Moments Of Truth
or
MOTs
What are Moments Of Truth ?
A Moment Of Truth, or in shorthand an MOT, is said to take place whenever, or wherever, a customer, or prospective customer, has any contact with us and, as a result of that contact, makes a judgement about us based on the experience.
Why are MOTs important?
When a customer makes a judgement about us that judgement will normally effect their next action in their relationship with us. Indeed if the judgement they make is unfavourable then it is quite feasible that their next action will be to avoid, or terminate, any relationship.
Give me an example, please.
If you, as a potential customer to the restaurant, walked into MacDonalds and the floor was strewn with discarded packaging, spilt coffee and there was a rather nasty rotten vegetable smell in the air, you would be having a Moment Of Truth. The judgement you may make might be that the place is not hygienic. The action that might follow that judgement may be to turn around and leave.
So what ?
If the first MOT a potential customer has is negative then they may not come to us for the service that they want, but may go elsewhere. In the case of a sponsor or Government Department providing funds this will obviously hit us in the pocket immediately. In the case of a user of the services we provide, they may go to a competitor organisation - which fact will become evident in the longer run weakening our case when seeking future funding. Either of these situations is also true for an existing customer. (continued....)
It is also important to remember that people speak to each other and that bad news particularly travels fast. If one potential or existing customer is unhappy at the service they have been offered or received they are likely to tell other people. In fact it has been found in research that on average we tell 47 people of poor service compared to only 11 when we received good service.
So we recognise the potential of this but what should we do about it ?
We have to manage every MOT to ensure that we do everything possible to make sure it is positive for the customer. We need to identify all the MOTs and make a plan to allow us to manage them, we must remember that it is the customer who has the MOT, not us.
Eg.
A potential customer (ie virtually any living human!) using a hotel where we are setting up a seminar may see us as we are setting up, do we behave in a respectable manner? We may never find out.
OR...
An existing customer coming to see us shares a lift with a couple of members of staff, with whom they have no normal business contact, and overhears them discussing confidential business, is that acceptable?
OR…
A customer phones us and it takes 3 minutes of ringing before the phone is answered; three minutes waiting is an MoT as well as the interaction when we answer the phone.
Here is a specific real life example;
“I was expecting an important parcel so I was witing in for the post. Through the front door I saw a figure in a hi-vis jacket putting something through the letter box, so I ran to the door just as a piece of paper fell to the mat. I opened the door to catch the fellow just reaching the garden gate, I called him. “Electricity.” He said gruffly, “We’re cutting off your power tomorrow” and turned to walk away. On his back was the company logo of one of the electricity suppliers. I was stunned; cutting off my electricity, at the beginning of winter. I’d paid the bill!.” I called out to him to ask what was going on. “9 o’clock sharp it’ll be cut off” he said and hurried away. I turned back to the house to go and make urgent phone calls about this appaling error. Then it dawned on me; the guy didn’t even represent my electricity supplier. I picked up the piece of paper. “Due to equipment replacement the power supply to the village will be temporarily disrupted from 09.00 on October 12th for 6 hours”.
My opinion of the supplier has been tarnished by the interaction with the man delivering the notices. Not through his malice but his brusqueness and choice of words.