Category Archives: Customer Experience

Three Ways Technology Improves the Retail Customer Experience

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

E-commerce hasn’t killed retail—it’s just transformed it.

For years we’ve been hearing that retail is dead, and the rash of store closures in cities across the country would seem to confirm the trend. The local mall no longer serves as a de facto community hub, if it’s even stayed open at all.

Given what we think we know, would it surprise you to learn that retail sales in 2021 were actually up more than 10% over the previous year, topping $4.44 trillion? Although fears of recession loom, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that both personal income and consumer spending continued to rise in June. And while e-commerce may be an unstoppable force, much of this consumer spending is still happening in brick-and-mortar stores.

That said, there’s no question that the retail experience is changing—and must continue to change. E-commerce growth and tech developments, in general, have transformed customer expectations. I always advise my clients to meet customers where they are, and where retail shoppers are right now is standing in an aisle, smartphone in hand, comparing prices and reading online reviews. Technology has become an integral part of the retail experience, and retailers would be fools to ignore that.

Luckily, they aren’t fools. Whether saving their customers time or offering them unique experiences, retailers are incorporating technology to improve the customer experience. Here are three ways they’re doing it:

1. Smart Screens Digitize the In-Store Experience – You probably remember the first time you went to fill your soda cup at your favorite fast-casual spot and found yourself facing a dizzying digital array of fountain soda choices. Smart screens are on the march, and they’re not just in restaurants anymore.

Clothing retailers are using touchscreens to help customers build their wardrobes, while furniture stores use similar tech to let shoppers design rooms in their homes. Smart screens can offer retail customers what they love about online shopping—plentiful product information, eye-catching photos and on-the-spot promotions—in an in-store setting.

Consider the cooler aisle at Walgreens, where high-resolution smart screens from Cooler Screens have transformed the drugstore chain’s fridge and freezer doors. Shoppers no longer have to brave an icy blast—they can see the beverages and frozen treats inside at a glance without even opening the door. Plus, they can get calorie counts and take advantage of instant deals—and soon will also see customer ratings and reviews.

Data showed that 90% of Walgreens customers prefer the new smart screen cooler doors to the traditional kind. For retailers looking to bridge the online/in-store gap, smart screens present the opportunity to both accomplish some point-of-sale digital marketing and enhance the customer experience.

2. Click-and-Collect Services Save Time – Another way retailers are meeting their customers’ hybrid shopping expectations is by beefing up their click-and-collect capabilities. Buying items online and picking them up in person offers consumers the best of both shopping worlds. They can browse a store’s product selection on their desktop or phone, and once their order is assembled, there’s no wait or shipping expense. Curbside pickup goes one better by allowing people to order products online and pick them up without stepping foot in the store.

I admit it’s not rocket science, but I believe that high-quality customer service depends on listening to what customers want, and many of them clearly value this hassle-free shopping experience. The 2022 Click-and-Collect Forecast shows that U.S. buyers will spend $95.87 billion via click-and-collect this year, a 19.4% increase over 2021. Retailers that expand their click-and-collect offerings stand to increase revenue by giving customers more of what they want.

Enabling this experience requires an up-to-date e-commerce website that’s optimized for mobile. Furthermore, retailers will need to achieve seamless integration between their online shopping platforms and on-the-ground operations. Many are already adapting by adding more parking spaces for click-and-collect customers and hiring more personal shoppers to gather orders.

3. Self-Service Improves Convenience – Another thing the e-commerce revolution has changed is customers’ expectations of self-service. From product page to shopping cart to checkout, the typical online shopping experience is a solo affair. While a retail store offers the possibility of assistance from a real person, many shoppers would rather take care of themselves. Smart retailers are using tech to let them.

Digital self-service kiosks help in-store shoppers get their bearings, look up product information, scan prices and see whether the item they want is in stock—and order it on the spot if it’s not. Retailers’ mobile apps enable customers to locate products, read reviews, compare prices and pounce on in-store discounts. By offering the right tech assistance, retailers give their customers a sense of control.

When customers think of self-service, self-checkout is usually the first thing that comes to mind, but even that is evolving. Going beyond the usual “Scan your first item and put it in the bag,” Amazon has launched fully autonomous checkouts. In its Amazon Go stores, customers scan a barcode going in and get charged electronically for purchased items as they leave. Instead of making customers do more work, Amazon employs its “Just Walk Out” technology to make customers’ lives easier and the retail experience friction-free.

Technology has greatly impacted people’s lives, and the retail setting is no exception. Retailers that use tech to improve the customer experience will see increased profit and customer satisfaction. Research has shown that experiences increase happiness more than things, so retailers that can provide both are setting themselves up for success.

This article originally appeared on Forbes

Image Credit: Shep Hyken

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Uncovering Hidden Opportunities for Innovation

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Mapping the Customer Journey

Uncovering Hidden Opportunities for Innovation

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In the digital age, companies often focus on data, metrics, and technology, but the true frontier of innovation lies in one thing: empathy. The most powerful innovations aren’t born in a lab; they’re discovered by deeply understanding the human experience.

As an innovator, your greatest asset isn’t your product, but your customer’s journey. It’s the entire story of how they discover, consider, purchase, use, and advocate for your offering. By meticulously mapping this journey, we can move beyond assumptions and uncover the subtle, emotional truths that represent the greatest opportunities for transformative innovation.

Too often, businesses look at their customers through the lens of their own internal processes—sales funnels, marketing qualified leads, and customer support tickets. But this fragmented view misses the holistic experience. A customer doesn’t see a series of departmental touchpoints; they experience a single, continuous narrative. The friction in one stage, the moment of delight in another—these are the inflection points where innovation can make the most significant impact.

