Process + Brand = Experience

Communicate confidence through your experience and your customers will relax. How a mammogram can be a pleasant experience.

I avoided getting a mammogram for years because I was afraid to get my breasts squished under two plates of glass. It sounded painful and needlessly tortuous as preventative care. On top of that, there was the whole facing breast cancer issue that comes with getting one of these tests done. No one wants to think about cancer happening to them, but the reality of taking a test opens the possibility of discovering that you have it.

 

My doctor finally called me out on my avoidance during my annual exam and strongly encouraged me to have one done. She told me about a newer procedure that wasn’t so scary, so I booked an appointment and went.

 

 

The experience far exceeded my expectations. Not because my expectations were lower than a basement floor, although that was a factor. It was because the provider communicated confidence through their well-planned, thought-through experience. This gave me confidence that they knew what they were doing. 

 

What communicates confidence? Making an experience easy. You know what you need to do, the information you need from a customer, and what the customer needs to do. Why not provide your customer with all of the guidance they need to get things done right from the start? And this promotes trust. If you communicate to customers through your actions that you know what needs to happen and how the process should work, you are communicating directly that you are conscientious and you care about doing a good job for them. You are also indirectly communicating to them that you want to do a good job and care about the quality of your work, so there is no benefit for you to lie and cover-up an error. You want a great review and referrals and we all know that those are earned from a job well done.

 

Communicating confidence reduces your customer’s fear of the unkown. It’s fear that causes distrust and stress. The more you demonstrate that you are competent, your customer will feel like they made a great decision by choosing you, further reinforcing trust. Confidence can be contagious. 

 

Confident people and organizations naturally give that to their customers through other signals, such putting encouraging signs on the wall like "Be Brave," or how they named their lockers or how they make everyone feel important.

 

How did Solis Mammogram (where I got the mammogram done) make the experience confident and easy?

• Convenient and free parking. They were located in a hospital with a huge parking garage with hundreds of parking spots. The parking was inexpensive to start, but they offered me a free parking validation voucher at my appointment. I didn't need to remember to get my original ticket validated. It was super easy!
• Easy to get to the building and find the office. Lots of signs and guidance to help me find where the exact location was.
• Not much paperwork. I had to sign 2 forms and enter information into a tablet. It took not even 3 minutes to complete. So easy, straightforward, and automated!
• They provided me with courage in case I felt scared and needed inspiration, especially in places where I would be waiting. Rather than having numbers on lockers, they named each one using the names of some of the most courageous women in history from Harriet Tubman to Audrey Hepburn to Eleanor Roosevelt to Amelia Earhart. Choosing a locker to put my belongings in reminded me of my own power - and not to be stressed. They also had words on the examination room walls like "Be brave," to remind all of us patients that in the end, we will be ok.
• The office felt like a home - inviting and soothing. The waiting room felt as much like a home that it could, complete with green plants, soft furniture, and soft violet and grey tones. There was no steel or glass around, which can always feel a little cold. It was decorated with a lot of wood and frosted glass. It was warm, friendly and welcoming.
• The technician told me what she was doing each step of the way. I had literally no surprises. The procedure took not even 10 minutes total and she told me everything she was going to do. There was no time to be stressed! She also warned me that first time mammogramers may be called back if the doctor finds an irregularity because there are no scans for a baseline analysis. They told me not to assume that I have cancer if I get a call. When I did get a call back to return, the woman was surprised that I wasn’t freaking out; I told her it was because I was prepared.
• Almost no wait time - for anything. I was left alone to wait a total of 5 minutes during the entire visit. Wait times contribute to fear because it allows time for a patient or customer to reflect on possibilities of what may happen during the visit. Often in a visit like a mammogram, people imagine what may go wrong more often than what will go right. If you remove the wait times, you will have patients and customers who don’t have time to wait or stew about problems. They will be more in the present moment, more positive, and in the end, easier to work with. It also communicates confidence that you have a handle on your schedule and how long it takes to work with each patient/customer.

The lesson I learned during my visits with them is how confidence is communicated through an experience with a doctor, technician, waiting room, or administrator. Confidence can turn-around a fearful situation to a pleasant experience that someone will want to have again. It changes everyone's attitude to create a better relationship with customers who will return in the future. This is especially true for a mammogram. Confidence brings trust and removes fear. Everyone will want to feel that again - even for a mammogram.

