The Intuitive Customer - Improve Your Customer Experience To Gain Growth

Have you ever come across the Abilene Paradox? It's when everyone agrees to do something that no one really wants to do. 

Jerry B. Harvey coined "The Abilene Paradox" based on a family incident. They ended up driving 50 miles each way across the scorching Texas desert to Abilene for dinner, even though none of them wanted to go. They all thought everyone else wanted to go, so they reluctantly agreed. Politeness led them to a hot, dusty adventure that none of them enjoyed.

This reminded me of a recent experience. I had plans with friends, but as the weekend neared, I wasn't up for it. I decided to bow out and texted the group. Surprisingly, many others in the group thanked me for speaking up because they didn't want to go either. It made me wonder who initiated the plan in the first place.

In work settings, I recall something similar. I remember being in meetings where the boss suggested something not so great. Nobody spoke up because, well, the boss is the boss. Challenging the boss could make someone look foolish, so everyone went along. This conformity can lead organizations down a problematic path.

So, what can you do to avoid the Road to Abilene? 

This episode explores how to avoid such situations in your organization. The good news is there are effective ways to manage it, with strong leadership and a robust communication process being crucial. 

In this episode, you will also learn:

• The various reasons we find ourselves in such situations that often involve avoiding conflict, fearing consequences, or having poor communication systems within the team.

• How to encourage open communication and foster an environment where team members feel safe expressing their opinions without fear of backlash. 

• What the benefits are of constructive dissent, where leadership encourages team members to voice differing opinions and ideas, leading to better decisions and avoiding the pitfalls of silent conformity.

• Which essential leadership skills matter most here, and why there is value in listening to diverse perspectives

• The specific strategies organizations can use to avoid falling into the Abilene Paradox trap, ensuring that decisions and plans are based on genuine agreement and understanding.

A hidden impact exists regarding your experience management return on investment (ROI). It is often overlooked because it lurks between a specific moment in a customer process and the behavior resulting from it. However, uncovering and understanding this hidden impact is critical for comprehending its implications on the bottom line.

Emily Davidson wanted to know how to determine the value of her Customer Experience initiatives, a challenge many in the field face. So, she asked us—and we were glad to tell her. What Emily needs is the insight provided by our Emotional Signature research. 

The Emotional Signature was developed years ago in collaboration with the London Business School. It resulted from millions of questions posed to thousands of business professionals across hundreds of countries, leading to the identification of the Emotional Signature®.

The Emotional Signature gauges how experiences make individuals feel and how those emotions correlate with the value assigned to the experience. For instance, an experience infused with friction and frustration might yield an Emotional Signature that disappoints customers, resulting in undesirable behavioral outcomes. Conversely, positive emotional connections can enhance outcomes.

Emotions drive customer behavior, influencing actions beyond what survey responses might indicate. A case in point is how Disney Theme Parks discerned that guests, when surveyed, requested salads, but their behavior demonstrated a preference for junk food. This discrepancy showcases the nuanced nature of customer desires and the importance of understanding the specific feelings driving behavior.

In this episode, we explain to Emily and our other listeners how the Emotional Signature Research provides a data-driven approach to understanding the intricate relationship between emotions, customer behavior, and organizational values. While optional for those already convinced of the emotional impact on customer behavior, it is a powerful tool for skeptics requiring tangible evidence before investing resources in experience improvements.

In this episode, you will discover the following:

• The key to measuring emotional impacts on ROI is how organizations often don’t even know when you ask them and how you can figure it out for your organization. 

• The twenty emotions, ranging from joy to frustration, that drive or destroy value for organizations. 

• Why granularity about customer emotions is crucial, and why the ubiquitous oversimplification of emotions as positive or negative won’t work. 

• A  basic explanation of Structural Equation Modeling, a widely accessible statistical technique, and who to assign it to on your team (hint: it’s the one who is best with numbers).

• How sorting through what customers say they want but don’t drive value and what customers don’t say they want but do is crucial for making informed decisions that impact the bottom line positively.

Have you ever noticed that spending cash is harder than using a credit card? You are not imagining things. Different payment methods carry varying degrees of discomfort when used. 

Cash tends to have the most painful impact, followed by checks. Credit cards offer a lesser discomfort than cash or checks. With advancements in payment technologies like contactless cards or smartphone transactions, the potential exists for these methods to generate even less discomfort than traditional credit cards. 