The disciplined practice of customer journey mapping is the foundational step in human-centered innovation. It’s a process built on empathy, not just data. It forces us to ask not just “what are they doing?” but “what are they thinking and feeling?” The answers to those questions are where the magic happens. The process is a strategic imperative and involves several key stages:

Define the Scope and Persona: Begin with a specific customer segment and a clear goal. Who are you mapping for? What is the start and end of their journey? Create a rich, detailed persona, complete with their aspirations, fears, and daily routines. This isn’t a demographic profile; it’s a living character.
Identify All Touchpoints: From the moment a customer first hears about you (a social media ad, a friend’s recommendation) to long after a purchase (a follow-up email, a review), map every single interaction. Don’t limit this to digital. Include physical interactions, customer service calls, and even third-party reviews.
Document Actions, Thoughts, and Feelings: This is the heart of the map. For each touchpoint, use qualitative research—interviews, ethnographic studies, and surveys—to capture what customers are doing, what’s going through their minds, and how they feel emotionally. Plotting this emotional arc is critical; it’s where you’ll find the hidden pain points and moments of truth.
Pinpoint Pain Points and Opportunities: Once the map is visualized, look for the lows on the emotional arc. These are the areas of friction, confusion, and frustration. Simultaneously, identify the highs—the moments of delight and ease. These are your innovation targets. The goal is to either eliminate a pain point or amplify a moment of delight.
Ideate and Prioritize: Bring a cross-functional team together to brainstorm solutions for the identified opportunities. Don’t just think about fixing what’s broken. Consider new services, new technologies, or entirely new business models. Prioritize these ideas based on their potential impact on the customer and feasibility for your organization.

Case Study 1: Transforming the Grocery Shopping Experience

The Challenge: The Checkout Bottleneck

A major grocery chain faced fierce competition and declining customer loyalty. Journey mapping revealed a critical pain point: the checkout process. Despite having a great in-store experience, customers felt frustration and a loss of time and control when faced with long, unpredictable queues during peak hours. This final, negative touchpoint was tainting the entire shopping experience.

The Innovation:

Instead of just adding more cashiers (an expensive and often inefficient solution), the journey map highlighted a deeper need for control and transparency. The company developed a two-part solution: a mobile self-checkout app for customers with 15 items or less, and large digital displays at the front of the store showing real-time wait times for each lane. The app allowed customers to scan items as they shopped and pay instantly, bypassing the queue entirely. The wait time displays managed customer expectations and gave them the agency to choose their best path to checkout.

The Results:

The innovations led to a 15% reduction in average checkout time and a significant increase in customer satisfaction scores related to convenience. The mobile checkout became a key differentiator, attracting tech-savvy customers and reinforcing the brand as a modern, customer-centric retailer. The most important result? Increased customer loyalty and repeat visits.

Key Insight: The innovation wasn’t about speed; it was about addressing the emotional pain of feeling a loss of control and transparency.

Case Study 2: Reshaping the Patient Journey in Healthcare

The Challenge: Patient Anxiety and Information Overload

A large hospital system recognized that their administrative and clinical processes, while efficient from an internal standpoint, were a source of immense stress for patients. From complex paperwork to confusing post-discharge instructions, the patient journey was marked by feelings of fear, uncertainty, and a lack of clear communication. This anxiety negatively impacted patient well-being and recovery.

The Innovation:

The hospital’s journey map, which included direct patient and family interviews, revealed the need for a more empathetic, human-centered approach. They introduced two major innovations: a Patient Navigator Program and a Personalized Digital Information Hub. Patient navigators were dedicated staff members who acted as a single point of contact, guiding patients and their families through every step of their visit—from initial registration to understanding medical jargon and coordinating follow-up appointments. The digital hub, accessible on tablets, provided a single source of truth for each patient, including their personalized schedule, details about their care team, and simplified explanations of their condition and medication. This hub also streamlined the discharge process with easy-to-follow, multimedia instructions.

The Results:

The impact was profound. Patient anxiety levels decreased, and HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) scores saw a remarkable climb. The navigators addressed the emotional need for human connection and support, while the digital hub empowered patients with clarity and control. This combination of high-tech and high-touch innovation transformed a stressful experience into one that felt supportive and coordinated, leading to better patient outcomes and a stronger reputation.

Key Insight: True innovation in healthcare isn’t just about clinical breakthroughs; it’s about creating a more human and supportive emotional journey.

From Map to Mindset: The Path Forward

These examples illustrate a crucial lesson: the customer journey map is not a deliverable; it’s a living tool. It’s a call to action. By using it to align cross-functional teams, you can break down internal silos and create a shared, customer-centric vision for innovation. The most powerful question you can ask is, “What if…?” What if we redesigned this touchpoint to be a moment of joy instead of frustration? What if we could anticipate their needs before they even know they have them?

In a world of relentless change, ignoring the customer’s journey is to operate blind. By embracing this powerful practice, you will not only uncover new opportunities for innovation but also build a more resilient, empathetic, and ultimately, more successful organization. Your customers are already on a journey. It’s time for you to join them.

Extra Extra: Futurology is not fortune telling. Futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

Image credit: Pexels

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The Experience Economy

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Why Design Thinking is Your New Competitive Edge

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Remember when companies competed fiercely on product features, then on service quality? Today, that battlefield has shifted. We live squarely in the Experience Economy, a landscape where customers don’t just buy what you sell; they invest in the emotions, the convenience, the sense of belonging, and the holistic journey your brand orchestrates. From that initial flicker of interest to long after a transaction, every single touchpoint shapes their perception, their loyalty, and their willingness to advocate for you.