From a fan - Xtensio was listed on Product Hunt!

I got an email yesterday that Xtensio is now listed on Product Hunt. Congratulations to them on a job well done!

I ran into this suite of tools by accident. The other day, I had to pull together some personas for a client. And honestly, we hadn't really done a complete job on research just yet, but we needed a document so we could all have a similar understanding of who these users were. I worked with the product managers to draft some personas to help baseline the team. I figured over time we could augment them with additional research, but we needed something to keep things moving - not spinning in circles.

Originally I was going to create a Word doc or PowerPoint slide with some bullets. That's kinda boring and usually personas are like infographics anyway - well-designed, highlighting the right information to understand who this person could be. I wasn't sure if I had the time to create that on my own; I needed something to kick-start the process for me.

I figured I'd find a template to leverage. There had to be one somewhere.

I did a Google search and found Xtensio. 

They have customizable, preset templates - all text can be edited. I was able to modify the module's presentation and provide the necessary content. The modules are all drag and drop so I was able to order the page how I wanted (I had to make a few adjustments here and there). They also provide additional text and image modules that can be used in various ways to support the story you want to communicate.

And they have templates to help communicate other ideas as well - the sky is the limit as to how you could use it. It's a great alernative to PowerPoint or even Prezi with the pre-made modules. 

The team has been very happy with the results.

• It's scannable.
• It provides the right information (I edited the original text, but leveraged the concepts of each section).
• It looks like a well-designed agency persona that costs thousands. 

And it's not just for startups. I'm working with an established firm. We could focus on telling  the story of the persona rather than spending time creating an original presentation. This saved weeks of time.

Thanks, Xtensio! I look forward to using your toolkit again!

What does it mean to be trustworthy? Why are these companies trusted? Part 2

Continuing from the piece yesterday, What does it mean to be trustworthy? Why are these companies trusted? Part 1. 

 

3. Transparency

 

Transparency is similar to authenticity, but it goes one step further - a company openly communicates what it does and how it does it. 

Transparency is intentionally baring your soul to the world by showing your true self to others.

--What does being transparent mean?, Liveauthentically's Blog

 

For a company, that means exposing what your processes are, telling a customer what to expect.

Here’s the problem, though: When a company makes its operations transparent, it reveals them not only to its customers but also to its competitors. And since very few companies have cornered the market for raw materials or talent, making processes transparent means making the business easy to copy. That is why so many businesses stop short of revealing everything customers might like to know. And it’s why ideas like trustability, likeonomics, and face-to-face are needed to keep potential buyers from bolting.

Truth be told, customers won’t really trust you unless you’re transparent. But if you become transparent, your competitive advantage proves transient. Margins plummet, and you’re forced to innovate.

--Julie Kirby, Trust in the Age of Transparency, Harvard Business Review 

There are some flaws in this argument (I’m finishing up a seminar about competition and copying). Copying may be the easy way to get a program implemented, but there are a lot of problems with that approach, especially if you are copying a program from a company that has a very different corporate culture than your own. 

 

And if it were easy to copy a company’s processes from transparency, why don’t more companies do it to achieve the results these companies have? 

 

Zappos is completely transparent - they constantly share how they work (see the video at the top of the page). Even though they are highly successful, not many companies have adopted what they do. They are truly unique.

 

Further, they have transformed their corporate culture to be transparent so there is no hiding and everyone knows what everyone else does.

 

During the 4-hour meeting, Hsieh talked about how Zappos’ traditional organizational structure is being replaced with Holacracy, a radical “self-governing” operating system where there are no job titles and no managers. The term Holacracy is derived from the Greek word holon, which means a whole that’s part of a greater whole. Instead of a top-down hierarchy, there’s a flatter “holarchy” that distributes power more evenly. The company will be made up of different circles—there will be around 400 circles at Zappos once the rollout is complete in December 2014—and employees can have any number of roles within those circles. This way, there’s no hiding under titles; radical transparency is the goal.

Hsieh told the crowd on that rainy November afternoon, “Darwin said that it’s not the fastest or strongest that survive. It’s the ones most adaptive to change.”

...

