Process + Brand = Experience

Guest on the Elevate your Business podcast, hosted by Ed Jarecki

About a month ago, Ed Jarecki sent me an email to invite me to be a guest on his podcast. I'm so glad I responded! 

Ed hosts a podcast where professionals share how they define success (and how that definition has changed over time), how they overcome challenges, and the impact technical innovations have on businesses. Of course, everyone who attends has a different story and point of view on how they got where they are now. And he has dozens of these interviews on his channel. It's worth checking out.  

Ed is a great host and an amazing human being. He does a lot of work in the community to support equitable and affordable housing. He also has an amazing amount of experience in the technology space, starting his career in TQM (total quality management). Today, he works with executives across the country to improve their business. And he stays current with technology approaches. 

We had a delightful conversation about teams, collaboration, consensus building, AI/generative AI, innovation, customer relationships, and more. It was so much fun! I had a great time talking about these topics with him and sharing some stories, and then I got some time to talk about my favorite topic - listening! I truly believe that leaders could improve their businesses if they spent time listening to their employees and customers and accepting the messages they were told. And that last part - accepting the messages they hear - is the key to listening. We can all hear a message, but that doesn't mean that we accept someone's truth. 

Anyway, enjoy the podcast! Happy listening! 

 

 

Our changing perception of ownership - 6 trends sparking the shift

We may own a lot of stuff, but I think we are starting to have a different view of what should be owned/purchased/bought versus accessed/licensed/rented. The end desire is the same - ability to use an item to solve a problem. But how you access that solution - direct purchase or access rights - may be different. And does that matter? Or do customers care more about finding an economic and sustainable way to solve their problems?

 

How we view ownership in society is changing. In many respects, ownership is the goal of the buyer’s journey, the sales process, and the main interaction people have with a company. Many look to “own” a solution to a problem. We make ownership seem simple - you go to a store (brick and mortar or virtual), buy something, and bring it home. But that’s not really what happens. Subconscious decisions occur during various steps of the process to determine if a product really solves your problem, and if the product has value or worth to you at its current price point. There can be many stakeholders involved in a purchase, depending on the item, how much it costs, who will use it, the type of benefits, and how it will be maintained.

We sometimes kid ourselves into thinking that money doesn’t matter when we are solving a problem. “Money is no object.” But it is. Money is often a deciding factor for a purchase or license. We may decide that the high cost of the solution makes the problem not worth fixing and reduce the priority of the problem in our lives. We may decide that it’s ok to live with the problem as-is, or do some more research and find a free or low-cost substitute workaround. In doing this, there is a chance that we may simply not be seeing how deeply the product will change our lives for the better. We walk away from the solution because it's too difficult to see a new way. We need help visualizing the change.

An evening gown is a great example of a complex purchase that may be influenced by money. A gown may not change your life, but it is a great example of a buy or rent scenario and the factors involved in the decision making around that.

If you attend formal functions often, it makes sense to own a gown. But there are a number of reasons why gown ownership isn't practical:

• Most of us attend a formal event a handful of times in a lifetime. We don't need one in our closet.
• A gown is usually based on high fashion trends. If you only wear one every few years, then it would go out of style before you could wear it again.
• You don't want to be seen wearing a gown twice by the same group.
• Gown maintenance and storage can be costly (depending on the gown, it could take up a lot of room in a closet and require a special dry cleaner to clean it)

For many, it makes more sense to rent a gown for an event and return it the day after. Rent the Runway was founded on the premise of reducing replacement and maintenance costs. They also rent designer clothes that you may only want to wear a handful of times before they are out of fashion. They solve the problem of wearing the right outfit for the right occasion and provide a different way to finance access to the solution. The alternative solution to renting a gown for a formal event is putting the gown on a credit card (some would return the gown the next day, as unethical as that sounds...it is a common option). Another solution is simply not going to the event. But if Rent the Runway does it right (and they have), they found a way to paint a picture of a future where you get the best of all worlds - even cost-wise.

As mentioned above, the cost of ownership is tied not only to the purchase cost, but the cost of maintenance, repairs, and replacement. There are also insurances, warranties and guarantees to consider. There are pros and cons to alternatives like leasing or renting once these other costs are considered.

As an aside….I’d like to clarify the definition of a product and/or service that a company offers. Sometimes we view products from a company's perspective - as items to be sold or items that we need to get someone to buy. From my perspective, a product or service should be seen from a customer perspective as a solution to a problem. The problem could be, for example, hunger (products in a grocery store), boredom (amusement parks, zoos, museums), or desire for knowledge (books, schools).

To clarify, if someone doesn’t buy your solution, it’s because it’s not a priority for that person. He simply found another way to solve his problem without buying from (or spending money with) you. 

Historical view of ownership
Ownership used to be related to investments and assets. People would purchase land as an investment. That land became a place to grow food and generate revenue from the excess harvested. Or they could sell the land because it increased in value as it sat there. Same with a house. Same with a horse. You bought a horse and had transportation, manpower, and wealth that could be sold to another bidder. Sure, you had to feed it and care for it, but those costs were far less than the value it gave providing transportation and other services (even the ability to reproduce and make more to sell). 

In some ways, clothes were an investment (they could be repaired and worn for years). Food was an investment. A printing press was an investment. Owning a book was an investment. Jewelry was an investment.

Then came along automation and mass production. Costume jewelry. Plastic plates. Things that were not made to last. Things that required maintenance, serious repairs, and possible replacement because they were temporary, created for fun, or just a handful of uses.

Over time, even cars were not seen as an investment. They required a lot of maintenance and repairs. And replacement. Things were no longer seen as investments or assets. They were things that cost money and declined in value the longer you owned them. 

According to this Financial Times article, businesses were the first in revising their perspective of ownership. Many stopped owning their offices and business spaces (e.g., supermarkets, airlines). They rented because it was perceived as more economical, flexible (they could change locations and not need to sell), and sustainable.

I see six trends influencing our views of ownership as well as our view of products and solutions and wealth/assets.

#1: Ownership isn't really connected to wealth and investment anymore.

As stated earlier, people in the past would own something because it was an asset with long term value. Buying a good was equated with making an investment, increasing in value over time, adding to your wealth.

With the rise of mass production and consumerism, we have witnessed that not all items we buy will increase our assets and wealth. In fact, some things we buy will decrease our wealth because of maintenance and repair costs. Again, cars are a great example. Many say that a car loses its value as soon as someone drives it off the dealer's lot. Then there are the maintenance and repair costs. After 10 or more years, there are replacement costs. It provides transportation, but are the costs worth it?

 

#2: Our definition of wealth and investment has changed.

What does it mean to be a wealthy person? Our definition of personal wealth is shifting from being based on money to personal experiences and balanced living. Trips are now being seen as a personal investment to broaden our views of the world and how we see ourselves in it. Education has always been perceived as an investment because you can expand how you see the world and yourself.

Sure, what is in your bank account matters when defining wealth, but that is not the only factor. 

The movie Citizen Kane illustrates this best. Although the movie was made in 1941, its message is still relevant, if not more relevant, today. Charles Kane owned a mansion, the largest personal zoo, incredible artwork, but on his deathbed, he wished to find his slide, Rosebud. He had this slide as a kid before he entered the world of wealth. To him, Rosebud represented his most prized possession - his childhood with his family. It makes you wonder if he saw himself as poor, although he had many things.

This begs the question: how do you define wealth? In some ways, your perception of wealth could be a reflection of your value system. 

 

#3: We are increasingly wanting access to things that simply can't be owned.

You can't "own" a song. You can write or perform a song. You can record a song for later listening. You can access that song to listen to it. But you can't "own" it. You can own the CD that the recording is on, but that song is not technically yours. Same with a book. Someone else wrote that book. You are reading it. You may own the paper it is on, but you don't own the tale or the thoughts or ideas outlined in the book. Those are from someone else. The person who originated the thoughts and ideas can provide access to you to read it, or keep it to himself. 

In a way, the digital world and the discussion around media rights is raising a solid point about creative work and ownership. It can't be owned. It's about access.

We are almost extending the model of the library. The library provides access to books that we return. With the rise of the Internet, we now have access to knowledge. But we don't own it. It's free, we can read it at any time, but we will never own everything on the Internet. However, we can always access it.

 

#4: The cost of ownership (maintenance and repairs) may be too high.

The term, "total cost of ownership," (TCO) is now commonplace. Businesses consider this when they purchase a solution. It's no longer a consideration of what's the cheapest solution - it's how much the solution will cost a company or person in the time that the person "owns" the product. It's a long-term cost view of ownership.

Rather than the car example I keep using, let's look at a house. If you don't go to the right appraiser or inspector, you could purchase a house with a faulty foundation or frame. There may be a leaky roof that even the previous owners weren't aware existed. Or the shingles could have been poorly installed. Or the gutters. There is always maintenance for a house, which is why many don't own and rent. Issues can range from structural damage after extreme weather to simple wear and tear to general improvements. There is even gardening and yard work that needs to occur.