As a human-centered change and innovation thought leader, I’ve witnessed organizations stumble when they cling to old paradigms. In this new reality, your competitive edge is no longer just about what you create, but about **how you make people feel**. And the most powerful methodology to master this nuanced art is **Design Thinking.**

Design Thinking is not a fleeting trend or a niche methodology for creative agencies. It’s a profound, empathetic shift in problem-solving that places human needs, desires, and behaviors at its absolute core. It’s an iterative, non-linear process that challenges ingrained assumptions, reframes complex problems, and propels teams to discover truly innovative solutions that resonate deeply with the people they serve.

Beyond Features: Orchestrating Unforgettable Experiences

To truly flourish in the Experience Economy, organizations must transcend a mere feature-list mentality and adopt a holistic, human-centric approach. Design Thinking equips them to build solutions that embody these critical outcomes:

Profound Empathy & Insight: It forces you to step into your users’ shoes, understanding their motivations, pain points, and unspoken desires through deep ethnographic research, immersive interviews, and genuine observation – moving far beyond mere surveys.
Problem Clarity & Reframing: Instead of rushing to solutions, Design Thinking demands a pause to truly define the *right* problem from the user’s perspective. This often involves reframing the challenge, uncovering root causes, and identifying hidden opportunities previously overlooked.
Expansive Ideation & Rapid Prototyping: It liberates teams to generate a vast array of potential solutions through divergent thinking. This is swiftly followed by building rapid, low-fidelity prototypes and testing them directly with users. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s learning quickly and cheaply to iterate towards the optimal solution.
Continuous Learning & Agility: Design Thinking inherently fosters a culture of iterative learning. Every “failure” or unexpected user feedback becomes a valuable data point, propelling continuous refinement and ensuring that solutions remain relevant in a dynamic environment.
Seamless Cross-Functional Collaboration: It naturally breaks down internal silos, bringing together diverse expertise – from engineers and marketers to customer service and finance – to co-create holistic experiences that span an entire organization, ensuring consistency and coherence.

Case Study 1: Kaiser Permanente – Humanizing Healthcare Journeys

Transforming Healthcare with Patient-Centered Design

Kaiser Permanente, a sprawling integrated healthcare provider in the U.S., delivered strong medical outcomes but often struggled with patient satisfaction due to complex processes and an impersonal environment. Recognizing that patient experience was becoming as crucial as clinical excellence, they embarked on a journey of human-centered redesign.

The Challenge: Improve the emotionally charged patient experience, particularly during stressful moments like emergency room visits, without compromising medical quality or drastically increasing costs.
Design Thinking in Action: Kaiser Permanente didn’t just survey patients. Multidisciplinary teams immersed themselves in the patient journey: they shadowed patients and staff, observed interactions in waiting rooms, and conducted deep empathy interviews. They uncovered anxieties stemming from long waits, confusing signage, and a lack of clear communication. They learned that small changes, like allowing patients to choose their own gown color, significantly boosted their sense of control and dignity. One of their most famous innovations involved redesigning the nurse shift change: instead of huddling in a back room, nurses now conducted handovers at the patient’s bedside, increasing transparency, reducing errors, and making patients feel more involved in their own care.
The Outcome: This empathetic approach led to innovations ranging from simplified wayfinding and redesigned waiting areas to standardized communication protocols. The result was a significantly more human-centered healthcare experience, leading to improved patient satisfaction scores, measurable reductions in medical errors, and enhanced staff morale, all stemming from a profound understanding of the patient’s emotional journey.

**The Lesson:** Design Thinking moves beyond efficiency, focusing on the emotional landscape of the user, leading to compassionate solutions that benefit both people and the bottom line.

Case Study 2: Commonwealth Bank of Australia – Reimagining Digital Banking with Empathy

Reimagining Banking for the Digital Age

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), one of the nation’s largest financial institutions, faced the challenge of an increasingly commoditized and impersonal banking landscape, particularly for digitally-native younger customers. They understood that their future competitive advantage lay in delivering intuitive, seamless, and emotionally reassuring digital experiences.

The Challenge: Simplify inherently complex banking processes, enhance digital engagement, and build deep trust in a rapidly evolving financial ecosystem where traditional loyalty was eroding.
Design Thinking in Action: CBA made Design Thinking a foundational element of its digital transformation. They established dedicated “customer rooms” where cross-functional teams (comprising designers, developers, product managers, and even frontline branch staff) directly observed customers interacting with prototypes of new digital features. They moved beyond traditional focus groups, actively bringing customers into the ideation, testing, and refinement phases. For instance, when overhauling their mobile banking app, they deeply explored common pain points like bill payments and money transfers, meticulously simplifying workflows based on actual user behavior and expressed needs. They iteratively built and tested dozens of versions of seemingly simple features, ensuring each step felt intuitive, secure, and empowering.
The Outcome: This human-centered rigor led to a highly acclaimed mobile banking app featuring intuitive tools like “Spend Tracker” for budget management and streamlined payment flows, alongside a significantly more user-friendly online platform. By empathizing with the emotional journey of banking—from anxiety about managing finances to the joy of reaching savings goals—they built digital products that felt profoundly empathetic and empowering.

**The Lesson:** By deeply understanding the human emotions tied to financial interactions, Design Thinking enabled CBA to create digital solutions that fostered trust and loyalty, not just transactional efficiency.