So, how can businesses leverage these insights into payment methods to assist customers in handling their emotional response to spending?

To put it simply, the answers lie in Mental Accounting and Reframing.

Mental Accounting plays a pivotal role in how customers navigate their emotions regarding spending. It serves to alleviate guilt and elevate happiness in spending scenarios. Thus, it's crucial to consider mental accounting within the broader context of managing customers' emotional experiences.

In this episode, we explore where your customers are emotionally relative to the purchases they make and how guiding them to an improved mental accounting from your business perspective is essential. It turns out that messages that acknowledge and address customers' emotional responses to spending can be a powerful strategy in enhancing their overall satisfaction and engagement during transactions.

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 04:09  Ryan explains how money can be spent on anything, however the biases we create using mental accounting help us manage our emotions regarding our spending. 

• 07:20  Colin associates a podcast with Joe Pine regarding how customers value their time in experiences differently depending on the type of timed transaction it is.   

• 17:43  We discuss the importance of understanding what mental accounting your customers are using and working with that to help them feel more satisfaction with their purchase.

• 21:08  We explore how financing in the mix can change the spending experience for customers.  

• 28:09  We share the key takeaways from Mental Accounting and how you can leverage it to improve your experiences with customers.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years. 

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

Exploring ethics is challenging. Given its abstract nature, it is a tough subject for learning and discussion. 

That said, we never falter in the face of a challenge.  We developed five principles of professional ethics we believe are vital to revisit periodically.

Are they rigid guidelines? Do they offer absolute answers? Are they timeless? 

Not quite. 

Ethics evolve over time, and what's acceptable today might not be so in the future. Nevertheless, ethics, much like any skill, can be nurtured, honed, and enhanced. 

It's intriguing to note the limited emphasis organizations place on ethics training. Perhaps there's an antiquated belief that either you possess ethics inherently, or you don't. It's possible that some organizations subscribe to the notion of, "If your parents didn't instill it, we won't either."

In this episode, we unpack the five rules of professional ethics. These five principles serve as a compass, aiding in constructing a framework for achieving the best outcomes and comprehending the path taken, ensuring it can be replicated successfully.

Here are some key moments in the discussion:

• 05:41  We start with the first rule about setting your own personal boundaries, and whether or not it’s okay to kill your boss.

• 10:05  After introducing the second rule, which gets deeper into the influence of context, we learn where Ryan gets demonstrations for his lessons on ethics (spoiler alert: It’s Netflix).

• 20:51  The third rule talks about regulating the environment, whether that’s changing the culture or walking away from it.

• 25:04  We go against what we usually say about intuition and encourage you to trust your gut…but only this time!

• 28:24  We announce the last rule, which is a warning that nothing is perfect; finding the best solution is the best you can do in some situations and accepting that is essential.

Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years.

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

Practicality is essential. Great ideas you can’t do anything with in the real world are a waste of time. 

Bob Black, one of our avid podcast listeners, likes our concepts about eliciting particular customer emotions. But he doesn’t know how to do that in practical steps. So, this episode gives them to him. 

Bob isn’t alone. Numerous organizations struggle with eliciting specific emotions in their customers. While most acknowledge the significance of customer emotions in shaping experiences, many falter when asked about the particular emotions they aim to evoke. Often, organizations gravitate towards vague terms like "positive" or "favorable." These are not emotions; they are adjectives that describe emotions. 

So, the first practical step in evoking a specific emotion is pretty simple: One must have a specific emotion in mind to evoke it. 

In this episode, we dive deeper into the step-by-step process of evoking specific customer emotions. We also discuss how training, AI technology, and tried and true low-tech mystery shopping can help, too. 

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 04:24  We hear about Bob Black’s pickle regarding the practicalities of applying the concept of evoking specific emotions, which many organizations share.

• 08:28  Colin discusses his work in emotions at the beginning of his adventures into Customer Experience, including identifying the 20 emotions that drive and destroy value.

• 13:23  We share one of the biggest obstacles to success in evoking customer emotions—and it probably isn’t what you think.  

• 19:37  The discussion turns to context and why it is essential when looking for clues into customer behavior. 

• 25:15  Colin shares his biggest sales tool, which is low tech and accessible to any organization: having the experience as if you were a customer.

• 29:42 We point out the more advanced practical steps of evoking emotions, starting with an assessment of processes.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years. 

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.

Have you ever heard the following?

Then, Bob’s your uncle.