“We’re classically trained to think of ‘work’ in the traditional paradigm,” says John Bunch, who, along with Alexis Gonzales-Black, is leading the transition to Holacracy at Zappos. “One of the core principles is people taking personal accountability for their work. It’s not leaderless. There are certainly people who hold a bigger scope of purpose for the organization than others. What it does do is distribute leadership into each role. Everybody is expected to lead and be an entrepreneur in their own roles, and Holacracy empowers them to do so.”

In its highest-functioning form, he says, the system is “politics-free, quickly evolving to define and operate the purpose of the organization, responding to market and real-world conditions in real time. It’s creating a structure in which people have flexibility to pursue what they’re passionate about.”

 

--Aimee Groth, Zappos is going holacratic: no job titles, no managers, no hierarchy, Quartz

Not only is the internal structure being more transparent, they are communicating this change to the world. Wonderful transparency.

 

Virgin America is also transparent with their customer. Their upgrade policies were revolutionary, especially because there were no secrets about how to score a first class seat 6 hours before a flight. Now, a number of other airlines have similar offers. It's a great way to not let first class seats go empty - and fill up the plane.

 

They are also transparent about how they save energy. 

 

Virgin America was the first domestic airline to list its carbon footprint according to internationally accepted standards on The Climate Registry. Virgin America established its baseline footprint in its first full year of operations, as a first step in ensuring its operations were transparent to the traveling public. The airline is committed to finding new ways to reduce its footprint per guest, even as it experiences substantial growth both in traffic and fleet.

 

--Virgin America Web site, Transparency

 

Apple is also transparent, but I have a personal story to share to tell the transparency story.

 

My computer was old and dying, I knew it, but I wasn’t ready for a new one yet. One day, I let the battery run out and it just died. It wouldn't turn on. I went to get a new battery, and it still wouldn’t work. I called Apple Care and they didn’t want to tell me the bad news that most likely my logic board was fried, so they tried to get me an appointment at an Apple store. However, this was my work computer - so I needed a solution right away. The Genius Bars near my home were booked solid for 3 days, so the call center recommended that I go to a reseller to get faster service. I didn't know that resellers still existed with the Genius Bar concept - but I was thrilled! I found a reseller who specializes in small businesses and can give me better service and help than going to Apple itself. Now I have someone to call if there is a problem.

 

By being transparent about how I could get the best solution rather than looking for a sale for Apple itself, Apple made a better deal - they introduced me to a solution I needed more than an Apple Genius bar desk. 

 

 

Another sign of transparency is to do an experiment how easily a company can be contacted. Companies that have their phone numbers and online chat easy to find means they want to talk to you and they are concerned with their customers. Companies that hide their contact information in some ways, don't want customers to contact them. They would rather that customers research their own answers to questions than help them.

 

Zappos (see the header - many ways to contact Zappos at the top of the page), Virgin America and Apple all have extensive Contact Us pages. It's wonderful how open they are to help customers solve their problems.

 

 

4. And these traits build the greatest trait - Loyalty

Being loyal means being true to yourself, first, and then you are true to others and offer them the right assistance that they need.

Sure, reward systems improve loyalty, but giving gifts is like giving someone a bribe to work with you - it's not being truly loyal.

How are these companies truly loyal to their customers? They all take their responsibility seriously. Being authentic, responsible and transparent makes them automatically loyal to their customers. I could tell countless stories about loyalty for these brands - and I'm sure you could too. 

 These companies are also loyal to their employees to complete the chain. And these employees are engaged with their employer and it's brand.

 

Engaged employees are the ones that believe in the brand philosophy and are committed to upholding it on behalf of the company. They have been compared to volunteers who give their time to a cause they are passionate about. They are passionate about the company mission and goals and are willing to put in the extra effort to make sure they are met. When they are faced with obstacles, the think out of the box and come up with creative solutions to overcome the challenges. They are what Lowenstein refers to as Employee Ambassadors. 

 

--Colin Shaw, New Generation of Business: Connecting Employee Loyalty with Customer Loyalty, LinkedIn

 

And how does this extend to how employees work with customers?

They are committed to the customers. Ambassadors understand the customers’ needs and does everything they can in their performance at the company to meet those needs, while delivering the highest values in both product and service.

--Colin Shaw, New Generation of Business: Connecting Employee Loyalty with Customer Loyalty, LinkedIn

 

We trust certain companies because they are authentic, responsible, transparent and loyal - and their employees feel that way about them as well. Without this "perfect storm" present, a company has a hard time earning trust from prospects and customers to provide a trustworthy and good customer experience.

