“Delight” your customers?

A large, well-known business sent out a job posting for a CX position highlighting the fact that they were looking for people who could “delight” their customers.

Maybe it’s semantics, but most customers don’t want to be “delighted.” They want to be provided with a good quality product, they want their interactions with your organization to run seamlessly, they want their problems solved, they want you to charge the correct amount. None of that is “delighted.” 

According to the dictionary, “to delight” is “to give someone joy.” “Joy” is something to consider when cleaning out your closet ala Marie Kondo, but a customer is looking more for satisfaction and professionalism. A customer wants to feel peace of mind when doing business with you, not that you give them the same pleasure as an ice cream cone.

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t strive to make customers happy, but that happiness should be long-term satisfaction rather than a blip of joy.