People express dissatisfaction with companies, but a closer look reveals they are really unhappy about microexperiences and express their frustration with the company as a whole. When we pay attention to and optimize the design of our microexperiences, we ensure delighting our users/customers and make sure that critical elements are not overlooked. This talk took a look at the importance of microexperiences and shared a strategy for resolving this issue and optimizing an organization's customer experience.

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MICROEXPERIENCE
AWARENESS
Darren Hood, MSUXD, MSIME, UXC
Michigan State University
CXM Best Practices Symposium
April 24, 2019
Going Beyond the Touchpoint

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Source: Fortune
MOST ADMIRED
COMPANIES & BRANDS

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Source: CheatSheet.com & USA Today
MOST DESPISED
COMPANIES & BRANDS

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Do people
REALLY
hate these companies?
CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood

5. 5
NO!!!CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood

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PAIN
POINTS
CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood

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MICROEXPERIENCES
CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood

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?CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood

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CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood
High-Level Process Options*
• Changing a password • Get a password reset email
• Answer security questions
• Password authorization code
• Call to get login assistance
Microexperiences are the individual steps
within each option

10. Presenting features by location
Any step in the bill payment process
Courteous update options
Assurance of data security
Supportive notification options
Assurance in a flight’s status
MICROEXPERIENCE EXAMPLES
CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood, UXUncensored

11. Identifying touchpoints is valuable….
BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH!
Touchpoints are high-level
focal elements that DO NOT
provide enough insights.
Get out your “business
microscope” and look deeper.
This is the only way to identify
microexperiences.
Let’s take a quick look.
CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood, UXUncensored
Signing customers in upon arrival
at the store
Providing excellent customer
service experience (call)
Purchasing movie tickets online
Providing familiar “change
password” process

12. Failure to identify and perfect micro-
experiences generates annoyance….
AND POTENTIAL LOSS!!!
Signing customers in upon arrival
at the store
Providing excellent customer
service experience (call)
Purchasing movie tickets online
Providing familiar “change
password” process
• Verizon customers are signed in, BUT have
no idea where they are in the process or
how long it may be before they are served.
AT&T mastered this process.
• Emagine provides the ability to purchase
tickets online, BUT the process breaks
down if you try to purchase non-reclining
seats in the last row, resulting in many
customers going elsewhere.
• Synchrony offers a familiar way to change
passwords, BUT validation requires
sending a text. Unfortunately, they have
been found to list phone numbers that do
not belong to the customer, resulting in the
inability to change passwords.
CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood, UXUncensored

13. Attention to microexperiences is key
to ensuring customers are….
HAPPY AND SATISFIED!!!
• Garmin informs customers who call support
how long they are likely to be on hold.
• If customers do not wish to wait for the
period of time announced, they have the
option to request a call back and are
assured they will not lose their place in line.
• Via these processes, every step in the
user flow is accounted for and customers
can engage with confidence and remain in
control of their experience.
CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood, UXUncensored
Signing customers in upon arrival
at the store
Providing excellent customer
service experience (call)
Purchasing movie tickets online
Providing familiar “change
password” process

14. MICROEXPERIENCE ENGAGEMENT TIPS
H O W TO E X C E L AT C X
1
Task Analysis
Performing a task analysis for
your products, services, and
solutions will provide insights
about microexperiences and
lay a foundation for optimizing
the user experience for each.
Building upon the task analysis
exercise, you can use findings to
construct experience and/or
journey maps, providing very
detailed levels of awareness for
the user experience and
thorough understanding of where
pain points exist and what needs
attention.
Personas provide a high-level
representation of customers
and clients, along with a very
human-centric sense of their
needs and mental models.
Attention to these kinds of
details can help teams to give
ample attention to micro-
experiences.
Doing any of the aforementioned
steps once simply isn’t enough.
It is advisable to maintain
knowledge of the “pulse” of your
client base. Performing regular
experience audits will help you
maintain accurate data about
user states.
2
Experience/Journey Maps
3
Persona Library Experience Audits
4
CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood, UXUncensored

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CXM Best Practices Symposium | April 2019
© 2019, Darren Hood, UXUncensored
CLOSING NOTES
• Identification of touchpoints is valuable to CX, but it’s not enough.
• People don’t hate or despise certain companies as much as they
hate the microexperiences provided by the companies.
• People hate microexperiences and form holistic attitudes towards
those companies as a result.
• The most admired companies pay strict attention to detail, providing
excellent microexperiences — the steps within each process.
• Microexperience Engagement Value:
✓ Achieving business, product, and solution self-awareness
✓ Establishes foundations for innovation within the business
✓ Helps maintain and expand competitive advantage
• Risks of NOT engaging:
✓ Missed opportunities to improve and identify issues
✓ Customer ridicule
✓ Lost goodwill and customer trust

16. @uxuncensored
thankyou.