Another example for TCO is clothes that require dry cleaning only. Dry cleaning can easily cost $10-15 per shirt depending on the dry cleaner. So a $100 silk blouse may easily cost $250 after 10 wearings.

This is why ownership doesn't always make sense. Wearing a dry clean only shirt could easily double, if not triple, the cost of the shirt. We are told a home is an investment, but in some ways, given that it is based on property values and market rates and how much work you put into it, is it? 

 

#5: Technology is changing so fast that ownership is no longer sustainable. 

If we look at how technology is changing so fast, we can quickly see how items are built to last a few years, if not only a few seasons. We get new technology to replace old, dated technology. We dread buying it because we know we’ll need to replace it. Sometimes, you can't even repair it if it is broken. Further, if you can repair it, the cost is prohibitive and it is cheaper to purchase a new solution. 

The iPod is now essentially dead (and iTunes is probably shortly behind) after only 16 years with the rise of the iPhone and other media devices. Another example is ethernet cables. We no longer connect to the internet with cables (for about 5-7 years now). Dial-up access is a thing of the past. The world is wireless. I predict that keys to homes will be a past novelty in 5 years - already homes are using combination locks rather than keys. And with biometric technology on the horizon, isn't that a better way to lock your door?

Cell phones can now be purchased using a monthly charge and replaced after 2-3 years - you turn in your phone and get a new one. I personally have an issue with this regarding wiping the data off of a device when you return it. However, options are now appearing to accommodate and better support sustainability and waste from the technology changes causing tech products to be obsolete in a handful of years.

 

#6: Time is valuable - owning may take longer to do than other means of accessing an item.

We believe a myth when we go to buy expensive goods: you go to a store or showroom, find what you want, give cash, take it home.

The reality of buying expensive goods: you research your options, you go to the store or showroom several times, you talk to sales people, research more, talk to customers, you research finance options, you decide on what you want to buy, you sign a bunch of paperwork, add in maintenance agreements and additional warranties, and then you bring it home.

Buying could include securing a loan, insurances, warranties, and more. It's not always that simple.

Again, the example of a car. Renting a car for a few days takes minutes. Buying a car is a multi-month process.

An apartment can be rented in days. A home takes at least a week to purchase.

Peer sharing is a new purchase and ownership/access method that is revolutionizing how we use solutions. Airbnb for hotels and Turo for cars are a few examples that only scratch the surface of shared ownership. There are new living environments like cohousing that have smaller living spaces to own or rent with larger common spaces so you can spend more time with your neighbors building community and socializing with them - not simply stay in your room by yourself. Some space is shared; some is for yourself.

To sum up these new models, there are 3 clear options:

• Buying - the item is your possession outright - and your responsibility.
• Renting - you can use the solution, but someone else worries about the maintenance. To them based on their values and how they operate, ownership has value.
• Peer sharing has you invested in the maintenance and share the cost of ownership during your time using the item. 

And I'm sure there will be new models in the future to accommodate new perspectives of ownership and cost.

 

Conclusion

How we view ownership is changing how we access, purchase, and use items. It is also linked to how we view worth and its value. Worth and value have intertwined definitions that are unclear yet related. It also merits its own blog post. 

How you view the value of something is linked to how you access it. Do you own it? Can you have it in your possession physically - can you touch it? Or is it an idea? Is this item going to bring you future wealth in some way?

Does ownership matter?
That’s the larger question. As a society, we grew to believe ownership was the answer to access to solutions to problems. But many solutions today in the sharing economy are reflecting trends that point to a different perspective. Maybe it is time to consider that ownership isn't the only last step for a buyer's journey or a way to measure worth. We need to expand our perspectives and consider all aspects of ownership, from maintenance and repair to replacement to stakeholder involvement to access to if something can even be "owned."

I'm curious what you think the future will bring us regarding new models to access solutions to our problems. Please add to the comments below!

Where's your head at? Why change can be easy or hard.

Where's your head at?  Basement Jaxx

 

Most people don't like change - especially changes to an app, Web site or product. Changes can't be controlled. They are made and you need to accept it, whether you want to or not.

Look at what happens when Facebook makes a change. Usually we'll see a number of posts from friends complaining about the change along with claims that they will stop using it because of these new features. 

And then that same person makes another 5 posts about politics, friends, family, cats, or other people's silly children.  

Recently, Apple announced the iPhone 7 and how they are removing the phone jack to support a wired headset device. Their perspective is that people need to move to Bluetooth/wireless devices already. I think that's a fair assessment in general given that Bluetooth has been around for a long long time and overall works pretty well. However, there's a catch - Bluetooth headsets work fairly well some of the time. They don't work 100% of the time like wireless keyboards. I know of 2 headsets that work pretty well; but most just don't. I have been on too many calls with people using Bluetooth headsets where they sound like they are 3 continents away. 

Technically, are we really ready?  

No. And Apple should have researched that more before making it's big decision (I would be surprised if they did research that before making the decision because historically, Apple rarely does user research. I have heard Apple employees say that innovation doesn't come from users and research. Horrified me a bit. I guess they hang out with Frog Design kids too often. But onwards!).

The issue I have with this phone jack change is the maturity of the technology. Does it mean I won't buy an Apple phone? Probably not. Does it mean I'll need to get a better headset? Sigh. Yes.

I'll accept the change unwillingly because I still want to use Apple products. But in a weird way, it's fun to complain about it, criticize them, and say how they should know better.

 

Does all change come with complaining? No.

I have witnessed UX changes that resulted in no user complains; if anything, people have used it more! In fact, I have worked on projects where we made a signficant UX change that results in increased revenue Day One of launch. Or people adopted it quickly at pre-launch from a tiny link on a page. 

So what's the differences between the 2 types changes: the Apple type where I'm unhappy about the change and need a workaround vs the other types that people adopt and love?

Before we address that, remember: people change because they want to change. You can't force people to change anything or decide to do any action. If your users don't want to do something in a new way - it won't happen. They will complain and find reasons not to do it. The drive to use your product needs to be stronger than the drive to not use it (the Facebook example - the drive to be connected is stronger than confusion about the new feature.).

But there is a silver lining regarding change. When people complain about a change, it's usually not about the change. It's about a related issue: transparency, insecurity, loss of control, etc. It is regarding something about them and their outlook on their own life. There are a number of articles about change and why it may not work and often, it's for personal reasons. It's where their heads are at regarding the change.

I complain about the phone jack because of the technology of it - or more accurately because I am too lazy to find a new headset. Which is true! 

 

Why are some changes successful? It meets these three criteria:

• The feature added was something that the customer wanted already. This is often the case for fast acceptance. If a customer has a particular feature or business fix in mind, he more easily accepts its implementation. It doesn't take long for that customer to jump right in and start using it. The new feature is a win for the customer.

• The feature was familiar (intuitive) to use. No training was necessary. This is also key for fast adoption. Someone can start using a tool right away because he doesn't need training for how to use it.

• Users are already thinking differently about how to use a feature or app. Sometimes people are using an app in a new way already. Or they have already thought about that feature and are counting the days for it to be implemented. The company is catching up to what the users need.

These are the traits that exist for every successful change I have observed. And by success, I mean seamless adoption and increased usage Day One and beyond.

Yes, this can and does happen frequently.

 

Why would people push back on a change? 

This has nothing to do with training or an explanation for the changes. Rejection of change is never about the actual change. It's about issues surrounding the change. People blame the feature or other reasons as to why it didn't work, but that's not the reason why someone isn't using a tool. People say they hate Facebook and still use it. People say they are sick of Apple but still buy the phone.

There are deeper reasons at hand as shown in an HBR article, a Forbes article, and this other article to explain change, but to sum it up:

• Loss of control. People had an understanding of how things worked before (or thought they did, which is a different problem for a different day) and now they don't. That's a scary place to be. Their world has shattered.

• Fear. This includes fear or failure, success, unknown, looking stupid, more work, unexpected impact, something new. Fear is a key factor for rejecting anything. And we're not talking about technology rejection because the technology simply isn't there. We are talking about a change that is valid and makes sense and it being rejected because...great question! There is no reason for the rejection. What is FEAR again? False Evidence Appearing Real. Yes.

• Unprepared to think in a different way. Change always requires a new way to think about the world. It sounds severe, but it's true. A change may include a different way to think about a product and how it works - and if you aren't ready to think about a product that way, then this new view won't happen and change is rejected. 

 

What are signs of rejecting an app or feature beyond the obvious of not using the new solution?

• Making fun of the new solution - who created it, who is managing it, what it does. Making fun of something is a coping mechanism to make it seem lesser and you greater so your ego can accept the circumstances. It's psychology.

• Raising constant excuses and roadblocks as to why a feature is a bad idea. And each roadblock is a reason that can be easily cured or resolved with a conversation or other item. This is about finding reasons not to do something, not trying to improve a situation.