 

 

What else makes a good customer experience? Read the continuing story expanding on the 9 Characteristics of Great Customer Experiences. 

No form required! Adobe's enjoyable lead gen/download experience

I work with lead gen teams a lot and know way too much about online forms.

And I think we all know that every time you fill out a little form online, you know someone will call you (even my assistant knew this one when he had them call me!).

However, I just had the best experience for downloading a PDF. 

(Disclaimer: this may have existed for a long long time, but I have yet to encounter this on my Web travels. If it has been around a while, please comment and let me know. I'm sure this isn't new - possibly just new to me - but why don't more places use it?)

These experiences are usually all the same - general form with fields, some with more fields, some with fewer. These forms are always so ridiculous for a user to complete - especially if you are emailing someone in your database for whom you already have information! I mean, users know you know them (how did you get their info? Most likely, from a form!) - why make them fill out another form!?!?

Working on these projects, I always felt like Oscar Goldman in the 6 Hundred Million Dollar man: "...We have the technology. We can make him[it] better than he was. Better, stronger, faster."

But I was always told, no! We need to have the user fill out the form because we didn't buy that technology to make it easy like that (or some other nonsense).

However, today, I have proof that this is all possible.

From Adobe's email, I went to a page that looked like it would have a form on it (see below), it refreshed for a second, and I got to download the PDF. 

 

No form required because they (obviously) already had my information. I have an account with them, I buy from them, there is no need to collect my info yet again.

This was pure genius! 

Now if more places could do this! Hmmm!

 

"I will what I want" (Under Armour) challenges "Just do it!" (Nike) - and is winning

Under Armour traditionally has been a male brand. Personally, I like the brand and always found the clothing to be well designed and engineered - right down to the fabric. The clothing lasts forever and either keep the heat in or out - depending on what you choose. They make great clothes!

I also like them because they have innovative beginnings that are product focus, making a breakthrough in athletic wear:

As a fullback at the University of Maryland, Plank got tired of having to change out of the sweat-soaked T-shirts worn under his jersey; however, he noticed that his compression shorts worn during practice stayed dry. This inspired him to make a T-shirt using moisture-wicking synthetic fabric.^[6] After graduating from the University of Maryland, Plank developed his first prototype of the shirt, which he gave to his Maryland teammates and friends who had gone on to play in the NFL. Plank soon perfected the design creating a new T-shirt built from microfibers that wicked moisture and kept athletes cool, dry, and light.^[5] Major competing brands including Nike, Adidas and Reebok would soon follow in Plank's footsteps with their own version of Under Armour's moisture-wicking apparel.^[7]

--Wikipedia

Nike designs and engineers great shoes and makes fashionable athletic clothes. They make some of the best shoes on the market, although Under Armour is now challenging that.

I should also say that I had the chance to meet and workout with Team USA Women's Soccer Olympian (and Under Armour endorser) Heather Mitts recently, who told me Under Armour running shoes were "by far" the best shoe she has ever worn for serious runners and athletes.  I was already wearing UA shoes at the time, so I don't think she was trying to "sell" me. 

--NIKE VS UNDER ARMOUR, TheFitnessChamp.com

 

Products aside, Under Armour has adopted a tag line for a women's ad campaign that is seriously booting Nike in the pants.

"I will what I want."

The model, Gisele, did an ad segment with them. At first, you think she's just a model, does she really work out? Doesn't she, like, just not eat? Like, eat just a carrot for dinner?

I saw the Web site. I dare anyone to hold a plank like she did for that long. I dare you to try it! (Personally, I hold it for a minute at best.) She's a machine and I respect her for that.

 

Under Armour created a site for women that lets us track and share workout activity and performance with others. When you work out, it's key to be part of a community - not to compete, but to watch the actions of others and see what's possible. I get motivated watching other people workout hard and achieve great things. It makes me realize that doing about 100 crunches and squats will get me to where I want to be - body-wise, mind-wise, and endurance-wise. This was brilliant on their part.

Nike's just do it campaign is great and has a ton of variations, and it has grown beyond women achieving more to become a proverb, so to speak. It's excellent. 

However, Under Armour evolved it.  

 

Under Armour won Marketer of the Year for Ad Age. Why? 

The goal was to celebrate women "who had the physical and mental strength to tune out the external pressures and turn inward and chart their own course." They took Nike's story one step further....

