Joey Coleman

The First 100 Days is a methodology, system, and practice for creating remarkable customer experiences. It hinges on exploring the various interactions (or touchpoints) an organization has with a new customer and then analyzing how to make each of those minute interactions more remarkable.

Investigating ways to simplify the experience, while maintaining a sense of emotional engagement, allows every interaction to contribute to an overall feeling of customer delight.

By focusing on the experience customers are having in the First 100 Days, a company can set finite and achievable goals, in a comfortable timeframe (just three months), that have a significant impact on overall operations. Designing customer interactions to produce raving fans increases customer retention and as a result, the bottom line. By decreasing customer defection by just 5%, the typical business can increase profits from 25-100%. (The Loyalty Effect, Frederick F. Reichheld).

In a world that is increasingly commoditized, where products and services are in a race to the bottom on price, where cost of manufacturing keeps dropping, and where 24/7 accessibility is the norm – there are very few things you can do to differentiate your offering from the competition. The experience you create for your clients and customers is the one thing you have control over. It’s a huge opportunity to differentiate yourself and be remarkable.

In the typical customer relationship, whether considering business-to-consumer or business-to-business enterprises, the bar for customer experience is lying on the ground. Most customer interactions and not only plain and uninspiring, but they often leave a customer feeling unappreciated and even disenchanted. Despite the fact that as consumers, we often feel like we are a number in a database, few business leaders are working to change that experience within their own customer base. Countless meetings and innumerable dollars are spent figuring out how to “fill the funnel” or “drive adoption” – but little time is spent thinking about how to maintain customer engagement after a sale/purchase. Shifting the focus from pre-purchase pursuit to post-purchase service dramatically impacts organizational behavior and profits.