• Blaming an individual for the change. I would blame Steve Jobs for features I didn't like on an Apple product. Or Bill Gates for Microsoft. Or Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook. Is that realistic? NO! A team created and implemented a feature. Not just one person wanted it - many people agreed with it and made it happen. Thinking that many people wanted a feature makes you feel small and insignifiant and possibly wrong. And who wants to be wrong? It's easier to blame one person for a change.

 

How can you reduce these challenges if you have a public app?

Usability testing and monitoring metrics. Get the feedback directly and fix the problem. A fairly straightforward approach. Users will be honest with you and let you know where their head is at with the change.

If you are implementing an internal tool and there is change how can you reduce this? There really isn't any predictor. Sure, there are things you can do - bring people along during the change management process, show them what you are doing, keep them involved. But even that doesn't guarantee that change will be accepted. People have emotions. Even if everyone agreed that the change was a great idea in the first place doesn't mean that when it is implemented that everyone will feel great about it. There may be insecurities, fears, loss. Those emotions need to be addressed during the process. It is less about the change itself and more how people feel about that change.

To sum up, change only happens when people (users) want the change as much as you do. And they may not want the change because of fear, they don't want to think about the situation in a new way, or they want to keep control over their own world. Change happens when people have made up their mind that a new feature or idea makes sense - or they have already made a decision that the feature or idea needs to be implemented now for them to be successful. 

Successful change is about where someone's head is at.  

UPDATED: Customer Feels Secure and Confident during the Customer Lifecycle - Part 5 - Post-Purchase Experience

 

This continues the series, 9 characteristics of great customer experiences and the post series, The Customer Feels Secure and Confident During the Journey - Part 1 and Part 2, which covered the pre-purchase step. Part 3 addresses the Purchase Decision. Part 4 covers the customer's experience with the product. 

This piece covers what happens after purchase. 

 

 

 

 

Once a customer buys a product the "real" customer journey begins and a customer gets to know what that company is really like. Until then, the experience was focused on the company convincing a customer to buy, a customer researching the right solution for him or her, a customer seeing what it's like to use the product, and a company creating a usable product. 

 

During this post-purchase step, a customer is no longer simply trying to own a product; he is building a relationship with that company. The purchase moment and product setup/usage started this step.

 

This is probably the most unsexy step of the lifecycle. It’s about operations and logistics - shipping, payment, warranties, guarantees, product service, support and maintenance. It sounds boring and a little “so what?” However, how a company operates and interacts with its customers - including its communications - reflects its personality.

 

If you think about it, when a customer calls support or service, it’s never about something great; it’s always about a problem. How a company handles that situation is probably the best way to get to know what it’s really like. Does the company resolve the issue quickly? Or does the issue linger and it seems that no one in the company cares enough to fix the problem? Are they responsive for calls, emails or chat? Do they seem to be organized?

 

And we can equate this to how a dating relationship works. Prospects reading marketing content and talking to sales is like dating. The purchase is like a marriage or commitment. Post-purchase with logistics, support and maintenance is like daily life after the wedding, when you experience what that person is like every day. 

 

This is why customer stories really shouldn’t occur until well after someone purchases. The immediate experience of using a product is similar to what happens during the honeymoon. It isn’t until the product doesn’t work well or is broken and needs support that a customer understands what the company he purchased from is really like. Or if there is a confusion about payment.

 

And it's the step where people who are potential prospects can be dissuaded from talking to you ever again because of something a current customer said. Yep. It happens all the time through word of mouth or social media. What you do here can not only encourage current customers to exit the lifecycle and find a new partner or product, but prospects you didn't even know existed can be encouraged to talk to someone else.

 

What types of activities are considered to be part of the post-purchase experience and how a customer wants to experience that interaction?

• Include and involve the customer as part of the company's community. I included some activities to do here in the previous piece, but there are so many ways to make a customer feel like they are an extended part of the company.
• Support: highly responsive with fast resolutions 
• For larger purchases: implementation and adoption services that facilitate implementation
• If replacement and refillable parts are necessary: make sure they are easy to access and don’t cost a lot
• Repairs are simple to do
• Billing and accounting is easy to work with if there are problems 
• Payment options are available and easy to access
• Product delivery: various types and approaches depending on purchase and size of item. Shipping parts and refillables are also applied.
• Product guarantees, warranties, etc. They have reasonable clauses that can be acted on and used.  
• Certifications and training. It helps the customer use the product more - and have a greater commitment to it.
• Customers willingly share their experiences with the company because they are happy with the interactions

I’m not going to address channel partner purchases or other 3rd party purchases here. We’ll keep it to company/product and customer interaction for simplicity.

 

I should also add that the relationship that a customer has with a company during this phase depends on the dollar amount of the purchase. Larger purchases will require additional support at this step; less money spent won’t require as much support or support won’t matter as much. If an item is cheap enough, the need for support may not matter; the customer may just replace the item if it is too difficult to maintain.

 

One could say that the cost of the product has a direct relationship to the commitment the customer has to a company after purchase. More money spent, greater commitment. Less money spent, less commitment.

 

What are companies doing at this phase?

The goal of this step of the process:

• Providing logical services to help customers
  • Shipping
  • Support - customer service, customer support, warranties, guarantees, 
  • Billing and payment
• Build a relationship with a customer through these actions, providing trust and loyalty
• Encourage the user to stay in the customer lifecycle; try to ensure that the customer doesn't research new vendors

 

How do you help your customers feel comfortable here?

It’s during this part of the customer lifecycle that, especially for larger purchases, it becomes clear that customers often don’t always choose to buy a product to buy that specific product. Customers decide to buy a product from a company because they feel that this company would be a better partner. It's about the potential for the long-term relationship. 

 

Build trust

Until this point, the customer relationship was focused on building trust for someone to make that purchase decision. Once a customer owns a product, the product experience is to encourage the customer to use the product. In post-purchase, it’s about how this company supports and maintains the product and what a customer needs to continue using the product - or optimizing product usage. 

 

(A secondary goal: prevent the customer from starting the customer lifecycle again and researching new solutions to his problem - meaning, get a new product from a different company.)

 

A company still needs to build trust with a customer at this phase of the process. That doesn't change. A customer always needs to trust you to keep the relationship going. In this part of the lifecycle, there are many opportunities for building trust.

• Solving a customer's problem with your product quickly and easily
• Providing a way for them to get the product fixed: either through a partner's location nearby or free shipping or a store presence
• Repairing a product for free or for a low fee - and building a product in a way that can happen
• Having a payment plan that makes an expensive product affordable.
• Allowing customers to participate in support, product development, and sales

These activities build long-term trust between a company and customer. The easier and more convenient you make it to own a product, the greater the trust the customer will have with you.

 

Does this mean you need to have perfect support? A perfect payment plan program? The best warranty or guarantee in the business? No. It does mean that you need to hire individuals in your support, payment/accounting, shipping, or rather operations departments, that have exceptional customer service skills to build that relationship. It's these people that manage customer problems and turn them into opportunities for an improved relationship - even if the problem doesn't resolve in that customer's favor. 

 

Help the customer succeed using your product

It is only when a customer has success using your product that you succeed. Saving money, time, effort, or some other gain will encourage that customer to not only continue spending money with you, but he will share his experience with others and get them to work with you too. 

 

If he wins, he'll help his friends use your product to win too. And then you win with more sales. Always remember that without customers, a company has no revenue.

 

Sure, a company can improve an existing product based on the feedback from these services, but without the drive to make a customer shine - this can't happen.

 

Try to keep the customer happy and engaged so he doesn't leave

This means making the relationship easy. If it is hard for a customer to find replacement products or it is difficult to work with billing, a customer will start the customer lifecycle process all over again to build a relationship with a new vendor. It is during this stage that a customer could exit the process and find a better way to achieve his goals. 

 

Remember: if you hear a complaint from once customer, there are probably a number of other customers who feel the same way. They just aren't saying anything. And that's a scary thought.

 

This opens an opportunity for many competitors to gain market share - and why that customer relationship is so important. 

 

Make the customer feel included

The customer isn't an employee, but in many ways, they are just as important. And they can contribute so much to your company. From being experts who can provide support to other customers to providing product feedback to sharing their experiences with prospects and others. Customers have so much to offer - and they WANT to help. Customers love to work with companies to help them succeed too. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. Encourage them to contribute and watch how your company grows.

 

 

What you can include in your experience to make someone feel comfortable at this phase of the lifecycle:

 

Include and Involve the Customer in Your Company

There are so many ways to include and involve a customer in your company. Here are a few suggestions to help them contribute to your company and products to make them better.

• Create a special customer group to get feedback for the products, services, support - anything. It's almost like a regular customer focus group that you meet with every quarter or so to get their feedback. You could call it a customer panel, customer guidance team - whatever. Ask them what they think other customers will like for new product features or services. Get their feedback on how support works - or doesn't. Learn from them what other customers are thinking and probably not saying.

