We rented a boat - How any business can offer a great customer experience

Rethink Labs has a vision to help our world operate more easily. We often overlook small businesses or government-operated experiences as a source of both inspiration and opportunity for real impact on our lives. While renting a boat is not key to daily living, this short story aims to encourage small business owners to level up their customer experiences 💪

Make it easy

This principle most famously documented by Steve Krugg in Don’t Make Me Think can never be overstated.

Renting a boat (a pontoon - essentially a floating lounge chair with a small engine) for a day sounds simple enough for a fun family day.

It started with difficulty

We called a local shop (because it was same-day rental we couldn’t book online) in Lake Norman, North Carolina where we were visiting for a family wedding. A 5 minute phone call resulted in a confirmed half-day booking.

We arrived at the shop. Or so we thought. Turns out, there’s two shop locations (about 20 minutes apart) but no indication on the website and the person helping us completely failed to mention which location our boat would be at. The location we arrived at had zero boats available.

So we drove another 20 minutes (with an impatient toddler) to the second location. Things turned around here.

How they made it easy for us

👋 We were warmly greeted and assistance was immediately offered. This gesture disarmed our frustrated city-people vibes.

🔑 Keys were ready for us at the check-in desk.

🗺 They had us put the shop location as a pin on our maps app. It was a lake with many little fingers so this was super helpful and ensured we didn’t have to worry about where we were going.

🍻 Their team gave a clear recommendation for the best lunch spot on the lake which removed one more thing to sort out. No one needs to know the 3rd-5th best spots - just the first 1-2.

⚓️ Our boat was stocked with the exact number of child life jackets needed for our group and the lines we needed to dock for lunch.

We walked in grumpy, but we made it out onto the lake within 10 minutes of arrival.

A customer journey can improve any business

This boat rental shop understood what their customers wanted out of their rental experience and the emotions and challenges the customer would face during their journey.

Taking the time to work this out for any organization, no matter how small, will be worth it.

Here are a few questions to get you started:

1. Ease of Use: How seamless and user-friendly are the processes and interactions for your customers? Are they able to find information and complete tasks without frustration?
2. Consistency: Is the customer experience consistent across different channels (or locations, or people) and touch-points? Do customers receive the same level of service and quality regardless of how they interact with your organization?
3. Emotional Connection: How do customers feel during and after their interactions?

If you’re looking for help building a customer journey map we’d love to help you use our template. Reach out here to get our guide.

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