customer experience
223 posts
Are You Pressing The Right Buttons?
The guy who knocks on the door at 5 pm is armed with an iPad, a sales pitch and an assumption. He denies he’s trying to sell something. ‘It’s not a sale—it’s a reduction.’ He asks if I’ve looked at the back of my power bills lately. Tells me the prices have risen and he’s…
A Simple Truth About Business Growth
We’ve all seen what happens when a business is poorly scaled. The cult restaurant adds more tables and loses its magic. The software is ruined when too many features are added. The bespoke tourist attraction becomes tacky. Growth doesn’t come from looking for more opportunities to expand, it’s a res
Two Essential Characteristics Of Story-Driven Brands
You’ve probably had a disappointing experience with a brand or business. Maybe you couldn’t put your finger on what was wrong or why? Customer dissatisfaction is a result of a gap between promises and actions. Filthy bathrooms at the restaurant with the elaborately embossed menu. The snappy flight a
Difference By Design
Yesterday I was registering a domain name online when I noticed the company had tweaked the user interface from cart to checkout. Now when you confirm the purchase, the default option is to register for three years, instead of one. The steps to reverse this are not obvious or easy—which I guess mean
You WILL Have Unhappy Customers
Unhappy customers are a bit of an Achilles heel of the committed entrepreneur, business owner or leader. When you’re working hard to build a business and do meaningful work the last thing you want to hear is that you haven’t met the mark. You can find thousands of practical, stay calm, listen, sympa
More Powerful Than Tactics
Marketing tactics change weekly. It’s not hard to get thrown off course by the sense you’re being left behind. What should you devote your energy and resources to next? Which new social media platform is worth investigating and why? Is it worth attending networking events? What will your return on i
The Best Kind Of Self-Promotion
A new group fitness instructor arrives to teach a class at the gym. He’s an unknown quantity, but a few people give him a shot. Within a month his class is either packed or half-empty. The instructor who is struggling to get the numbers announces details of his upcoming classes at the end of each…
Three Steps To Telling Better Product Stories
When it comes to marketing our products and services there are a couple of storylines we fall back on. We either invite prospective customers to look at our impressive features and benefits or urge them to notice how much better our product is than anything else that exists in the category. Those ta
5 Ways To Be A More Resourceful Marketer
The problem with most marketing is that it not only feels inauthentic to the customer, it also relies on tired old tactics that do the opposite of what the marketer intended. It interrupts instead of inspiring, disconnects instead of delighting. We can do better. How To Be A More Resourceful Markete
The Best Opportunity
One of the best things about our family’s move to Melbourne two years ago has been the rediscovery of local shopping strips. In beautiful Perth, where we lived for ten years, our grocery shopping involved a car trip to one of the dominant, big chain supermarkets. In Melbourne, we live a two-minute s
The Good Marketer’s Dilemma
People (including you and me) often convince themselves that they make logical decisions about what to buy based on things like quality and price. If this were true, then there would be no need for businesses to invest in packaging, design or user experience. Packaging, design and copy tell a story
Changing The Customer Experience Narrative
My husband, who is a doctor has been trialling ways to improve the patient experience at the practice where he works one day a week. There are many things about the experience that are out of his control. He can’t control how the receptionist speaks to the patient on arrival, cut the waiting time or
More Than
In hard-headed, rational commercial environments where tangible advantages are sought in order to make the books balance, we often overlook the value of our products and services being more than commodities. Everything a customer chooses to exchange time, attention or money for says something about
Change Making
The story changes the value. The value changes the perception. The perception changes the experience. The experience changes the outcome. The outcome changes the customer. The customer changes the story. Image by Matthias Ripp.
Understanding The Value Gap
You may have noticed how commonplace complimentary gift wrapping has become this festive season. In years gone by this service was offered by bigger department stores or as a fundraiser for charities in local shopping centres. This year though it seems that every retailer from the bookstore to the p
The Path To Business Growth
Sal was already sweating as she blustered into the gym on Monday morning. She sat down heavily on the bench in the changing room. The things she had hastily stuffed into her gym bag tumbled out as soon as she unzipped it. Sal stopped for a second, realising she hadn’t replaced the three-day-old swea
Why Story Sells
The bicycle store owner was walking the customer through the range of helmets that were suitable for her teenage son. He described and demonstrated the features and benefits of three models in various price ranges. The woman seemed unsure and looked for a moment like she was about to leave with a pr
Worth Vs. Worthy
As business leaders and entrepreneurs, much of our energy and resources are spent understanding how best to communicate our value to customers. Many of the most successful companies flip this thinking on its head. If we create things that are worthy of the time, attention and money of the people we
Metrics For A Job Well Done
Every business has metrics for a job well done. We know when our sales are up and complaints are down. We can measure our organisation’s performance and success in a myriad of ways. For many businesses, success is measured in efficiencies and financial targets. Others choose to pay attention to cust
How To Tell A Brand Story Customers Believe In
It was a slow Wednesday morning, and the smell of freshly baked croissants wafted from the new French bakery. The store was almost empty, as were the display cabinets that should have been teeming with tempting pastries at this hour. The rock music blared. The bakery assistant who wore yesterday’s a