• Encourage customers to contribute to support forums to share their knowledge. Customers can be your expert users and sometimes know as much as - or more than - your support team or QA about your product. Let them shine! Try to get them participate and respond to items in the forum. Develop a rewards program for the support forum. An expert customer is probably the best spokesperson for your company. They will help others understand your product. What's best about customers doing this is that it helps prospects and new customers aspire to use your product. If this customer can be an expert - so can you!

• Customers have the best ideas for new features. Especially power users. Sometimes, customers have a different perspective of how to use your product than you do - and that's not a bad thing! Talk to customers and let them brainstorm how to use your product. Create a way for them to submit new features. It will be a popular area of your site or product.

• Engage with customers on social media. Happy customers will share great stories on social media. Repost them! Comment on them! Engage and interact with these customers. Same with unhappy customers. Reach out to them and find out what's happening. Social media is a new communication medium that customers are using to reach out to companies. Don't stop them! Use it! Encourage them to communicate to you in any way they can and know how. And then respond and engage.

• Reward the active customers - and encourage the others to be active too. Have a type of reward program for customers who engage in social media, contribute often to a support forum, or submit new features. And don't only offer prizes. Customers appreciate different types of recognition and rewards. Ever hear about the five love languages? See how you can create rewards that appeal to people in each love langague. I know it sounds hokey, but some people like getting gifts; others want kind words; others would appreciate a tour of your facility or spending time with your executives. 

• Encourage customers to co-create content with you. Why does corporate content need to be so formal from a company? Why not invite customers and influencers to participate in content creation? For thought leadership, ask them to provide their perspective. Ask them to contribute data from their use of the product and product research. Partner with them to show how your vision is shared with your customers. It's not a vision unique to your company; it's a vision that your customers have adopted too. 

 

Support, Service and Repairs:

 

Some shared insights that I had early in my career helping a call center succeed and win an award.

• Make it easy for a customer to contact you. This may sound intuitively obvious, but many companies hide 800 numbers for support, emails addresses, and online chat capabilities in hopes that a customer won't contact them. If a customer is frustrated trying to contact you about a problem, hiding contact information only magnifies the issue. Make this process as straightforward as possible to reduce stresses from the customer - and you. A customer could find a new solution partner - even for a free product - if the issue is severe enough and it is too difficult to reach you.

• UPDATE: Social Media is a support channel too! We often forget that people don't always contact you directly through support phone lines and the like. They contact you through social media. I had a great experience with this through Citibank. Make sure your support teams are able to interject in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media conversations. That's where the action happens these days to lose the opportunity to form customer relationships before it can even start!

• Create more instructional videos than FAQs and support documents. People read less and watch more. Keep the videos short, sweet and to the point. They will get more views - and more shares. This has happened with the auto industry - research what it takes to replace a part and you’ll find a number of home video presentations. Or research how to fix a home appliance. I've repaired a number of small home appliances using videos. They are probably the easiest way to illustrate a solution.

• Include a gamification element in your support forum to encourage adoption. Many companies do this today - they offer a way to boost popular answers that provide great results. Or indicate who provides the best advice. Or indicate who contributes often. This type of recognitions is key to keep members engaged and contributing at their best. 

• Have easily accessible self-service support; balance that with access to customers. Customers often want to try to fix the problem themselves. They will research the solution on your site. Make your support area easy to search and find solutions. Search optimization takes work, but it is worth it. Make sure you associate typos to real terms in the search. Track all of the ways customers type keywords in the search - and have a way to refer those to the right solution documents or videos.

• Have the right solutions available in support. This also sounds intuitively obvious, but it isn’t. How often have you gone to a site to search for a solution to find NOTHING? Monitor what people search for and create documents and videos for that. Also get insights into what your customers need for support content by reviewing call center reports - why do people call? What type of trouble reports are coming in? What types of issues need additional assistance? Let the customer know.

• Add to your support mix a live, in-person option if possible. Apple was brilliant by adding the Genius Bar to their stores. The Genius Bar gets people to come to the store. While people wait, they can explore what’s new at Apple and be entertained. And an Apple employee spends time with the customer, helping him immediately solve his problem. It builds trust because the customer can see immediate results. A live person helping you solve a problem is completely different than resolving an issue over the phone.

• Make it easy to get anything fixed. This is where companies often get it wrong. A great story about Apple: my laptop went to sleep and never powered on again. I replaced the battery twice, tried to charge it overnight, and did a few other things - but nothing worked. I tried to book time at the Genius Bar but there was nothing available for 2-3 days. This was my work computer - I needed a solution now! I called Apple and they recommended that I contact a Support Partner for a solution. In 2 days, my files were transferred over to the new computer. I was setup and good to go! It was fantastic. And it was easy. I had to drop it all off and it was magically fixed. As a company - remember, it's ok if you won't get full revenue credit for assistance or you are relying on a partner to solve the customer's problem. Keep the focus on the customer. What does the customer need to be successful? If the customer is successful, he will return - and bring friends.

• Shipping a return should be easy - and local. Most companies allow you to make a return by dropping the item off at UPS or FedEx in a bag, a box, or by itself with a receipt. The shipping company packs it for you. Or you can return an item from mail order to the store (like Belk). Keep it easy. Give the customer options - even local ones.

• Repair services can happen anywhere - not just the store or by returning the item by mail. Most people don’t like the idea that something needs to go somewhere specific to be fixed. For large items, people like to go to people they trust for repairs (partners, garages, etc.). For smaller items, people want to repair them themselves. They want to watch a video, get the parts easily, and fix it. Getting a repair should be flexible - it shouldn't be so rigid it requires someone to go to a specific place or mail somewhere. 

• Replacement parts are easy to purchase and not too expensive. Expensive parts that are hard to find make buying something challenging. This is one of the reasons some people choose not to buy a BMW or Mini Cooper - the parts and service are expensive. 

• Make repairs for free as much as possible. Offer free repair and maintenance services. If you are selling an expensive product, build repairs and maintenance into the cost. If the repairs are small, offer them for free. Make the customer feel special.

 

Services: 

• Implementation and Adoption services available for larger items. This is key for successfully using a product, especially for larger purchases in companies and organizations. Individuals may need this as well - specialized training or one-on-one instruction to best understand how to use a product. Sometimes this happens during the sales process when a customer is trying to understand what he is getting into with the product and purchase. Either way, provide assistance for optimizing usage. For free or for fee this is a useful offering.

• Consulting services available to optimize use of the product. This may not be a service a consumer customer may want, but a corporate customer may want to optimize the use of a product - or better yet, increase use. This means that company may need its employees to be instructed in how to be a power user. Or the organization may need to shift and change to support improved and increased usage.

 

Finance & Billing:

Companies are typically weakest in this area. Accounting departments typically are considering the bottom line and how to increase profits. Customers are looking to build a relationship and trust a company. Those are two separate and distinct goals. There isn’t one that is right or wrong, but a customer could easily get offended by accounting’s goals if what they propose as a solution doesn't work towards a mutually beneficial relationship. 

 

But there are ways for accounting to meet the customer halfway.

• Assume that the customer wants to pay and be responsible. Often, financial departments will take a position with debtors that don't pay exactly on-time that those individuals don't want to pay. This can result in disastrous collection calls that put the customer on the defensive and make the company appear to be concerned with money and not the relationship. The customer relationship should always come first unless the customer isn't following through on his contractual agreement to pay. Always assume the best intentions of the customer and work with him to be successful on his agreement. And yes, within reason (sometimes customers are trying to skip payment and get the item for free.)

• Treat initial collection calls and emails as a payment reminder. A number of places do this today - treat the first email, letter or phone call as a reminder for payment. I mean, if your customer wants to uphold his end of the agreement, he'll be sure to pay. Most people do want to pay; there may be some extenuating circumstances to prevent this. With that in mind, always give your customer the benefit of the doubt - even repeat offenders. You just don't know.

• Offer different payment options to accommodate different lifestyles. Some people pay by credit card. Some by check in the mail. Some need additional support for high cost months. Find a way to help your customers by offering different methods for payment. I almost didn't include this because this is so common today. However, this includes payment plans or other agreements for high volume months. Make sure you offer something for that too - maybe split to two months or add the additional balance to future months. Help your customer successfully pay.

• Don't offer a free trial, require a credit card to access it, and start charging the next month. I don't care how many instructions you include on a site for this, it's sketchy behavior. Many sites do it, but look at this practice from a user's perspective. Here is a product for you to use for free for two weeks. Then we'll start charging you, but we won't remind you about it. Wait for your credit card statement. Sound like a scam? It kinda is. If a company wants to offer a free trial period and then charge, send the user an email reminder that the charge will hit. It's user friendly and doesn't make you seem sketchy - getting money for no reason. That email may reduce profits, but it keeps the relationship with the customer on good terms. And if the customer didn't want to buy anyway, do you really want that customer? You can't force someone to be a customer.