It’s the difference between chalk and cheese.

On your bike, then.

If you haven’t and you don’t live in the UK, Colin wouldn’t be surprised. They are British idioms and when he employ these expressions with his American pals, they usually don’t know he is talking about. However, his friends and family on the other side of the pond do. 

It demonstrates the importance of the words you use to communicate and how easy it is to miscommunicate or not communicate at all. Language holds a pivotal role in shaping your customer experience.

Our interest in the significance of language ignited recently when we received a None of Us Are as Clever as All of Us video from Shane Smith (ssmith@everetics.com) at Everetics, a consultancy specializing in customer support and service. Smith emphasized the crucial role of language, highlighting how words carry weight beyond what our conscious mind perceives. Being mindful of employing positive language instead of negative words can remarkably enhance the customer experience without any cost.

In my tenure as a global Customer Experience Consultant, we've trained many employees on the impact of language choices. Raising awareness about how we convey messages significantly influences customers' perspectives.

Smith pinpointed innocuous phrases used in interactions, such as "No problem" or "I don't disagree." While the phrases convey positivity—indicating there's no issue or that there is agreement with the other person—the inclusion of words like "problem" and "disagree" introduces negativity subconsciously, perhaps making the listener feel defensive. Defensiveness is not a positive interaction with a brand, even at a subconscious level.

It's akin to framing; how you package information alters its perception. Similarly, how you phrase prices or present choices can influence customers' decisions. So, why be casual about the language employed in customer communication?

In this episode, we explore the topic of language choices and how you can employ them in your experience also. 

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 03:21 Colin quizzes Ryan on a few British idioms, and Ryan does okay considering he’s from Ohio.

• 07:07  We lead into the video submitted by Shane Smith regarding the importance of choosing your words carefully in customer interactions.

• 11:46 We give our first thoughts about Smith’s ideas, and agree that neither of us thinks scripts are a great idea for customer interactions.

• 16:17  Colin shares a story about how Apple uses language brilliantly with their training on “Feel, Felt, Found” when talking to customers. 

• 22:20 Ryan gets philosophical, summarizing an argument about the effects of language that has been going on for a long, long time. 

• 25:19 We share how you can also submit a video to the podcast with our None of Us Are as Clever as All of Us feature.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years. 

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.

This has been created in partnership with YouGov.

Our listeners will enjoy $ 500 off their first survey from YouGov. Click here.

Customer research has some big problems. You might think the big problem with customer research is not asking the right questions. But it isn’t. 

Then, surely it’s asking the wrong people the wrong way, right? But that’s not it either. 

The biggest mistake people make in customer research is not doing it often enough. 

Let me explain. Frequently, clients hand me their most recent customer research—and it’s from seven years ago. Seven years constitutes a significant timeframe in the realm of customer markets. 

Consider the preceding seven years and the transformative impact they had on the world:

• We grappled with a nearly two-year-long pandemic that brought the world to a standstill and dealt a severe blow to businesses. 

• This global crisis spurred an unprecedented acceleration in the digital transformation of analog experiences, reshaping how people communicate, work, and shop.

• Our return to the new normal revealed double-digit inflation across various consumer goods, significantly disrupting spending habits.

 When grocery bills rival what individuals used to allocate for car payments, and car payments align with previous spending on mortgages, the available disposable income diminishes. Consequently, people's responses to survey questions may change a bit.

In this episode, we explore the problems of customer research, how to avoid them, and a powerful new tool that can help you unlock customer insights like you have been doing it all your career. 

In addition, you will also learn:

• Which restaurants survey respondents think Colin and Ryan are more likely to frequent based on their pictures

• A must-have three-step system for developing customer surveys and the new platform that makes it accessible for anyone to get started

• How many murders it takes to be a mass murderer, and how many chainsaws Ryan has in his garage even though he is not a lumberjack (or a murderer or any sort)

• How surveys showed that nearly two-thirds of customers don’t realize the influences that drive their behavior as customers

• What you should do to improve the customer insights you ascertain from your customer research efforts

Hosts:

Colin Shaw, Founder & CEO Beyond Philosophy

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as a ‘Top Voice’ and as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 283,000 followers and 82,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’.

Professor Ryan Hamilton, Emory University 

Ryan is an award-winning teacher and researcher in the field of consumer psychology. 

Guests: 

Brian Reitz

Contact: brian.reitz@yougov.com

This has been created in partnership with YouGov.

