Customer experience is not a term traditionally used within the commodity-driven oil and gas industry. However, as competition increases, service providers and manufacturers are taking a page from other industries and beginning to differentiate on the basis of customer experience. It’s not just about having the lowest price or about strengthening relationships with buyers. It’s the end-to-end experience and delivering the greatest overall value that matters.

There are four foundational dimensions that drive good customer experience: empathy, relevance, ease and orchestration. Experiences high in empathy are based on an in-depth understanding of customer behaviors, feelings and motivations. For an experience to be relevant to a customer, the solutions and services need to add value through utility and meet basic customer needs, all at the right time and place. From our qualitative in-depth interviews we found the level of empathy and relevance in the oil and gas industry to be high. This may not come as a surprise in that customer motivations are clear and the ability to meet the basic needs of operators is standard practice—operators issue detailed specifications on projects and equipment as part of their request for proposal process. Therefore, there is a great deal of clarity and understanding for service providers into the needs of customers.

However, we did find that service providers have issues executing an experience that is simple for customers to derive value from and is orchestrated well.

Think about an operator’s customer experience being one continuous journey starting with a beginning touch-point (specification writing and negotiations), a middle (delivery of service and reporting) and an end (billing). We define ease as a journey in which it is simple for customers to derive value from experiences; that is, the experiences are apparent, accessible, effortless and uncomplicated. In one instance, a multimillion dollar service contract that was ready to be awarded was derailed due to poor communication and interdepartmental coordination on the side of the seller. Ultimately, a much smaller company won the work because the interactions from the first contact through the term sheet were effortless and uncomplicated. In cases when the interactions are purposefully complex, like negotiating a contract’s terms or price, it is important to communicate the value of such interactions from a financial perspective and in terms of how they mitigate risks. A hallmark of a mature customer experience is good communication. Companies can focus on being clear as to what exactly they will deliver as part of the service agreement, being ready to communicate as a partner when discrepancies and issues arise between the original terms and the end delivery.

Furthermore, if one does not orchestrate the delivery consistently across all touch-points, the customer experience can quickly shift from positive to negative. We define orchestration as specific interactions that are designed and delivered as an end-to-end experience vs. discrete transactions. For example, imagine the oilfield manufacturer that offers a compelling price but takes days or weeks to respond to critical questions or the service company that always meets project timelines yet never follows proper invoicing procedures, forcing the client to track down actual billed hours. Inconsistencies in the overall experience, regardless of overall product quality, can and will significantly impact the future working relationship between purchasers and suppliers.

In the new $30/barrel economy where the lowest bidder wins, previous long-standing loyalties are being ended due to a single negative experience. Competing firms are patiently waiting for an opportunity to deliver a better experience than the previous vendor. In fact, one oilfield manufacturer remarked, “Several of our top customer relationships were precipitated through our competitors’ missteps.” It was able to take a previous negative experience and surpass all expectations by delivering high-quality results at every touch-point.

Now is the time for the oil and gas industry to take a customer experience focus into the boardroom, into the C-suite and throughout the organization at all levels.

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