Embrace Design Thinking: Architecting Your Experiential Future

For organizations determined to lead in the Experience Economy, integrating Design Thinking is no longer an optional extra; it is the strategic imperative. Here’s your roadmap:

Cultivate Profound Empathy: Train and empower your teams to truly listen, observe, and feel what your customers experience. Go beyond data points; immerse yourselves in their lives. Conduct ethnographic research, build detailed customer journey maps, and lead with empathy interviews.
Champion Problem Reframing: Resist the urge to jump to solutions. Encourage your teams to step back, question assumptions, and redefine problems from the user’s perspective, unlocking unexpected avenues for innovation.
Promote Relentless Prototyping & Iteration: Shift your culture from “big-bang” launches to rapid, low-fidelity prototyping and continuous testing cycles. Embrace “fail fast, learn faster” as a mantra for accelerating insights.
Forge Cross-Functional Power Teams: Deliberately break down internal silos. Bring together diverse expertise from across your organization—from R&D to marketing to customer service—early and often, to ensure holistic, seamless solutions.
Foster a Culture of Psychological Safety: Create an environment where testing new ideas, challenging the status quo, and learning from “failures” is not just tolerated, but actively celebrated. Risk-taking is the engine of innovation.

In a world where products are rapidly commoditized and services easily replicated, the human experience stands as the ultimate, enduring differentiator. Design Thinking provides the robust, empathetic methodology to consistently deliver those exceptional, unforgettable experiences—transforming fleeting customers into fervent loyalists and securing your organization’s indelible position as a true leader in the Experience Economy.

“If you want to create breakthrough products, you need to think like a designer. You need to fall in love with the problem, not the solution.”
– Tim Brown, IDEO

Image credit: Gemini & Braden Kelley

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4 Ways to Create Trust with Your Customers

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4 Ways to Create Trust with Your Customers

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

What brands do you trust the most? And why? There are certain products and companies that seem to own the trust of their customers. It stems from product quality, reliability, managing expectations, good customer service and, perhaps most importantly, consistency.

Keep in mind that consistency is related to all of the attributes mentioned. A consistently bad experience and poor quality, while still consistent, is the opposite of what you’re trying to create. And inconsistency is almost as bad. A great experience one day followed by an average or poor experience will cause customers to question what the next experience is going to be. A pattern of inconsistency kills confidence and trust.

Let’s break it down:

1. Quality and Reliability: A product or service must do what it’s supposed to do. When you think of the most successful brands, you trust them because you know what you’re going to get. That comes from confidence in the product and/or the customer service. If that confidence is broken, it can take a long time to rebuild trust—if the customer even chooses to give the company or brand another chance. For example, a popular restaurant chain had an E. coli outbreak. Even with a stellar reputation, it took years to regain the trust of its customers.

2. Customer Experience: Customer service must be easily available. Customer service isn’t a department. The best companies know that serving the customer is more than reacting to problems, answering questions and resolving complaints. It’s the way customers are treated throughout their entire journey with a company or brand.

And while you may want to have a 100% flawless experience in which the customer never has to reach out, it’s impossible. Every company is going to have problems. In the early days of Amazon, Jeff Bezos was famous for saying that Amazon should be so good that it didn’t need a customer support department. Maybe it was that good, but when the product left the warehouse a third party took over the shipping. And if the package was lost in transit, who would the customer blame? To the customer, it was Amazon’s fault. So, Amazon needed a support center, even for problems that weren’t its fault.

It’s not if there will ever be a customer service issue, it’s when. The best organizations recognize the need for an excellent experience combined with excellent customer support, when needed.

3. Managing Expectations: You don’t have to WOW a customer to get them to say, “Wow.” When people describe a “Wow” experience, it’s typically over-the-top. The problem is that you can’t always be over the top. The opportunities to be over-the-top or go above and beyond happen when there are special situations, such as a problem that is handled so well that the customer says, “Wow!”

The key is to not worry about trying to be over-the-top with every interaction, but to be just a little above average. It is consistent and predictable above-average experiences—even just a tiny bit above average—that make customers say, “Wow!” Speaking of consistent and predictable, we move on to the next attribute …

4. Consistency: Anything less than a consistent experience erodes trust. Consistency is where “the rubber meets the road.” As just mentioned, it is the consistent and predictable above-average experience that gets customers to say, “Wow!” What gets them to that point is when they say, “They are always so helpful … always so knowledgeable … they always respond quickly. …” It’s the word always followed by a positive comment. Often, those comments are basic expectations. Shouldn’t all employees be helpful, knowledgeable and respond quickly? Of course. Just meeting a customer’s expectations, with maybe a more positive attitude, will fuel the experience to be better than average. Consistency creates trust. Anything less erodes it!

Think of the brands you trust and why. The product does what it’s supposed to and meets your expectations. The experience is consistent, and the customer service is great. And to emphasize just how important the customer service part of this is, our 2022 customer service research found that 83% of customers trusted a company or brand more if it provided an excellent customer service experience.

If all of this seems like common sense, it is. Unfortunately, common sense is not always so common. So, be a little uncommon. Deliver quality and reliability, manage expectations and create a consistent and predictable experience that gets customers to say, “I’ll be back.”

This article originally appeared on Forbes

Image Credit: Pexels

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3 Ways to Get Customer Insights without Talking to Customers

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3 Ways to Get Customer Insights without Talking to Customers

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

Most of my advice to leaders who want to use innovation to grow their businesses boils down to two things*:

Talk (and listen) to customers
Do something

But what if you don’t want to talk to customers?

After all, talking to customers can be scary because you don’t know what they’ll say. It can be triggering if they say something mean about your product, your business, or even you as a person. It can be draining, especially if you’re an introvert.

Plus, there are so many ways to avoid talking to customers – Send a survey, hire a research firm to write a report, invoke the famous Steve Jobs quote about never doing customer research.