Resources and Links Mentioned:

• Beyond Philosophy Website
• YouGov Website

We want to hear from you. Simply record a video with your thoughts, ideas, reactions, lists, or whatever else you have to offer, and we might discuss it on the podcast.  It’s called None of Us Are As Clever As All Of Us. To learn more, click here. 

Justin Stafford (justin@customersmarts.co), founder of a Customer Smarts shared how sports can teach us how to improve your Customer Experience. 

Justin's metaphor holds true in various scenarios. In sports, not every player on the field has an equal chance of scoring, but for the team to succeed, they must collaborate seamlessly.

Similarly, in many organizations, sales teams often occupy the flashiest roles. They wield significant influence due to their role in closing deals. However, just as in sports, the flashy players, like the quarterback in American Football, rely on their team, especially the offensive line, to execute their tasks effectively. Ignoring their support can hinder their performance—and leave them picking turf the out of their helmets.

Justin's sports analogy remains relevant here. While sales teams may clinch deals, departments such as finance, IT, and operations need to align with the sales strategy. Ultimately, all departments should work together to enhance customer value.

As a devoted season ticket holder at Luton Town Football Club, I'm thrilled to share that they have earned a promotion to the English Premier League, where they compete against well-known teams like Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, and Manchester City. I've noticed parallels between the dynamics in football and Justin's insights from AFL.

In football, forwards often command higher salaries compared to other positions, such as the left back. The left back's role mainly involves defensive work and may not be as glamorous. In contrast, center forwards often receive double the pay compared to other players on the team.

In this episode, we explore the concept introduced by Justin. Plus, we share our thoughts on the concept, including whether Colin really knows anything about the AFL.  

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 02:03  We explain our new feature, None of Us is as Clever as All of Us and how you can be a part of it. 

• 04:48  Justin shares his thoughts about how sports teams and their game-winning strategy is a good analogy for an organization that wants to pursue customer centricity in their experiences.

• 13:28  We refer to a past podcast about how departments like Finance affect the experience, and why it is essential to have everybody working together for a common goal.

• 21:56  Colin explains some interesting details about Luton Town Football Club’s field, which might surprise you, particularly if you are in the ladies’ room during halftime.

• 24:17 We both share what we liked best about Justin’s metaphor about the AFL and Customer Experiences.

Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years. 

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

Per Statista, the amount of e-commerce losses to online payment fraud in 2022 since 2020 is $41 billion. If you think that is bad, get this: it’s supposed to rise to $48 billion by the end of this year. 

But wait, there’s more. Messente, a dedicated business messaging platform, notes the surge in package delivery scams. TransUnion's published a study that unveiled a staggering 1500% spike in shipping fraud between 2019 and 2021, likely spurred by the flourishing ecommerce landscape and the surge in digital solutions post-pandemic. What’s more, a 2023 study highlighted that nearly half of all fraudulent emails and texts revolved around package delivery. 

Clearly, fraud is on the rise and that means organizations have to protect themselves. So, two-factor authentication, text confirmations, codes, and retinal scans (not really) should be part of every transaction then, right?

Not so fast. Customers don’t like getting hassled during their purchases with extra steps or queries that question whether they are who they say they are. Some might get annoyed enough to create some significant abandonment issues in your e-commerce channel.

So, how do you balance the need to prevent fraudulent activity in your interactions with customers and the need to provide and easy and excellent customer experience? In this episode, managing partner and CEO of Messente Uku Tomikas joins us to explain.

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 05:07 Tomikas explains that the next big thing in fraud is using AI for it; marking perhaps the first use of AI in customer experiences that Colin isn’t enthusiastic about.

• 07:07 We begin our discussion about how to be diligent about fraud and security while still providing an easy and excellent customer experience.

• 13:00 Tomikas explains how organizations are handling this balancing act currently and how their efforts can unwittingly make it easier for fraud to occur.  

• 21:03 We talk about the particulars of how AI can get into the mix with these tricks and personalize the fraud attempts. 

• 27:17  We share the practical advice we have for organizations to deal with this threat without driving customers around the bend with security hurdles. 

This has been created in partnership with Messente.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years. 

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

Picture this: Your customers, like individuals, operate on habitual inclinations. So, if they habitually favor a competitor’s product or service, how does one instigate change? Here, we present seven potent ways to turn the tide.

