Experience is Not the Most Important Thing

I have the sense that if you read enough about any profession, you'll eventually stumble across an article, chapter, or blog entry in which someone suggests that their profession, whatever it happens to be, is the most important thing a company does and that all else should be marginalized or subordinated to it. I've read a few too many arguments of that nature regarding the customer experience profession lately, and it's starting to rankle.

The most important thing any company does is to provide a product or service that fulfills a need. It is for this reason alone that the company exists; and it is for this reason alone that customers purchase its products. My sense is that this statement is axiomatic, and the claim that any specific function of the firm is exclusive in accomplishing that purpose is a distortion, exaggeration, or a patent falsehood.

And it follows that every department and every role within a firm is either focused directly on achieving that purpose, or provides a necessary support function to those departments and roles that do. That is to say that every function can be connected in some way to the core purpose of a firm, and the firm would be less effective in accomplishing its purpose if that function were removed.

If there is to be any assignment of purpose, it's likely that all functions can be considered in terms of the impact that their removal would have of the company's ability to function:

1. If this function were eliminated, the company would fail very quickly.
2. If this function were eliminated, the company would be less efficient or effective, and would fail over a longer period of time.
3. If this function were eliminated, it would make no difference at all.

Considered thus, it would seem reasonable to rank the customer experience function in the second class. The product would still be produced, and it would be adequate to fulfilling the needs of the consumer. It might be more difficult to obtain, more awkward to use, and less suitable in many regards, but it would still be available and functional.

Granted that, in a competitive environment, customers have a variety of options at their disposal for meeting most of their needs. And in that sense, placing careful consideration on the customer experience is of great importance in a competitive market, and likely critical to the success and sustainability of a firm. But it is not the most important thing.

I'm reminded of an image ad I saw some years ago, for BASF, a manufacturer of industrial chemicals: "We don't make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better." And my sense is that those of us in the customer experience profession would do well to adopt that mantra.

What we do is not the most important thing. That's not to say it is not important, as it's critical to success in any competitive market ... but let's tone down the presumptuous aggrandizement of our profession.