Isn’t it just better to stay tucked away in the office, read reports, state opinions as if they are facts (those opinions are based on experience, after all), and make decisions?

Nope.

It is not better. It is also not safer, easier, or more efficient.

To make the best decisions, you need the best data, which comes from your customers.

But that doesn’t mean you need to talk to them to get it.

The best data

The best data helps you understand why your customers do what they do. This is why Jobs to be Done is such a powerful tool – it uncovers the emotional and social Jobs to be Done that drive our behavior and choices (functional Jobs to be Done are usually used to justify our choices).

But discovering Jobs to be Done typically requires you to talk to people, build rapport and trust in a one-on-one conversation, and ask Why? dozens of times so surface emotional and social JTBD.

Luckily, there are other ways to find Jobs to be Done that don’t require you to become an unlicensed therapist.

Observe your customers

Go where your customers are (or could be) experiencing the problem you hope to solve and try to blend in. Watch what people are doing and what they’re not doing. Notice whether people are alone or with others (and who those others are – kids, partners, colleagues, etc.). Listen to the environment (is it loud or quiet? If there’s noise, what kind of noise?) and to what people are saying to each other.

Be curious. Write down everything you’re observing. Wonder why and write down your hypotheses. Share your observations with your colleagues. Ask them to go out, observe, wonder, and share. Together you may discover answers or work up the courage to have a conversation.

Quick note – Don’t be creepy about this. Don’t lurk behind clothing racks, follow people through stores, peep through windows, linger too long, or wear sunglasses, a trench coat, and a fedora on a 90-degree day, so you look inconspicuous. If people start giving you weird looks, find a new place to people-watch.

Observe yourself

Humans are fascinating, and because you are a human, you are fascinating. So, observe yourself when you’re experiencing the problem you’re hoping to solve. Notice where you are, who is with you, the environment, and how you feel. Watch what you do and don’t do. Wonder why you chose one solution over another (or none).

Be curious. Write down everything you did, saw, and felt and why. Ask your colleagues to do the same. Share your observations with your colleagues and find points of commonality and divergence, then get curious all over again.

Quick note – This only works if you have approximately the same demographic and psychographic profiles and important and unsatisfied Jobs to be Done of your target customers.

Be your customer

What if your business solves a problem that can’t be easily observed? What if you don’t have the problem that your business is trying to solve?

Become your customer (and observe yourself).

Several years ago, I worked with a client that made adult incontinence products. I couldn’t observe people using their products, and I do not have important (or unsatisfied) Jobs to be Done that the products can solve.

So, for one day, I became a customer. I went to Target and purchased their product. I went home, wore, and used the product. I developed a deep empathy for the customer and wrote down roughly 1 million ways to innovate the product and experience.

Quick note – Depending on what’s required to “be your customer,” you may need to give people a heads up. My husband was incredibly patient and understanding but also a little concerned on the day of the experiment.

It’s about what you learn, not how you learn it

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking there is one best way to get insights. I’m 100% guilty (one-on-one conversations are a hill I have died on multiple times).

Ultimately, when it comes to innovation and decision-making, the more important thing is having, believing, and using insights into why customers do what they do and want what they want. How you get those insights is an important but secondary consideration.

* Each of those two things contains A TON of essential stuff that must be done the right way at the right time otherwise, they won’t work, but we’ll get into those things in another article

Image Credit: Pixabay

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How to Create an Amazing Customer Experience on a Budget

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How to Create an Amazing Customer Experience on a Budget

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

With the current recession, employment issues and supply chain problems, companies and brands are struggling to provide the same experience they have in the past. Regardless of the cause, companies don’t have the budgets they once had to devote to CX.

First and foremost, if you have to cut your budget, try to do it in places the customer won’t notice. This may not always be possible, but it’s important to try. The moment you create an inconsistent experience, your customers will lose confidence. Without that confidence, repeat business—and even customer loyalty—is up for grabs.

We had a hotel client who was struggling. One of the places he cut was the housekeeping staff. The staff became overworked and couldn’t keep up with the demand, and the guests noticed. My comment was direct. “No matter how nice your hotel has been in the past, if the guests experience dirty rooms, they may never come back.” It might be smarter to have fewer rooms available than rooms that don’t measure up to their typical standards.

On the flip side, ten years ago, before labor issues were the topic of the times, a healthcare client was struggling to staff one of its hospitals with people who aligned with its vision of creating a stellar experience. They knew that the wrong people on the frontline would erode the brand’s reputation. While they weren’t forced to cut costs, the focus on customer experience meant they would only hire the best. And when the best candidates weren’t available, they chose to shut down part of the hospital until they could adequately staff. They would rather go lean on availability than go lean on the experience.

This brings me to an article by Justin Racine that appeared in CMSWire. The title of the article was intriguing: Cheap Beer and Recessions: How to Survive and Thrive with Exceptional Customer Experience.

Racine had me at “cheap beer,” not because I like cheap beer, but because I don’t equate anything cheap with an exceptional—or amazing—customer experience. He went on to explain that he was strapped for cash in college but still wanted to enjoy the “full college experience.” To do so meant a tighter budget. So, instead of drinking a premium brand like Stella Artois, he drank a lower-priced Keystone Light.

The approach the college students chose was substitution. But this may not always be a viable strategy. For example, a restaurant probably couldn’t substitute lower-priced ingredients and still present its diners with the same quality menu items. The reason the college students may have been happy is that they had a choice. They weren’t forced to experience lower quality, but they chose to do so and were happy about it.

Racine claims disruption breeds customer experience opportunities. Yes! This could be the answer.