But before diving into these transformative strategies, let's peer into the psychological underpinnings of habits. They possess distinct characteristics:

• A cue within our environment kickstarts the habitual response. 

• This cue triggers an automatic reaction stemming from ingrained memories. 

• The reward at the end reinforces the habit loop, solidifying its existence.

The crux lies in our Intuitive System. This part of our brain swiftly recognizes this cycle and transforms it into an automatic routine.

Colin’s Intuitive System has influenced his habits enormously as a customer. In the realm of modern convenience, Colin’s shopping mantra revolves around a singular hub: Amazon. Be it the fleeting wish for something or a dire need, Amazon stands as his go-to, an ingrained habit so sturdy that breaking it seems an arduous feat for anyone.

However, daunting doesn't equate to impossible. In today's episode, we delve into the art of habit transformation, uncovering seven strategic pathways to overhaul routines and maximize returns on investments.

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 04:10  Ryan explains the habit cycle, and what each point of it has to do with our brain’s way of processing information. 

• 09:24  We discuss the importance of recognizing these cycles in customers behavior and how that translates into your strategy for changing it with our first two rules. 

• 18:31 We explain how to craft a winning strategy for changing customer behavior (spoiler alert: it involves making it easy and rewarding for the customer).  

• 24:17  The discussion turns to how you can help things get easier and feel more rewarding by educating and reinforcing your desired customer behavior with rules 5 and 6. 

• 31:49 Colin reviews and summarizes the seven rules and how they can help. 

Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years. 

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and time for one of our favorite traditions: looking back on what we learned.  Each of us has three things we learned in the past year that we think can help all of us moving forward into 2024.

Reflection is a key part of the growth process. That’s why we are excited to continue our tradition of reflecting on the past year and what we learned during it. 

Moreover, it's essential to take note if no changes have occurred. A lack of progress signals a need for reassessment.

Sometimes what we learned was personal, but it has implications for the business world. For example, you may have heard Colin share about his wife, Lorraine, and her back surgery this year—a major undertaking that necessitated extensive physical therapy during recovery. 

Lorraine has diligently worked through it, making gradual changes that have cumulatively resulted in significant progress. Pre-surgery, everyday activities like walking or solo grocery shopping were challenging for her. Now, she can accomplish these tasks without enduring constant pain.

The transformation wasn't immediate. Initially, Lorraine relearned walking using two sticks, then transitioned to just one stick, and now, she confidently walks without any sticks at all.

The same principle of gradual improvement through diligent effort holds true for Customer Experiences. Achieving a customer-centric organization isn't an overnight switch. It evolves over time, with incremental enhancements fostering a culture and experience centered around customers.

In this episode, we look back at what we learned in 2023 and how it can help us in 2024. As it turns out, we are smarter than we were last year, and we hope after this episode you will be, too. 

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 03:36   Ryan kicks off the lessons learned by explaining how hard work and luck led to his new book deal—for the second book he pitched this year. 

• 06:14  Colin shares his first lesson about how he sees organizations about to make the same mistakes they did 25 years ago with the Web, but this time with AI.

• 09:20  Ryan talks about how even he, an introvert that doesn’t like people, needs other people in his community to have his back.

• 12:47  Colin tells the story about how he remembered that most people are trying to do the right thing, even if sometimes it feels like the opposite is true. 

• 14:57 Ryan shares that by stepping up and taking on a new challenge he took a step back to realize how much he enjoys this part of his job.

• 17:20  Colin talks about how his wife’s recovery from surgery taught him that small changes can make big change happen, if you are patient and keep doing the work. 

Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years. 

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

This year has undeniably been dominated by the rise of AI, bringing both positive and negative outcomes. We host Alex Mead, Global Customer Service Experience Director of Alvarez & Marsal (alexmead@sky.com), to discuss this crucial topic and its implications for experiences. 

Mead envisions that AI will significantly reduce customer effort in their experiences. He anticipates a future where customers can simply ask, "Where's my order from two days ago?" and that's all it takes for AI to swiftly provide the desired information.

In this scenario, Mead highlights two crucial aspects. First, AI will grasp natural language interfaces, a concept that has been evolving for at least the past three years. This means we can communicate with AI as if we're conversing with a human, whether through speech or text. Second, AI will promptly authenticate the speaker and retrieve the requested information, cross-referencing it against various data points and platforms in under a second.

Some of you might be thinking, "Don't we already do this with devices like Alexa?" You certainly do, and it works seamlessly. 