• Be clear about billing frequency or one-time costs. For example, many online product subscription sites will tell a user that the cost of a service is $25/month or $600/year, when the cost is for that purchase is an annual $600/year. No option for a monthly fee is available. Providing a monthly cost implies that is available; don't provide those numbers if it isn't offered. Sure, a company may provide it so the customer understands the value, but make that clear. Always be clear regarding charges to a customer.

• Clearly define what monthly fees and taxes include - and why they are being charged. Especially for phone companies, there are taxes that may seem questionable about why they are being charged. Make sure that bills are clear in their labelling and customers understand exactly what they are paying for. The customer deserves this. He is paying for your service; a collection of customers pay your bills. A customer deserves your respect to break down why he owes you money and where it goes. It doesn't need to be broken down to the budget level, but the customer needs to understand monthly fees for product expenses vs taxes vs other fees. 

• Offer payment plans for larger purchases - and make the expectations for payment clear. Often a company will offer financing for more expensive products. This may be necessary to align with a customer's cash flow. Or allow them to purchase something that maybe they couldn't otherwise afford. It opens purchase opportunities - and makes it seem like you are working with customers so they buy. And as with any payment operation, it needs to be clear to the customer what he is paying for and why. Break down the payment plan as much as possible to explain to the customer the costs, the fees, the interest, the payoff amounts, etc. Make it easy to understand. And if a customer wants to switch plans and get something more financially achievable, help him. Again - if there are no customer payments, there is no revenue.

• Create a cheat sheet regarding policies. Most contracts and financial agreements are the same, but if you have exceptional clauses, highlight those to the customer and make it clear. Hiding a key clause in page 15 paragraph 4 of a 30 page contract won't win you an "easy to work with award." Summarize these differences on a cheat sheet. Everyone will appreciate you for being upfront and clear. And if the customer wants to negotiate those terms, those open and honest conversations can occur - rather than disastrous phone calls about contract confusion.

• Make it easy to apply promotions and coupon codes. It can be easy to link purchases with promo codes in an app or in an online store. Macys associate promotions and coupons with customer accounts. Bluefly can do this with an email address. This practice may contradict accounting’s goals (believe it or not, I have heard business people say that the goal of a promotion is to increase traffic and they openly admit that they hope that no one uses the promotion), but it’s great for the customer. Again - who pays those bills? And if you are offering 30% off, shouldn’t you follow through on that offer on your own anyway? Why make the customer work to earn a promotion that was already offered to him? 

• Remind finance and accounting that customers pay the bills. Without customer revenue, no one in a company would be paid. This is why it is key for customers to have a good relationship with a company - especially with finance and accounting. Most customers want to pay and be responsible. Sure, there are always a few bad apples. But in the end, make sure the customer feels like he is winning and working with the company to succeed.

 

Shipping:

• Free shipping. Thanks to Amazon, this is pretty much a requirement at all stores and an expectation. Some sites have reset the expectation to be free shipping for purchases over $100. But shipping doesn’t always cost that much money for larger items and if you have considerable shipping volume, you can negotiate low costs. If you have a smaller store or smaller items - yes, charge. But try to get to the free shipping option if you can. One trick: charge a little more for your product, like $3 or so to cover shipping fees. Try to increase your purchase volume so you can get to the free shipping offering. 

• Offer an option for someone to pick up the item in a store if there is one nearby. If there are stores nearby or locations where someone can pick something up, why not allow someone the opportunity to do that? Offering shipping only options online can be confusing to a customer who is a short drive from your store. It may seem more complicated to you, but it isn't for your customer.

 

Refillable and Replacement Parts:

• Keep costs in mind. Don't try to make a revenue stream out of parts. I mean, it's possible, but it won't win the hearts of customers. A customer knows how much he spent on the original product. If you try to charge so much more for the parts that the sum total of the parts costs more than the original, a customer will see through that nonsense and not want to do business with you again. Yes - the customer may exit the lifecycle and find a new company/vendor for this reason alone.

• Make it easy to get refillable parts. Like shipping and repairs, make this easy. Ensure the refillable parts are sold in stores that are easy to find. Or certified resellers. Or online with convenient shipping options. Don't make it hard to use your product after the first month or two. Keep being easy to work with - which means easy to access parts and equipment. 

• Include a way for someone to know that he should replace a part with a refillable. If a battery is running low, include a way to indicate that. Or if a filter is getting full. Indicate that something should be replaced soon. It is a product issue, but it helps in the post-purchase side of the process as well.

 

Guarantees and Warranties

This deserves its own blog post. However, it is also an area that I'm not super familiar with and it is probably better to find experts who understand this best.

 

 

Certification and Training

If you can and it makes sense for your product, offer certification and training options - that alone can be a revenue stream for your company. Certification builds brand loyalty - you trained someone how to use your product, got that person to invest in your company, product, and ideas and gave them professional street creds. If you want to see loyal, look at Cisco Certified Engineers. 

 

Most companies today offer online training and certification options as well as classes in different areas. This also includes channel partner certification and training.

 

 

 

Sharing Customer Experiences

• Encourage customers who are happy to share their stories. Help them do it. Record them. Film them. Write their stories for them. The most powerful stories are the ones they tell themselves, so try to get them to share their own stories through writing, video, audio. Do a podcast interview with a customer. Or have them record a video on their own. 

• The more the merrier - have a panel discussion! Rather than have each customer share a story, encourage customers to share stories together in a panel. It's more fun for them and for you. And there's more opportunity for discussion with more people present.

 

 

Conclusion

A customer will always move to the next step (or go back a step, depending on what's happening) in the customer lifecycle, but that customer can always exit - especially during the post-purchase step.

 

Post-purchase is the time to build a true customer relationship; it can also be the time to destroy it if not handled properly. Customers choose your product because they want to work with your company. The choice was personal - there was something about your company that made you the better choice - that's why the relationship is so important. The post-purchase step is probably the most personal step of them all. It's the post-commitment step, so to speak.

 

Guidance here: balance business with the customer relationship. Which is more important? Well, paying customers are paying your bills....

 

 

 

Customer Feels Secure and Confident during the Customer Lifecycle - Part 4 - Product Experience

This continues the series, 9 characteristics of great customer experiences and the post series, The Customer Feels Secure and Confident During the Journey - Part 1 and Part 2, which covered the pre-purchase step. Part 3 addresses the Purchase Decision.

This piece covers aspects of the customer's experience with the product. 

 

 

 

 

Owning the product and the Product Experience: Customer uses the product / Company ensures a great experience

 

Once the customer buys and gets his product, what does he expect? 

• Doesn’t want to read the directions
• Familiar and logical transition to setup and use the product within minutes
• Experience immediate results. Able to track and experience long-term results - even better

The customer expects this part of the process to be simple and straightforward. He doesn’t expect any difficulties or surprises - except what you outlined for him in the previous step. He wants to start using the product and see results.

 

If the product doesn’t meet those expectations, then relationship challenges with the customer may occur.

 

What are companies doing at this phase?

The goal of this step of the process:

• You have already created a great product that a customer would like to use
• You have provided training and support content for the customer to use the product (The irony: customers don’t want it. We create support content to make up for the product challenges. Time would be better spend creating a better, more familiar product.)

The activities:

• Create a product that people want and like to use
• Develop documentation, FAQs, getting started content, training in case people need it

 

How do you help your customers feel comfortable here?

 A comfortable customer uses your product regularly and doesn’t give up trying to get it to do what he wants it to do. He doesn’t just include it in his life - he integrates it in his life, like a new habit. He doesn’t return it. He doesn’t demand his money back. He uses it.

 

Yes, it really is that simple.

 

If a product doesn’t work for a customer for any reason, he will stop using it. This includes usability problems, general confusion about installation and getting started, breakage, difficult assembly, and the list continues. This is where users exit the product cycle. And once they exit, they rarely, if ever, come back.

 

Keep in mind that usability is really about familiarity - not intuitiveness. Users more easily accept familiar metaphors and concepts. We live in a social construct and our thoughts are defined by culture. For example, learning how to use a light switch is something we learn at birth by watching our parents turn a light on and off. Same with a steering wheel - we watch people use it throughout our life and figure out how it works.

 

It’s not intuitive - it is familiar. Lesson here: make familiar products.

 

However, a great innovation won’t be familiar. It may be usable. It may define a new way to do something. But people won’t always understand or “get it” right away. The iPad was a great innovation that wasn’t familiar. Frankly, it wasn’t overly usable either. We had to learn how to use them. Is that optimal? Not really. Sometimes that is the only way to leap frog innovation and breakthrough to new ideas. 

 

(I think usability testing could have helped but that’s just me.)

 

What we often forget is that usability should be considered in product setup and maintenance as well as product usage. Usability should be considered throughout the lifecycle - and beyond.

 

Life changes and habits

Using a product is a life change, which implies that it requires a habit change. Habits take minimally 21 days to adopt according to legend and lore. It actually takes about 66 days or something like that.

 

For someone to make a product a habit:

• The product needs to be useful
• The user needs to understand the benefit of using it - to the point that he will find a way to use it at any cost to get that benefit
• It needs to be available and easy to use

Add making the product addictive and you have a life change.

