Many of you know that I’ve been paying my bills lately by working for the tax commission. This week I observed, once again, that customer experience is at least as critical as the quality of a product for creating customer evangelists.

Products and services for which there is negative demand are especially bound to create a stellar experience if they wish for repeat patronage. Funeral services, hospital visits, many types of legal services, and, yes, tax services are all offerings we’d prefer not to employ but still must from time to time.

This week, one of the Tax Payer Service workers (and, yes, Tax Payer Services is the name of the department; and, yes, they do create their own type of report; and yes, that report is called a TPS Report) received a fine arrangement of a dozen roses from a tax payer who she helped navigate the tax payment process. Put another way, someone sent flowers to the tax man!

Now, there is no service the tax commission can offer that will make me want to pay my taxes more often. But creating a stellar experience can still inspire reluctant customers to feel a connection, and perhaps a loyalty, to negative-demand service providers.

What does the tax commission gain by offering remarkable service? I mean, we have a captive customer: Idaho tax payers must pay their taxes to the commission. So what do we care if people have a good experience? Well, it may be shocking, but people don’t like to pay taxes, and many of them try to avoid paying taxes. If, by our service, we can create good will, we’ll be more likely to secure timely tax payments, thus reducing tax discovery costs. It’s valuable for us to provide good service. The loyalty we create by our service benefits the commission.

If the tax man– the TAX MAN (!!!)–can create loyal customers by creating a pleasant experience, how much more can a company with a demanded product create customer evangelists with good customer service?

Just this weekend, I walked out of a home improvement store because the payment process became to cumbersome. They had what I wanted. I was ready, willing and able to pay. I had what I wanted in my hand; Nay! at the check out stand. They even had the products rung up at the register. But the payment process became complicated. Three cards, a green flashing light, and a red flashing light later (I tried to use self-check out), I was done. I canceled the order and went to the store’s competitor. Bad experience = lost customers.