However, Mead emphasizes that the significance lies in the widespread adoption of this capability. While organizations like Amazon have already implemented it, the prediction is that many more organizations will follow suit in the coming years.

Furthermore, Mead envisions AI going beyond information retrieval. AI will also discern or intuit whether the provided information places the customer on a path of contentment or dissatisfaction. 

In this episode, we hear what Mead thinks about AI and the pathways for its utility in experiences in the short and long term. We also talk about what all this functionality of the AI of tomorrow means to you in managing your experiences today.

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 04:11 Mead kicks off the discussion about AI with his predictions for the short term, meaning the next one to five years, and it might surprise you to hear how easy it will be for customers.

• 11:51 We discuss examples of how future AI-enabled CXs will have more proactivity than they do today.

• 16:38  We learn about the Customer Service Experience and why it is essential to understand what it is and when it occurs for today’s organizations.

• 21:44  Mead explains how to implement an AI strategy for the organization that is cohesive and drives the goals of your entire company rather than one siloed department.  

• 31:57  We all share the key takeaways we have from the discussion and how organizations should use this information today. 

Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years. 

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.

The Future of Customer Research Teams: Innovating for Success in 2024 and Beyond

AI's enthralling me these days, and it seems the world's caught in the same spell. One realm set for a profound AI makeover is customer market research—a topic worth diving into since it's likely on many of your radars too. Exciting or nerve-wracking—depends on which way you look at it.

Qualtrics recent article, "AI Will Revolutionize the Market Research Industry" suggested a couple of thought-provoking stats I thought I would share:

• Threat or Boon? 83% of researchers view AI as an opportunity, with only 7% seeing it as a threat. 

• Job impacts? 26% believe AI will birth more market research roles, 35% anticipate a reduction, while 39% reckon it won't budge the job landscape.

Clearly, the consensus leans toward AI significantly boosting the market research scene, yet there's no majority stance on its implications for customer insight or market research job stability.

Historically, technologies swept through industries like a forceful wave, sometimes obliterating old norms while birthing new frontiers. Should the AI tide wash over market research, it might erode traditional roles while seeding a fresh bloom in the industry. The upshot? Jobs will morph—both in nature and in the entities they serve.

So, where's the compass pointing for customer insights? Alyona Medelyan, CEO of Thematic  (alyona@getthematic.com) in Auckland, New Zealand submitted a video for our None of Us Are as Clever as All of Us program, shares her thoughts.

In this episode, we discuss Medelyan’s video and how the AI winds are steering us into uncharted waters, with the market research ship set for a profound voyage. 

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 02:50 Colin shares the stats from Qualtrics regarding the future of AI and customer insights and market research.   

• 07:53 We roll the video from Medelyan, and talk about our first reactions. 

• 13:37  Colin gets into one of the problems he sees with customer insight teams in the larger organization and what that does to the information shared.  

• 16:57 Ryan explains the how AI is excellent in creating categories, and demonstrates his SAT-level mastery of fancy-sounding academic words. 

• 19:24  We get into the opportunities this affords us regarding preparing for the transformation AI promises to the area and making the most of it for your organization.

Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years. 

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

During a recent discussion with a valued client, I uncovered an interesting revelation. While they were delighted with their repeat business, which they attributed to customer loyalty, a closer look at the repeat business statistics painted a different picture. What I observed wasn't a steadfast commitment from their customers; rather, it appeared to be inertia. 

This prompted my realization that these customers might easily switch to a competitor if a tempting offer came along.

Now, you might be wondering, aren't loyal customers the ones who keep coming back for more? They certainly are, but not all repeat business is a result of loyalty. In some cases, it's due to inertia, and distinguishing between the two is what we'll delve into today.

First, let's establish clear definitions for customer loyalty and inertia. Loyal customers intentionally choose your product or service because they have a genuine emotional connection with your brand. They can articulate why they prefer your offering. In contrast, inertia is about automatic and habitual purchasing. It's a decision made almost unconsciously, and individuals might struggle to explain why they chose your product.

Reflect for a moment on the people in your life to whom you feel truly loyal. Typically, you'd think of family and close friends. These are relationships rooted in deep emotional connections. Surprisingly, it's these very emotions that underlie brand loyalty.

For many organizations, measuring loyalty can be challenging, but they often track repeat business. The issue arises when they treat other types of repeat buying – the inertial and the habitual – the same way they view loyalty, failing to distinguish between them.

