Customer Experience Design

À bientôt

I'll be on holiday for the next couple of weeks.

May not get the chance to post very often.

A great posting from Seth Godin. He picks up on the fabulous idea promoted by California Tortilla of giving customers the chance to get a discount if they can beat the person serving them in a game of rock, paper, scissors. 

I was thinking about how a large financial services company might do this. They wouldn't, and of course, they couldn't.

They wouldn't because it's just too weird and wacky for most financial services companies.

They couldn't because doing this would undermine their brand. It would make a lot of customers think that maybe they weren't the kind of organisation they should be trusting with their money. Playing rock, paper, scissors is fine for a company operating in the low value fast-food sector. It's completely different for those operating in the serious world of serious money. So most financial companies would steer clear of anything remotely like this.

But of course this is missing the point. I wouldn't expect a customer queuing in a bank to be offered the chance of winning a reduction in their bank charges because they won a childs game. How about though if a couple of times a day employees of the bank were able to say to a customer who they'd a really great interaction with - 'You're great Mr / Mr's X. I'm gonna buy you coffee at Starbucks. Here's a voucher for you and a friend to have a coffee and cake on me.' Of course it doesn't have to be Starbucks - you get the idea. Three great things could come straight out of this.

1. Customers would talk about it
2. Staff would enjoy giving this stuff out
3. Staff would look for more good customer interactions and in doing so would probably begin to consciously or unconsciously change their own behaviours to try and bring these about.

Of course, it could all go pear shaped. If your workforce are so demoralised that they see this as just cynical marketing. Or you introduce an onerous process to support the initiative. Or if your customer service is just so rubbish that customers inherently distrust the gesture.

I guess the sad thing is that alot of those organisations with the confidence and lightness of touch to make this kind of thing work are already doing stuff like it. Those that don't have these attributes simply can't.

The worlds simplest poor design filter

Before releasing it on your customers just ask yourself...

How would I feel if I knew nothing about this business and got this kind of experience as a customer?

If you're honest with yourself you'll stop half the poor stuff that you might have launched from ever seeing the light of day.

Who would you pick?

Suppose that you came into work one day and waiting for you by your desk was your fairy Godmother.

And suppose your fairy Godmother said that because you'd been working really hard lately she was going to let you choose the attributes that every single one of your customers would have that day.

You'd probably think back to try and recall those times when you'd really had some fun in your dealings with a customer. You'd think about what those people were like and how they affected you.

So what kind of attributes would you choose?

• A sense of humour?
• A great conversationalist?
• A smile that you could hear through their voice?
• Maybe a little bit sexy / flirty?
• Someone who didn't take you for granted?
• Someone who knew what they were talking about?

You'd probably have a great day if all your customers were like that. It would be a day to remember. A day to tell people about.

Now suppose that the fairy Godmothers of each customer you'd dealt with in the last year also offered them a wish. To chose the attributes of the person at your company who would help them in future. What kind of attributes do you think they'd like?

• A sense of humour?
• A great conversationalist?
• A smile that you could hear through their voice?
• Maybe a little bit sexy / flirty?
• Someone who seemed genuinly interested in them as an individual?
• Someone who knew what they were talking about?
• Someone who did what they said they'd do?

Would they pick you?

Design Truths - Part 1

1. How you say hello to a prospective customer really counts
2. How you say goodbye to an existing customer really counts
3. Saying sorry and meaning it gives you strength
4. Recruiting and managing your employees on the basis of their strengths is the single most powerful HR decision you can take
5. Most organisations get 4 wrong
6. Penny pinching costs pounds in terms of customer loyalty
7. If the managers of most organisations treated their wives / husbands in the same way as they expect their companies to treat their customers, they'd be divorced within months
8. Treating customers with respect isn't a nice to have
9. Never under-estimate the power of the story that the customer has in their head about your organisation. If it's a bad one then you're organisation is probably in trouble
   
10. Emotions are the most powerful driving forces that human beings have. Recognise this when designing experiences for your customers

Before, during and after the sale

This is an interesting story.

GM dealers offer Toyota test drives

“If you want to test drive a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, you'll be able to do it at a Saturn dealership. General Motors is asking Saturn dealers to have one or more of the competing models in the showroom so customers can look at it, sit in it and drive it.”

This is half of a really great idea. Give customers the opportunity to inspect and test out the competitions offering. It’s something that very few organisations do. It’s likely to make many customers think you’ve got their interests at heart (at least a little bit). It enables a timely comparison of products when the experience of using them is fresh, not days or weeks later when it’s maybe a bit hard to remember just what the other one felt like.

And providing that you don’t rubbish the competition during your sales pitch then the chances are that you’re definitely going to convert some fence sitters into proper customers.

But here’s why it’s only half of a good idea.

What about afterwards? What about the service experience that each customer can look forward to once they leave the showroom with their new car? What if you let them down in some way? And what if they hear from a friend that their experience from one of your competitors has been fantastic? Do you think that customer will come back to you when it’s time to replace the product? Or do you think they might go visit your competitor and check them out?

