customer would demand the ‘product or service’ experience first then it is not CEM, if they say it second it is CEM. Here is an example:

In the 1960’s McDonalds introduced new drive-in restaurants. Customers would come far and wide just to see the drive-ins. They would say:

First: ‘Wow come and see these drive-ins’

Second: ‘Oh! And we can get a burger’

Hence, it is CEM.

Of course there is a temporal dimension to CEM, which means that the drive-ins after a few years ceases to be an attraction and start to become part of the service ‘personal and memorable experience’. In the 1970s it becomes:

First: ‘We can get a burger at McDonalds’

Second: ‘Oh! And we can use their drive-in’s’