Consider that many businesses are being disrupted for all the reasons mentioned. Rather than stare at the problem and hope things will change, you must embrace the disruption and make a move. And to the point of Racine’s article, it may be as simple as a substitution. If you and your organization are facing any of these problems (and others), it’s time to take action. Turning disruption into opportunity starts with a conversation. Here are some ideas to jumpstart the creativity:

1. List and define in detail all the problems causing the disruption.

2. Play round one of “What If?” This is where you put all the current and possible problems (not solutions) on the table for discussion. What if labor shortages (or any other disruptive problem) continue? What if we have to cut more people? What if we lose more people? What if we can’t get the ingredients (or parts, supplies, etc.)? What if we lose a percentage of customers? What if revenue drops by 25%?

3. Play round two of “What if?” This is where you brainstorm solutions. For example, if the costs of goods rise, you might be forced to pass those costs on to the customer. So, what if we had to raise prices? The discussion isn’t a decision to raise prices, but the impact it might have on the customer if you did.

4. Remember to stay customer-focused. This follows up on No. 3. Being customer-focused doesn’t mean always making customers happy with your decisions. It means you consider how the customer will react to your decisions. For example, customers aren’t typically happy when they notice a price increase. Still, if you do so with an explanation, they might not just accept that you had to do so, but also appreciate that you are being transparent in the process.

To emphasize the concept from the beginning of this article, if you have to cut, try to do so in places the customer won’t notice. But if that’s not possible, be transparent. Be prepared to tell your customers why there aren’t as many items on the menu, why there isn’t as much availability, why it’s going to take a little longer than usual, etc. The focus here is on transparency and communication. Sharing information gives your customers a sense of control. They know and understand why there are changes.

For those in the B2B space, that transparency and communication can lead to powerful conversations with customers that can deepen your relationships. Discussing problems, changes and alternatives with your customers can get them to see you as more of a partner rather than just a vendor.

For some companies, making cuts, be it budget, people or anything else, is inevitable. It’s how you approach it that can possibly enhance the customer experience. Talk about it. Brainstorm even the most farfetched ideas. Find the opportunities that are hidden in disruption.

This article originally appeared on Forbes

Image Credit: Shep Hyken

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Why Data-Based Decisions Will Lead You Straight to Hell

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Why Data-Based Decisions Will Lead You Straight to Hell

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

Many years ago, Clay Christensen visited his firm where I was a partner and told us a story*.

“I imagine the day I die and present myself at the entrance to Heaven,” he said. “The Lord will show me around, and the beauty and majesty will overcome me. Eventually, I will notice that there are no numbers or data in Heaven, and I will ask the Lord why that is.”

“Data lies,” the Lord will respond. “Nothing that lies can be in Heaven. So, if people want data, I tell them to go to Hell.”

We all chuckled at the punchline and at the strength of the language Clay used (if you ever met him, you know that he was an incredibly gentle and soft-spoken man, so using the phrase “go to Hell” was the equivalent of your parents unleashing a five-minute long expletive-laden rant).

“If you want data, go to Hell.”

Clay’s statement seems absolutely blasphemous, especially in a society that views quantitative data as the ultimate source of truth:

“In God we trust. All others bring data.” W. Edward Deming, founding Father of Total Quality Management (TQM)
“Above all else, show the data.” – Edward R. Tufte, a pioneer in the field of data visualization
“What gets measured gets managed” – Peter Drucker, father of modern management studies

But it’s not entirely wrong.

Quantitative Data’s blessing: A sense of safety

As humans, we crave certainty and safety. This was true millennia ago when we needed to know whether the rustling in the leaves was the wind or a hungry predator preparing to leap and tear us limb from lime. And it’s true today when we must make billion-dollar decisions about buying companies, launching products, and expanding into new geographies.

We rely on data about company valuation and cash flow, market size and growth, and competitor size and strategy to make big decisions, trusting that it is accurate and will continue to be true for the foreseeable future.

Quantitative Data’s curse: The past does not predict the future

As leaders navigating an increasingly VUCA world, we know we must prepare for multiple scenarios, operate with agility, and be willing to pivot when change happens.

Yet we rely on data that describes the past.

We can extrapolate it, build forecasts, and create models, but the data will never tell us with certainty what will happen in the future. It can’t even tell us the Why (drivers, causal mechanisms) behind the What it describes.

The Answer: And not Or

Quantitative data Is useful. It gives us the sense of safety we need to operate in a world of uncertainty and a starting point from which to imagine the future(s).

But, it is not enough to give the clarity or confidence we need to make decisions leading to future growth and lasting competitive advantage.

To make those decisions, we need quantitative data AND qualitative insights.

We need numbers and humans.

Qualitative Insight’s blessing: A view into the future

Humans are the source of data. Our beliefs, motivations, aspirations, and actions are tracked and measured, and turned into numbers that describe what we believed, wanted, and did in the past.

By understanding human beliefs, motivations, and aspirations (and capturing them as qualitative insights), we gain insight into why we believed, wanted, and did those things and, as a result, how those beliefs, motivations, aspirations, and actions could change and be changed. With these insights, we can develop strategies and plans to change or maintain beliefs and motivations and anticipate and prepare for events that could accelerate or hinder our goals. And yes, these insights can be quantified.

Qualitative Insight’s curse: We must be brave

When discussing the merit of pursuing or applying qualitative research, it’s not uncommon for someone to trot out the saying (erroneously attributed to Henry Ford), “If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said a horse that goes twice as fast and eats half as much.”

Pushing against that assertion requires you to be brave. To let go of your desire for certainty and safety, take a risk, and be intellectually brave.