In the insurance industry there’s been lots of talk of providing comparisons with competitor products and prices since Progressive began doing it a few years back. It was a bold and positive step and all the evidence is that Progressive have done well out it. It’s created value for them and their customers.

(click to enlarge)

s

s

s

s

But how much better it would be if your potential customers came to you not because you are an organisation selling X and offering comparisons with your competitors, but because you are the organisation selling X that’s been recommended to them by someone they trust. Then show them your products alongside those of your competitors. You’re going to convert far more potential customers into real customers that way.

And the only way in which you’re going to create strong advocacy is by creating and delivering the kinds of experiences before, during and after the sale which make people trust you and want to come back to you. Chasing the sale will only get you so far.

Chasing the relationship based on experience will win you a much, much bigger prize.

Read this post the other day. "Writing not your forte? That was just fine 10 years ago, but not anymore. Writing is how business gets done. Communication inside corporations will shift somewhat away from email to wikis and blogs, but that doesn't really change the need for this skill".

I'm not sure that I totally agree. Writing is a massively important skill, and the difference between a competent writer and a truly great one is the difference between most of us and Shakespeare. Truly great writing can change the world. But the ability to communicate can change it more - whether that be through writing, speaking, presenting or any number of ways of getting your ideas across is really what shapes how business gets done. Passionate, powerful, engaging, thought provoking, take no prisoner communication is the thing that we should all be aspring to. And for sure, in most environments one of the critical ingredients of this is the ability to write well.

And then on the way home I hear this on the radio. 7 million adults in the UK can't read and write. And a further 11 million aren't very good at reading and writing. And various luminaries are asking businesses to pick up the challenge of raising he literacy skills of their employees.

My god! What an absolutely massive soacial failing. How on earth can the worlds fourth richest economy have allowed a situation to occur in which such a huge part of the adult population is apparently illiterate? What a massive failure of design at governmental, educational, economic and personal levels.

Bet that the UK isn't the four richest economy for long with that kind of timebomb ticking.

Rightful Leadership

Heard a really odd comment the other day from two separate people and at two separate times.

The boss of the company I work for has recently announced he’s leaving. Off to pastures new following a group board room reshuffle in which he lost out.

The odd comment concerned him. Who will lead us now that X has gone? This wasn’t a question about management restructuring. We already what the structural diagram looks like and who’s on it. It concerned the essence of leadership.

The outgoing guy is very charismatic. He’s a great communicator. Many people in the company would describe him as a strong leader (Churchill and Gandhi were great leaders – greatness is a different league).

So why the undertone of panic now that guy who used to run the business is going?

What does it say of the company with its tens of thousands of staff, its hundreds of senior managers, its deep wealth of talent and intellect and experience - that it’s nervous of losing the guy who’s been in charge?

I think that many people have confused charisma and gravitas and charm and strength of will and great communication with rightful leadership. History is full of leaders who brought nothing but misery and despair to those around them. Plenty of others have promised much and delivered very little despite good intentions. Having leadership qualities is one thing; actually leading others toward greatness is another thing entirely.

The biggest test of rightful leadership is in the legacy you leave behind you. In the creation of leadership in the wider organisation. In leadership which encourages independent and innovative thinking. In calculated risk taking. In resisting short term pressure when you know the longer term prize is worth so much more. In the creation and nurturing of organisational wide self confidence and humility. In respect for employees and customers. In enthusiasm for the challenges the organisation faces. In the ability of the organisation to create enormous new value for itself and its customers. In making and encouraging decisions which steer the organisation towards greatness.  

Maybe the fact that there’s so much organisational nervousness about the top guy leaving speaks volumes for just how much of this has actually been delivered?

Personally I give him a C+. Let’s hope that the new guy can do better.

Surprise me

When did you last surprise a customer? I mean really surprised them. Gave them an experience that was just completely different from the one they were expecting.

If you did pull such a surprise out of the hat I bet they talked about it. I bet that they talked about it to several people. I bet that even now (maybe months or years later) when your company gets mentioned by someone they’re with they still mention it.

And I bet that when you surprised the customer you enjoyed it. I bet it made you feel great. I bet it was one of the highlights of your day. I bet that you talked about it to other people.

So why wouldn’t you want to pleasantly surprise a few more customers? If you’re a manager why wouldn’t you want to encourage a climate in which your staff surprise customers and feel good about working for you?

No, I can’t think of any reasons either.

Unless of course:

·         It’s against company policy

·         We just don’t have time for stuff like that

·         It might cost too much (yeah, but blow millions on spam advertising that hardly anyone takes any notice of why don’t you)

·         It’s not defined in the process

·         Customers aren’t our responsibility

·         We don’t know how to

·         Customers don’t pay us to surprise them

·         I’ve never pleasantly surprised a customer in my life and I have no intention of starting now

Spending on the right things

“I wish that more money and time was spent on designing an exceptional product, and less on trying to psychologically manipulate perceptions through expensive advertising.” – Phil Kotler.

a

Now ain’t that the truth.