You spend time and effort improving a significant operational improvement programme. Queue times come down. Stock availability is consistent. Click-and-collect errors have more than halved. Every metric is moving in the right direction.

But then the quarterly customer comments come back — almost identical to the previous quarter. Have customers not even noticed your improvements? Customer perception in retail doesn't always follow the experience that's been built for it. The two systems are shaped by different conditions. And most organisations are only designing one of them.

What this episode covers:

• The four conditions that form customer perception (expectation, contrast, sequence, and human presence) and why they sit outside most CX design briefs
• Why getting it right has become the baseline, and what's actually moving satisfaction in UK retail right now
• How expectation-setting before a transaction changes what customers are willing to absorb when something goes wrong
• The difference between genuine perception design and using better framing to manage the optics of a poor experience

Thanks for Listening!

Did anything resonate with you from today's conversation? I'd love to know your thoughts on this. 

Get the full show notes with all frameworks and resources mentioned at https://wheresyourcustomer.com/23 

Never miss an episode – Subscribe to Where's Your Customer? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts

Found this valuable? Please leave a review or some feedback; it helps other retail professionals discover these conversations and would really mean the world to me.

Connect with me – Find me on LinkedIn or visit wheresyourcustomer.com for more customer experience insights and resources.

Share this with someone who needs it – If someone in your network is wrestling with customer experience challenges, please share this episode with them.