 

On a separate note, I don’t understand how there are non-usable products today. There are so many methodologies to understand how users use products. Between metric products that track user behavior, site analytics, usability testing (online and offline methods), design research, and more - to create something that IS NOT usable takes work and an ego that is strong enough not to value customer feedback.

 

And customers are so key because they are the people who pay you. They are the originators of the profits.

 

 

How to create familiar products that users like?

Here’s a quick list of activities to consider including in your process:

• Have a clear roadmap and share it. In software, we are trained to not share the roadmap with customers in case we can’t deliver it as scheduled. However, customers sometimes need to understand what’s happening with a product. If you can let them in on what's happening directly, share some approximate knowledge if you can. Or even share when you think bugs will be fixed or Beta versions released (even a general timeframe that changes).

• Create a usable product using:
  • Usability testing. I don’t understand how companies don’t test. It’s so easy to do these days. When companies want to create products that meet more of the business's criteria than their customers, I have to wonder if they like to be paid. Customers are really the boss - without customers, who will pay you? The venture capitalist? Customers hold the key to success. And usability testing allows a company to achieve that.
  • Leverage metrics and data in a nonjudgmental way. If you don’t want to test, you can get insights about your customers based on how they interact with your app and Web site. Metrics tell you what customers do, where they send their time, how they interact with the site. The insights are there; the learnings are there. The challenge is that you need to view the metrics and analytics through an unbiased eye. You are looking at metrics to learn about your users and what they want; you aren’t looking at them to prove your point.
  • Do users like to use your product? Or do they exit quickly? Again, look at these metrics without bias. This will tell you everything you need to know. Where do they exit? What's on that page? Why would that page cause people to leave? Consider this looking at your product through their eyes. That may help you imagine what may be causing the problem.

• Encourage customers to create their own experience in your product: allow them to recommend features and functionality. Who gives the best product recommendations? Users. They know what they want to be able to do with your product. Give them a voice. Let them vote on the suggestion from others. In a way, this makes them part of the product development team. And it gets them further bought into the product. (This may sound contrary to some of my posts about customers not being familiar with defining requirements because they don't do this for a living. However, customers can tell you what they would like to see and use for an existing product, to enhance it further. That's the gold!)

• Forget documentation. It doesn't work because people don't like to read it. We often like to "fix" or repair an unusable product by offering training, instructions, and directions. That isn’t a solution - that is a band aid. Maybe that’s too generous - spit and paper tape. Consider your own experience: do you read instructions? I don’t think anyone does. Same with watching instructional videos. I think those are last resorts for features and functions that don’t make sense. Spend your time fixing usability problems. It will save money later for support calls and documentation.

What do people expect and demand today:

• People today want and expect immediate product use with minimal setup. They don’t want to spend time setting things up. Setup should happen while using a product. People don't read. They don’t want to troubleshoot. We can thank Google, Amazon and Facebook for this.
  • When you get furniture from Ikea, do you pull out all the pieces and start putting it together, glancing at the directions as needed? Or do you read all the directions before you get started? I bet you do option 1. 

• Provide a feedback area for customers to recommend new features or indicate problems with the app/site. Keep in mind many users use these tools when they are frustrated. Prepare yourself for many criticisms. But give customers a way to easily communicate about their experience. Often, that alone will save a customer relationship because the customer feels heard. They feel that you care because you are providing an easy way to listen to their problems.

• When support is needed, allow a customer multiple ways to contact you for support. Phone, email, chat. It has to be easy. Let them reach you as they like. And don’t force them to use FAQs. If a customer is frustrated and can't find the right FAQ or support item to solve their problem, let them call you. In fact, encourage it!

• Encourage self-service, but don't make it the only option. Again, customers like to solve their own problems, but at times, they need a little more than that. They need someone who knows something in the support or service team. Make sure that it is easy to reach a human in your company.

• Use support calls to provide insight into what’s broken and how to fix it. Support calls tell you everything you need to know about what's wrong with your product. If a user doesn't understand how to get a feature to work - even after reading online support materials - that means the item is broken. Very broken. And you need to fix it. This will save you money in your support budget and improve performance - and usage - of your product.

• When a customer is a proud owner of a product - be proactive, reach out, and see how you can help them. Find a way to contact your customer to see how he likes your product. Or doesn't like it. Or has a usability question. Or can't get started. Often, if a customer doesn't readily understand how to use something or it doesn't work easily for him, he'll leave it alone and stop using the product. Yes - they drop being a customer without a word. Give them a chance to ask their question by reaching out to them.

• Get your customers involved in your development process. Create an advisory board. Sure, you can encourage customers to submit feedback on your site or app. Or you can include them in the process by listing features they would like to see. Or you can invite them to be a member of a panel that provides product advice and feedback. Include power customers on your board. Or include new customers who have had the product for less than a year. Whatever your criteria, include these customers in usability testing and focus groups and get their one-on-one feedback on product ideas or other product issues. Include them in the process and you have sealed a strong relationship with these customers. You demonstrate that you care and listen about what they need. You are investing in their life being better. That goes far!

Part 5 will address Post-Purchase - support, payments, and other logistical goodies!

Customer Feels Secure and Confident During the Journey Part 2

How can you reduce risk and build trust through the process so customers feel confident in their decisions? Let’s look at the customer lifecycle.

 

Journeys have a start and finish, more like a process, but I see anything related to the customer experience as being a lifecycle and circular. If a customer purchases again (I believe the claim is 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers), he'll experience a similar journey as he did the first time. He'll be making similar decisions, probably be more informed about his problem and potential solutions the second time around, but he would experience a similar process.

Additional benefits of a lifecycle:

• There is no real start or end to a relationship (often endings are less endings and more "until another time" unless something disastrous happens)
• And if you do decide to end it, you can exit at any time (sure, you can do this in a journey, but that's not the expectation and there are roadblocks setup)
• You can always jump into the cycle in the middle (not optimal, but possible - and definitely not the expectation of the journey)

Sometimes marketers and businesses forget that most customers "live" in the product and post-purchase experiences. People don't just buy things, use them once, and walk away. They buy something, use it, have questions, want improvements, a refill or replacement part, repairs, etc. There is more to a sale than leading to purchase. If anything, the purchase is the shortest part of the journey. 

A customer or prospect isn't buying a product - he is buying a life change. He is making something in his life easier for himself. 

When we create and market products, we often forget that frustration with a product or service can happen at any time. If someone is frustrated with a company, he will exit the relationship - even if he owns the product. He will return the product or stop using it. Or if it is a refillable product, he may start the process again with competitors because they may have a cheaper refillable.

Owning a product isn't a win for a company and it isn't a guarantee that the person will like it and recommend it to others. They could say the product wasn't helpful, didn't fill a need or solved the wrong problem. This needs to be considered throughout the customer relationship. Building a relationship with customers is about building trust. One way to build trust is to help customers feel secure and confident during the lifecycle about every action they take. 

So how do we help customers feel secure and confident during the journey? There are 4 steps based on the journey. This post will cover Step 1; subsequent posts will cover Steps 2-4.

 

Step1 - Pre-purchase: Customers Determine What They Want and Need / Companies Sell Their Vision of the Product

(note - I'm using customer here rather than prospect, which is technically accurate. I'm using it to support the concept of the customer lifecycle. Hope that helps!)

What are customers doing in this part of the cycle?

• Defining their problem and formulate needs 
• Understanding what a solution is and how it works

Customers may come to you with a defined problem. More often customers aren't aware that they have a problem. You may need to point out to them that they need what you are selling to solve that problem. Or, more commonly, you are making a customer aware of a problem that they didn't know they had. 

Either way, in this scenario, customers are doing 3 tasks:

• understanding what their problem is
• understanding what your solution is
• understanding how your solution helps them

What are companies looking to do during this phase?

The goal of this step of the process is to start a real conversation with the buyer.

The activity:

• Sell an idea - convince prospects that they have a problem and the company offers a way to solve it

Sure, these customers may have a legitimate problem that needs to be solved. But if this problem already exists, either they:

• already work around it and make a solution work
• aren't aware that the problem even exists and haven't thought of it yet
• or don't have a need to fix it.

They need to see why they need to fix it with your product.

How do you help your users/prospects feel comfortable here?

At this stage, customers are looking to explore the product and information by themselves and have minimum interaction with anyone. It’s about self-learning, and at this point someone prefers to read content, use tools and selectors. And if people do have interaction, it’s through chat and/or phone and the conversation isn't about a sale; the conversation is about learning and exploring.

They are exploring new ideas, how this new approach (product) could change their lives, and discovering if this new way of doing something suits them. They want to understand it better. No commitments. Not ready to be serious. It’s about thoughts, ideas. If the person likes what he hears, he may need some insight as to what to do next. 

I think most people who work in product forget that most people don’t sit down and make a requirements list for what they need and go buy that. That’s something that people who create products do.

How do most people buy products - even those in business?