Being brave is hard. Staying safe is easy. It’s rational. It’s what any reasonable person would do. But safe, rational, and reasonable people rarely change the world.

One more story

In 1980, McKinsey predicted that the worldwide market for cell phones would max out at 900,000 subscribers. They based this prediction on solid data, analyzed by some of the most intelligent people in business. The data and resulting recommendations made sense when presented to AT&T, McKinsey’s client.

Five years later, there were 340,213 subscribers, and McKinsey looked pretty smart. In 1990, there were 5.3 million subscribers, almost 6x McKinsey’s prediction. In 1994, there were 24.1M subscribers in the US alone (27x McKinsey’s global forecast), and AT&T was forced to pay $12.6B to acquire McCaw Cellular.

Should AT&T have told McKinsey to “go to Hell?” No.

Should AT&T have thanked McKinsey for going to (and through) Hell to get the data, then asked whether they swung by earth to talk to humans and understand their Jobs to be Done around communication? Yes.

Because, as Box founder Aaron Levie reminds us,

“Sizing the market for a disruptor based on an incumbent’s market is like sizing a car industry off how many horses there were in 1910.”

* Except for the last line, these probably (definitely) weren’t his exact words, but they are an accurate representation of what I remember him saying

Image Credit: Pixabay

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7 Tips for Creating a Great Content Experience

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7 Tips for Creating a Great Content Experience

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Content marketing is a sound strategy. Using email, texting, and social media, companies, and brands are taking advantage of an effective way to connect with customers. Most companies use content to deliver value-added information that gets customers excited about what they sell. That makes sense, but it’s limiting. Think beyond marketing and sales. You don’t just want people to buy your products and services. You want them to experience your company. Beyond what you sell, you want customers to know who you are, what you stand for, and more. A good content strategy helps make that happen.

Perhaps a better way to describe content marketing in this context is to rename it content experience. So, with that in mind, here are seven ways to create an experience that uses content beyond a sales pitch:

1. Get Customers Excited

This is ultimately what you want your customers to experience—excitement for your brand. Share the latest and greatest, and maybe even a sneak preview of what’s to come. Make them feel like they made the right decision to give you their contact information. Get them excited about you—and motivated to want to buy from you and evangelize your brand.

2. Educate the Customer

You might think this is about teaching the customer about your products and services, but there is more. For example, let’s say you sell sports shoes. Look beyond shoes and educate your customers about anything related to your industry. An intelligent customer makes better—and often easier—buying decisions.

3. Highlight Success Stories

Customers want a successful experience with your products, so why not share how other customers have experienced success? Showcase these examples. Turn them into case studies that customers can use to duplicate success. Let your customers tell their stories.

4. Let Customers Showcase the Best Way to Use Your Products

If you’re going to highlight success stories, consider letting your customers do the talking. In effect, these are third-party testimonials and endorsements that are worth far more than traditional paid advertising.

5. Create a Customer Support Forum Run by Customers

Create a place where customers can answer questions posed by other customers. Consumers who have problems or questions love to learn from their peers. By the way, you will want to moderate the responses and be there to comment, add information, and thank customers for their help.

6. Create Meaningful Conversations That Go Beyond What You Sell

Your content experience strategy shouldn’t be one-way. Don’t just post something (a short article, video, white paper, etc.) and walk away. Start a conversation. Ask questions that get your customers to respond and share their opinions, which will ideally lead to other customers chiming in with their thoughts. Then respond to these answers. This type of engagement can bond you with your customers.

7. Stand for Something That Creates a Bond with Your People

There are companies that are admired for their “give-back” strategies. These companies are often charitable. Or they have such a strong belief in a cause that they make it part of their publicly stated mission. It could be sustainability, diversity, and inclusion, or any other cause, charity, or important issue that might excite customers and resonate with them so much that it takes the relationship to something beyond a typical transaction of trading money for a product or service.

Content marketing becomes an experience when you go beyond sales and marketing and make it about the customer. If the content you share creates value for your customers, makes customers feel connected to you and your brand, or makes your customers smarter, you’ve crossed over from sales and marketing to the level of experience. Make your content strategy an experience.

This article originally appeared on Forbes

Image Credit: Shep Hyken

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Using AI to Enhance Customer Experience

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Using AI to Enhance Customer Experience

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In the rapidly evolving landscape of customer experience (CX), businesses are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to provide tailored, efficient, and engaging interactions. As companies strive to remain competitive, AI becomes a strategic asset in understanding and meeting customer needs. This article explores how AI can create a significant impact on customer experience and showcases two compelling case studies: Starbucks and Sephora.

The Role of AI in Customer Experience

AI technologies, such as chatbots, machine learning, and data analytics, have transformed the way companies interact with their customers. Here is how AI enhances customer experience:

Personalization: AI analyzes customer data to offer personalized recommendations, making interactions more relevant.
24/7 Availability: AI-powered chatbots provide round-the-clock assistance, ensuring customers receive help at any time.
Predictive Analytics: AI evaluates customer behaviors to anticipate needs and streamline service delivery.
Feedback Analysis: AI tools can analyze customer feedback from various platforms to gauge sentiment and inform business strategy.

Case Study 1: Starbucks

Starbucks has successfully integrated AI into its customer experience strategy through the Deep Brew AI system. This proprietary AI technology personalizes customer interactions via the Starbucks mobile app and in-store experiences.

Implementation

Deep Brew analyzes customer data, including past purchases, store preferences, and seasonal trends to generate personalized recommendations. For example, if a customer frequently orders almond milk lattes, the app may suggest new seasonal flavors that incorporate almond milk.