At the rate it's going, Under Armour might "just do it." While Nike's sales are still 10 times larger, Under Armour, in the 12 months ending in August, increased revenue at three times Nike's pace, Bloomberg reported in early September. It's "well on its way to becoming the second-largest global athletic brand, ultimately eclipsing Adidas," Canaccord Genuity stated in a Dec. 1 report to investors, projecting the company would surpass $10 billion in sales within five years.

--E.J. Schultz, Ad Age's 2014 Marketer of the Year: Under Armour, Ad Age

 

Their approach is working. What did Under Armour do?

• They sell a vision and an experience. Nike taught us to do it; Under Armour shows us that in the face of adversity - rejection, illness, any personal challenge - there are women out there who have overcome their problems and succeeded. They show possibility and become role models for breaking through boundaries to achieve any goal. It's a positive message and story - and who doesn't like a positive champion who wins in some way?

• They are paving their own path to #1. What's the saying - don't compete, stand out? They aren't really competing with Nike because they are taking a slightly different angle. And they have slightly different products. They aren't copying the competition; they aren't using them as a baseline for parity; they are paving their own way using marketing best practices - a great tag line and a new vision for the target audience. It's almost like their ad campaign mirrors how the company operates.

• They are about the products. That's what I have always liked about Under Armour - you are buying not just stylish athletic gear, it has another function. Knowing that your clothing will keep you dry while you sweat is a bonus; or keep you warm in the cold when you sweat. You don't just look good - you feel good. And their clothes last forever. They use great athletic technology. If you don't have a good product, then you won't go far. This is why UA is going far.

This approach even has the financial analysts roaring:

Under Armour is broadly successful at gaining market participation via high-quality products and a strategy of permanent innovation, and the company has enormous room for growth by expanding into different sport disciplines and geographical markets in the years ahead. 

--Andrés Cardenal, Best Buy in Sports Apparel: Nike, Under Armour, or Lululemon? Fool.com

I can see why they won Marketer of the Year. What are your thoughts? 

Friday Rant - making a vendor responsible for your strategy

Project roles. We don't talk about them enough. Each team member contributes something different to a project, which is why we need a team. Sometimes we augment a team with vendors - especially when we need temporary help in an area. But what happens when you "outsource" your strategy?

Yes, you heard me. Outsource your strategy. 

This is baffling because I wonder why someone would be an employee if he is outsourcing his company's strategy and basically, the business he works for? This mentality is great for slippery personalities who use this strategy to get promotions (and proclaim "Look at what I did," when in fact, a vendor did it) or to avoid being fired ("That crazy vendor did that!"). However, when you own the numbers - from metrics to revenue targets, know the inside details about the future vision of the company, understand your client needs and the relationship dynamics with them, understand your internal culture and politics, and a number of other decision making factors - HOW CAN YOU NOT OWN YOUR OWN STRATEGY?

But taking this one step further - why would a vendor take on a strategy project, where the vendor owns those decisions, without having access to this information and assume the risk of flying blind to run someone's business? And I have to ask the question - even if a vendor got this information, why not just convert to the "dark side" and be an employee?

Role of a vendor: The vendor is providing additional thinking to help the employee see different options. Sometimes an employee is so into the company "box" that he doesn't see it. It happens. And you need to hire someone to think outside of that box. You give that consultant numbers and data to be creative, and you pay for some new ideas.

Role of the employee: Give the consultant the data he needs and then make the final decision as to what will be successful. 

When you ask the consultant to provide a strategy (hidden in a request to recommend options without the consultant knowing all of the facts), you are reducing your risk to almost zero but putting the consultant at GREAT risk because there is no way for a consultant to make 100% informed decisions or recommendations without knowing all of the internal factors. And if you keep putting a consultant at risk, your consultant will stop being your adviser.

This is something I see time and time again - and I don't fully blame the employee trying to get away with it; I also blame the consultant to accepts this type of work and doesn't set that boundary of where decision making lies. The roles and responsibilities for a project need to be clear up front. I know I have been in situations as a quasi-employee. However, when it came down to making a final decision for a direction - I stayed out of it. I just made sure the employee I was working with thought through all of the various perspectives for all solutions when he or she made the decision. At the end of the day - it really wasn't my decision(s) to make.

Ok...I'm off my soapbox now. Have a great Friday!