• Most people hear about a new product that has a great solution and decide to investigate
• They have a problem that they know could be handled a better way and search for a solution - improve cost or reduce time
• They have a homemade solution that they want an improved solution for - something that costs less to maintain
• They stumble upon a product at a store or on TV or a publication

It's a fairly organic process. Lists and the like happen after someone identifies a need for a product - and then the investigation and comparison begins.

What you can include in your experience to make someone feel comfortable at this phase of the lifecycle?

It's about building trust - and to build trust, you need to build rapport and understanding. You have to speak truth and show authenticity to help your customer. 

 

Help your customer identify what he needs - and clarify the problems you are solving:

Because customers don't think about requirements; they think about how the process is feeling. They want to stop feeling frustrated. They want to have an easier solution to what they are doing today. Alternatively, they may not even know they are having a problem - they may need someone to define it for them.

• Tools and questionnaires help the customer define the problems he has. Ask him a few questions and provide him with a recommended solution. Include guides and questions to help him determine what he is ultimately looking to buy and help him define his problem. 

• Provide customer and 3rd party reviews.  Describe other people’s problems are and how they were solved. Highlight others' experiences with the product - how did they interact with it, what did they learn about it and themselves, how did they realize that they really needed the product?

• Find ways to show how the product will help - be concrete. Examples of how the product provides value in a video would work best. Show customer emotional reaction.

• Create collateral that will help someone understand the problem that they may have - and how they may solve it. If you are defining a new problem, describe to the user what it is and what will happen if it is not addressed. Provide diagrams. Provide explanations. Show long-term benefits of using the product.

 

Help your prospect think differently about his problem and solution:

• Be aspirational - spark a need for change through blog posts, videos, and infographics by showing him the possibility of a different life. You'll need to paint a picture of what this future could be. Describe how life could be simpler, easier, more efficient if the problem were solved. And when describing what life could be like, make sure to address how the person feels with the problem solved - relieved, relaxed, rejuvenated. What could someone do with the saved time and money? Help someone imagine how the experience of that problem being solved would be.

• Focus collateral (brochures, videos, podcasts) on achievable benefits and demonstrate how the benefits contribute to a better life - long term. Sometimes people need to see a vision of what their life can be before they choose to change. Show them the business benefits, the social benefits, the emotional benefits. They see to see and feel a vision of what could be their own life. 

• Encourage customers to share their before and after stories - including how they felt before with their problem and after the product solved their problem. Often, customer stories and case studies are used later in the lifecycle, but customer stories are so successful because they help paint an aspirational picture of what life could be like. What was the customer's experience before the product? How did they feel? How did customers feel after getting your product/service? What was their life like? Was it easier? Was it simpler? Let them share the story. People love stories. It helps them see another way of looking at the world.

 

Additionally, there is the relationship with the customer to build to get their confidence and trust. You need to get to know your prospect.

Build rapport. The goal is to start a conversation with a prospect, but to get there, you need to develop a relationship - a type of acquaintance or friendship. Before you do this online, think about how you do this today, offline. How do you start a conversation? What types of topics resonate with people? What topics do they want to talk about? What do you say that gets them excited, wanting to talk more? How do you get more information about what they need from them?

Getting to know your prospect and customer is more than determining their problem and selling a product to them. You can communicate with them through gifts, gestures, words. Some ideas:

• Promotional offers. Offer this person something you think they would like. Get away from stereotypes based on personas and customer profiles and select something your prospect or customer would like to have. Ask some customers who are friendly to you what they would like. Think about your customer's values and needs. How do they see the world?

• Reach out with social media. Engage and interact with your audience from informative posts to fun posts. Be human! People aren't on social media for education only. They are there to connect to other people in some way. The more social, fun posts will tend to do better than the informative posts - but don't think they don't look at them. They do. Use social media to influence thinking.

• Light connection in forums and online chat. Engage in anonymous conversation. I think anonymous conversation can be underrated and if often misunderstood. We focus too much sometimes in the early stages of getting someone's name and number. Does that information really matter? Or does it matter that someone talks to you regularly in some way? 

• In-person events. Meet your customers where they go at a store, in a mall, door-to-door, through independent sales people. Go where your customers and prospects are and spend time with them. Show them you care to find them and start a conversation with them. 

 

Become a resource for knowledge in your area - show value you provide

Sure, your company offers value in the product it sells. However, is there other value it offers in what it's making and selling? Is there advice you could offer for free?

Trust is a huge factor when people decide to purchase. And for people to trust you, you have to prove you are reliable, helpful, have something to offer. Become a resource that they can count on for good advice. 

How do you do that?

• Provide tips to help the customer today. Show that you are available for advice and consultation. This builds trust - why would this person steer me wrong? And giving it away for free shows that you want to help them and you care enough to help.

• Publish in journals for credibility. Blogs are great, but they don't have the credibility as a publication. Publications force you to research your topic, include references, validate your thoughts and ideas. A blog is purely an opinion piece unless there is material to back it up. It doesn't hold the same cache. Publications are pushing out your piece as part of their brand. You are helping them look credible as well as they help you look good.

• Speaking engagements. When you are invited to be a speaker at an event, you are representing not just yourself, but them. Being invited to be a speaker gives you credibility like a publication does - someone else likes your ideas and finds you to be credible. 

• Provide knowledge freely to others. I'm not suggesting to give away trade secrets, but share your knowledge. Today, knowledge is like currency. Share it with others and they will share with you. This sharing builds trust and allows you to demonstrate what you have to offer someone. Sharing knoweledge freely demonstrates your credibility (although it may feel like you are giving something away for free).

 

I launched my new course!

The course has been launched in Beta.

There are a couple of areas where it needs improvement:

• Better quality film footage. I need to buy a camera (I thought the Apple Retina Cam would be good enough...I guess not.).
• More material. Mainly, I need to add more examples and to expand the narrative - a great problem to have!

So more is coming soon.

If you are interested in checking it out, take a peek. If you'd like to be a beta customer and give me feedback, contact me directly and I'll send you a coupon code.

But for now, here's the trailer:

 

 

What inspired me to create this course?

I often talk to start-ups and organizations that need assistance creating unforgettable experiences. I find that most companies can get baseline work complete without much specialized UX help. Today, I think most everyone has some great baseline knowledge of what works and what doesn't based on what we experience online.

But it's that day-in, day-out UX practice knowledge that can be used to bring a site and organization to the next level. That's why it can be important to hire a UX expert, even as a contractor. 

The obvious, and perceived cheaper, solution many organizations take to create great experiences is to copy competitor approaches - from functionality to content marketing. It always disturbs me that clients would want to do this, as if the competitor had all the answers.

I observed too many times that the competitor didn't have the right answer. Often, the competitor's solution was dependent on internal processes or system limitations. And it turned out being wrong. 

I know that without competition you wouldn't have an industry. You and your competitors contribute to defining baselines, best practices, and parity. Competitors and customers establish what's minimally expected. But you can't strive to exceed those expectations if you are only looking at what your competitors offer in your industry.

However, it is difficult to influence an organization to consider an approach divergent from what the competition does. An organization's leader needs to see an alternative vision before they can justify to themselves and their team that there is a better solution than what the industry is doing.

Generally, organizations need a different framework for viewing competitors and their solutions. I was hoping to achieve that with this class.

I created this course series by working on the competitor section first, until I realized I had a much larger story to share. I did some work on value and worth for a blog, and quickly realized that content belongs in this course too. As did material about identity and branding. As did material about customer research.  

I realized that I needed to use an analogy for people to think about experiences as dating to help describe what I'm talking and make my point clearer.

I wrote about the 9 characteristics of great customer experiences. I realized that work should be included too. 

With all of this, I ended up creating a 5 part course - a framework - to look at and evaluate experiences.

I'm hoping that product managers and UX designers use this as an approach for creating an unforgettable experience.

 

Why did I choose to use the word "unforgettable" rather than "memorable"?

I usually don't like to use the negative version of words - like "not," "un-," "mis-," etc. I prefer to use the word itself. I find those types of words easier for people to remember and have a greater impact in speech.

Sure, unforgettable and memorable are synonyms, but they are a little different.

"Unforgettable" reminds me of the Natalie Cole song. It has a romance to it. In some ways, I think it's a stronger word than memorable. "Unforgettable" implies that a thought or memory is constantly front of mind of someone.

And that's what I enjoy creating - experiences that stay in people's minds all the time. Experiences that people like and want to repeat. That's what unique experiences are. The thought of that experience bring you back to have them again.

 

So what's included in this course?

This course includes 5 sections, which outlines a framework to think about experiences:

To list the parts outside of the diagram:

• Part 1: The Basics
• Part 2: What you think you do
• Part 3: What your competitors think you do
• Part 4: What your prospects & customers think you do
• Part 5: How to use these perspectives to create an experience

 

What's in the course The Basics?