Results

Since implementing Deep Brew, Starbucks reported a 15% increase in sales attributed to personalized promotions. Additionally, customer retention improved, with users more likely to frequent stores as they felt understood and valued by the brand.

Case Study 2: Sephora

Sephora has utilized AI to enrich its customer interactions through its Virtual Artist feature and chatbots.

Implementation

Virtual Artist uses augmented reality (AR) combined with AI to allow customers to try on makeup virtually. Customers can upload their selfies and see how different products will look on them. Additionally, Sephora’s chatbot provides 24/7 support and product recommendations based on user queries and preferences.

Results

Analysis of the Virtual Artist feature revealed that 70% of users who engaged with the application made a purchase, contributing to a 25% overall increase in online sales. The chatbot significantly reduced response times, leading to a 30% improvement in customer satisfaction scores.

Ethical Considerations

While AI offers numerous benefits for customer experience, ethical considerations around data privacy and security are paramount. Companies must ensure transparency in how customer data is collected and utilized, safeguarding against misuse.

Future Outlook

The future of AI in CX looks promising. As machine learning algorithms evolve, expect improved accuracy in customer insights, adaptive personalization, and seamless multi-channel experiences. Companies that prioritize ethical AI practices will lead in establishing customer trust.

Conclusion

The case studies of Starbucks and Sephora highlight the transformative potential of AI in enhancing customer experience. By leveraging AI, businesses can offer personalized insights and convenient solutions for their customers, driving engagement, loyalty, and ultimately, revenue growth. Embracing AI technology isn’t just a trend; it’s essential for organizations aiming to thrive in today’s competitive landscape.

Recommendations for Implementation

To successfully integrate AI into your customer experience strategy, consider the following:

Invest in data analytics to understand customer preferences.
Develop a seamless user experience that incorporates AI tools.
Test and iterate based on customer feedback to refine AI applications.
Consider ethical implications and ensure transparency in AI usage.

By prioritizing customer experience through AI, organizations not only meet but exceed customer expectations, paving the way for long-term success.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Marriott’s Approach to Customer Service

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Customer Service the Marriott Way

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

It was 1927, not quite a century ago, when J. Willard Marriott and his wife, Alice, opened an A&W root beer stand in Washington, D.C. Later that year, the Marriotts added some hot food items to their menu under the name Hot Shoppes. Over the next 30 years, the Marriotts honed their hospitality skills and expanded their restaurant business into food service for airlines. In 1957, they opened their first hotel in Arlington, Virginia. It was run by their son, Bill.

Over the next 25 years, under the leadership of Bill Marriott, the hotel chain expanded across the planet. Today it represents more than 30 brands, from economy-priced lodging to uber-premium brands such as The Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Julius Robinson, Marriott’s chief sales and marketing officer in the U.S. and Canada, on Amazing Business Radio. Robinson started with the Marriott organization 30 years ago in the reservations center. He knows firsthand what it takes to create an amazing customer experience.

Here are six key lessons he shared in our interview:

The Fundamentals of Customer Service Happen One Person at a Time: When Robinson worked at the reservations center for Marriott, he learned the power of individual customer interactions. It’s about taking care of people one interaction at a time. Every customer was a chance to start over and confirm—and even build on—the Marriott reputation.

Understand Your Customers: Understanding starts with listening. A customer who is booking a family vacation has very different needs than someone booking a business trip. The secret is to listen and avoid miscommunication. A complaint from a misunderstanding is one of the worst kinds of complaints. It’s easy to replace a dirty towel in a bathroom. It’s much harder to rebuild confidence after a miscommunication.

Mistakes Handled Well Can Create a Stronger Bond: When there is a problem or a complaint, the way it is handled can make the difference between a customer coming back or not. Just resolving the issue doesn’t mean the customer will come back—it’s the way you do it that can make a big difference. Robinson was excited to share, “If you handle the problem the right way, the customer surveys will often be higher than if the problem had never occurred.” Problems and complaints should be seen as opportunities to prove how good you are.

Embrace the Digital Customer Experience: When Robinson started 30 years ago, there wasn’t an Internet. Today customers may call, but often they make reservations, check-in and check out on a computer. They can even get their keys through a mobile app. According to Robinson, “Technology is an opportunity for the customer to take control over their travel experience.” The modern customer is increasingly enjoying a digital, self-service experience. However, if there is a problem at any point in their journey (no pun intended), the customer must have easy access to someone who can help, be it an agent on the phone or an employee at the front desk.

Employees Must Be Empowered to Take Care of the Customers: Employees must be properly trained to do what is necessary to take care of customers. Robinson shared how, from the very beginning, J.W. Marriott Sr. believed in treating employees the way you want customers to be treated. In other words, leadership and management were the role models, and their behavior showed employees the right way to treat customers. Treat the employees right, and they will treat the customers right, and then the customers will come back.

The Modern Marriott Customer Experience: Every company must grow as customers’ expectations change. During the past two years, we’ve seen customers demanding more. That challenge must be met. Many Marriott customers now expect more than just a place to sleep. The result is Marriott’s shift from simply providing a nice room and restaurant to creating an expanded experience. For example, the hotel staff can help locate hard-to-get tickets to sporting events and concerts. Maybe guests want a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Marriott team is there to help. Marriott, just like any other company, must meet its customers’ current expectations and be able to anticipate what they will need next.

Throughout the interview, Robinson shared insights into the efforts Marriott is making to get its customers to feel comfortable and confident about returning to pre-pandemic travel habits. It’s not only creating a great customer experience and providing exemplary service, but also taking measures to address customers’ concerns about safety and health. Because without that, nothing much else matters.

This article originally appeared on Forbes

Image Credit: Shep Hyken

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