 As a list:

• What does it mean to be unforgettable
• Are we technically ready to do this?
• Commodity vs Relationship-based Experiences
• Customer Lifecycle/Experience Continuums
• 9 Characteristics of Great Experiences
• The science behind memorable experiences
• The Dating Story
• Wrap-up and next steps

 

More to come soon! Look forward to hearing feedback!

What's going on at CES?

A few years ago, the world wasn't into trade shows anymore and most people thought that apps were the future so who cares about devices? We had our phones. What else could happen?

I believe that innovations in software only come from innovations in hardware. And innovations in hardware come from innovations in software. They have a closely integrated relationship that drives the other to improve and accommodate "more" - more functionality, more computing power, smaller size, etc.

This is why I'm so excited about CES getting attention again!

Personally, I think we need an innovation in phone/tablet technology - touch is nice, but we need to take this one step up. I think it's time for voice commands and uber-apps. And smaller phones. I understand that buyers would like a larger phone to type easier and see more on a screen, but it's a phone - how do you fit a 5+" device in your pocket? Or carry it in your hand? 

My trainer at the fit camp I go to is a very tall man - 6'5". When he holds his iPhone 6 Plus it looks like he's holding a normal size phone. When my 5' friend holds her 6 Plus, it looks like she's holding a tablet. She loves her phone because it is bigger. However, there is a market out there that I belong to that wants a phone that's a phone. That group wants to hold the device and be able to type at the same time. I can't do that with a large phone.

I think we need smaller phones. Apple does too - they are coming out with one soon. I think the trend is going to turn soon back to smaller devices, especially with watches and wearables starting to get more attention.

Wearables is simply exciting - so many different ideas! Some are completely out there. The shoe technology can be interesting. Some is really for entertainment - like cameras and sensors in shoes for ESPN. But the 3D printed insoles are a dream for some! 

I can't wait to see how the market responds to these ideas!

I hope everyone is able to read about CES and enjoy the visionary products that are being presented! I'm happy that the world of technology got a reboot and we are seeing the relationship between hardware and software again.

And the winners of the EMERGE hackathon are...

Last night, I went to see the demos for the EMERGE wearables hackathon to see who won. I'm nosy like that.

I had a great time watching the various presentations and what everyone came up with in 2 days. Some individuals brought technologies with them to showcase. Although they were cool, that wasn't really in the spirit of a hackathon. But we all got to see some cool products in process.

There were 2 winners who had a hardware and software solution - one winner for the weekend, one winner to attend the EMERGE accelerator program, which starts today.

The winner for the weekend (Incident Track) was a father/son team who created a way for first responders to find people in a building (the judges strongly encouraged them to continue with that project. It was pretty cool!). They found a way to track individuals wearing a device and who indicate if assistance is needed. Basically, someone could be found if lost in a building.

The winner of getting a spot in the EMERGE accelerator program (Emergency Response System) were 3 guys who created a dashboard and monitoring device that tracked a first responder's temperature and other personal metrics, which allow a chief to know where his team was, how they were doing, if they were in trouble, or could go save someone nearby. It would help them manage and plan a rescue. It was a great demo/prototype! (And guys, if you need some initial UX advice on what a dashboard could look like - let me know!)

There were some other interesting projects as well...

• Pascalor was a wearable patch that would help a first responder to know at a rescue or disaster scene quickly if someone were a-ok, needing watch, needing emergency assistance, or dead (sometimes, you just don't know). Basically, it would leverage definitions for temperature, pulse, breathing rate and some other metrics to quickly determine the level of distress of someone. I could see how, over time as technology improved, this patch could be wireless and disposable. For now, it would be wired. Unfortunately, it was pretty much built before the hackathon. But it's a great concept!

• Go Compass was a compass device that could be worn and wouldn't be a feature on a cell phone. It could work without phone signal and be programmable. Pretty interesting!

• First was a dashboard/software product that would aggregate various feeds from other sensors and systems. It was an interesting concept and business model, but there was no demo for it, which was unfortunate. However, there was screen mockup which was intriguing. 

• Breeze had 2 parts to their presentation - one was a device that would use water as a filter to breathe cool air. It was also developed before the hackathon. Breeze developed a concept where a drone could respond to a victim in water, providing a floatation device and serve as a beacon to get help. That was interesting! I wish I saw that in action.

I enjoyed watching the demos the most (actually, I wanted the individuals to get thru the business/value props to see what they created). It has been a long time since I was around individuals who created tangible things. I think that last time I was around anything like this was when I was at MIT. They would have the 6.270 robotics competition or robot wars and such. My friends were always tinkering creating devices or designing chips. Creation was about real things.

I ended up in the non-tangible after I decided to be a writing major and later an English major at another school. After that, I entered the world of software, and then the Internet (talk about being in the world of not tangible!). I haven't been around anyone making anything tangible in a long long time. It was a refreshing experience!

(Even at HP, I was sheltered in the world of marketing and didn't get to see actual product being developed.)

I wish everyone who participated the best in their pursuits. I look forward to the next hardware hackathon - either I'll participate or at least swing by to watch the demos and see the creations.

Great job, everyone! Love the innovation!!

 

Expanding wearables beyond the iWatch, EMERGE, and a hackathon this weekend

Wearable technology will have a huge impact in our lives. The concept of wearables allows the common perception of technology to emerge from communication and entertainment purposes to more practical and beneficial uses.

 

I’m not talking about the iWatch. Although cool and very James Bond/007, that is still technology with mainly communication/entertainment uses. It's a luxury item. 

 

I like writing about technology that adds value to our lives. I have admitted in the past that I'm not a fan of wearables - but that's because I prefer to see technology that improves our life (not a gadget to possess and make your friends jealous). I love home technologies for that reason. And I'd love to read more about wearables that are helping us do more in the world - like explore the ocean or space.

 

A few weeks ago, I met with Molly Cain and Clarisa Lindenmeyer at Tech Wildcatters to get their insights about the myths that women hear that prevent them from starting companies. One topic that came up was women in STEM. They told me that wearable technology may attract more interest from women and shared a story about this team of I believe 17 women who worked on a suit that kept track of temperature and a number of other factors to keep someone safe (I believe it was for first responders or possibly space - I need to re-read my notes). (More on this in a future article in the series I'm writing in InPowerWomen.com when I get to the section about STEM.)

 

Tech Wildcatters started a new accelerator focused on wearables, EMERGE, which is a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology.

 

This weekend, EMERGE is sponsoring a hackathon to encourage ideas for wearables for first responders. (I probably should have gotten this out earlier in the week, but better late than never, right?)

 

This should be an exciting weekend to see what people come up with! I almost want to crash at the end of the weekend to hear the ideas.

 

Two immediate ideas I would contribute to a group if I were to attend the hackathon:

• A suit made of a fabric could protect him from extreme heat (and light enough so it wouldn’t hold him or her down while doing his job and adapt to changing temperatures)
• Sensors that would let him see where people were - if under rubble or hidden during a fire (something in glasses maybe? or contact lenses?)

I could tell you how to use these items, but I’m not sure I could tell you how to start creating them. But this is why hackathons exist - technologists in different disciplines come together to collaborate and create something new. 

 

When I consider wearables beyond that iWatch/entertainmnet/communication use, I have a few other ideas. And again, technology uses beyond communication and entertainment excite me because technology should make our day-to-day life simpler, safer, and better.

 

Technology shouldn't be just a curiosity to one-up friends. It should benefit our lives in some way. 

 

Transportation

• Build a virtual dashboard in a motorcycle helmet that someone could use voice commands to manage. It could show a 360 view of what's around the driver and possibly let him know of traffic that is a little too close for comfort and a threat.

 

Medical

• Imagine putting on a medical gown and it scanned your body for symptoms before the doctor arrived to examine you? Talk about making the process easy.
• Or wearing glasses that could refactor anyone's vision to 20/15 immediately after a quick eye scan?
• Prosthetics that could help someone experience touch in a missing limb. I’m not sure how this would link to the brain, but it could have sensors that mirror feeling. (This may exist today…I would need to confirm)

Fitness

• Exercise clothes that regulate your body temperature (great for hot or cold climates) and prevent sweat in the cold so you don't get hypothermia. This is for more extreme sports, but could be amazingly useful for fitness and other uses (like first responders).
• Shoes that track the steps you take. Rather than the fitbit tracking what you do with movement (and if you speak with hand gestures, you can be in trouble and “walk" much further), track where you step - in your feet. Imagine fitness shoes coming with a tracking device to track your movements and strength? I'd sometimes like to know how much force I use when I work out.

 

Fashion (more convenience and less life or death use):

• Heaset/earrings combo. I'd love this! I wear earrings almost every day. It would make life easier if I could touch my earrings and accept a call. So convenient! This could extend to necklaces as well to be like the LG headset. (And yes, this kinda puts me in the curiosity camp...I think...)

 

What are your ideas for wearables and how they could change our perception of technology and have a simpler, safer, easier life?

 

And if you attend the hackathon (first prize is $25,000 and automatic entry into EMERGE), I look forward to reading about your creation!