In this episode, we talk about how to make this distinction. This approach separates loyal customers from those who buy out of habit or inertia. We also talk about how to develop strategies that nurture genuine customer loyalty.

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 02:03  We discover how Colin decided to cover this topic from his recent client meeting. 

• 05:29  Ryan shares his mini framework that he teaches his grad students, the three groups of repeat business motivations.

• 10:19  Colin shares how he discovered that he wasn’t really as loyal to Delta Airlines as he thought he was.      

• 18:28  We share our list of telltale signs that you have customer loyalty. 

• 23:24  We discuss how extrinsic and intrinsic motivation is different and it affects customer behavior. 

• 26:51 We share our final thoughts about this topic and what you should take away from the conversation.

Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years. 

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.

Unleashing the Power of AI vs. Human Touch: Which Delivers a Superior Customer Experience?

I often say, "None of us are as clever as all of us." However, sayings are more useful when they can spur action. So, we have a proposition for you:

If you have something you want to say about experiences or technology, statistics, or reports, feel free to share them via video. To learn more, click here.

To that end, Tom Martin, CEO at Glance, has submitted one about AI. 

Tom makes an excellent point. As we develop AI into our systems, we will need to determine what AI will replace, what it will augment, and what it will add.

AI presents opportunities to shift some routine tasks from human employees to virtual ones. However, shifting of tasks should mean reducing head count. Instead, AI should be a way to help employees pay more attention to the needs of customers. 

Moreover, we should be realistic about the power of AI. It isn’t magic; it can’t solve all our problems. What it can do is be a powerful tool that we can leverage and develop over time. 

We have been here before, too. I had a system that was going to be the best thing that ever happened to my organization 20 years ago. That was the fantasy. The reality was quite different.

And let’s not forget the internet. It took years for it to be what it is today. AI will likely follow a similar path. 

In this episode we explore the points made by Tom in his video along with our take on AI and Customer Experiences. Perhaps most importantly, we implore organizations to remember that AI doesn’t replace your employees; it enhances what they can do for customers. 

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 04:28  We listen to Tom’s video and why he thinks leading with humans creates a better AI strategy. 

• 09:48  Both Ryan and Colin share their thoughts about AI and the next frontier of business, including Colin’s frustrations with the phrase, “high call volumes at the moment.”

• 18:10  Colin shares a story about a new system implementation program that didn’t live up to his hopes and dreams for it 20 years ago, and how that applies to organization implementation with AI.      

• 20:23  Ryan explains the Hype Cycle and how it applies to the implementation and adoption of AI. 

• 26:50  We both share out thoughts about the future of AI in organization and what you should take away from the discussion.

Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

About Colin Shaw

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has over 294,000 followers and 78,000 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter ‘Why Customers Buy’. The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for four years. 

Colin is a renown keynote speaker and undertakes consultancy work and educational workshops to help organizations improve their Customer Experience. 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.

My client is disappointed with their results. Their experience improvement efforts have been successful, but not as wildly successful as they had hoped. 

When my client shared this with me on a recent call, I was neither surprised nor perplexed about what was going on with them. Getting the whole organization to embrace the customer requires more than most organizations think. 

You see, when you start an improvement program, you want some quick wins. So, you address the most obvious areas first, fixing problems and enhancing interactions by defining how you want customers to feel about you when it’s over. These elementary steps are necessary, important to prioritize, and, to many companies’ chagrins, just the beginning of the process. 

Every department in the organization plays a role in the Customer Experience. However, not every department realizes it. Some of them think their insular role inside operations puts a big barrier between them and how the customer feels about the organizations. But it doesn’t; in fact, that barrier doesn’t exist. 

In this episode we explore the steps you take to get these internal departments to look past the non-existent barrier they think is there and understand how what they do affects the experience. We explain how you can then leverage their buy in to get to the outstanding results that you expected but are still waiting to realize.

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 06:33  Colin explains what he plans to do to address this problem, starting with first step, which might surprise you in its simplicity.
• 09:07  We explain the many ways that Human Resources plays a significant role in the Customer Experience and embracing customer-centricity. 
• 13:21  Ryan explains that first-ordered thinking might be getting in the way of your efforts to help other departments see the effects of their actions on the experience and what you can do about it.     
• 18:40  We discuss the ways that finance is essential to the experience, and, spoiler alert, it has to do with $$$$.
• 23:33  Colin makes a point that Legal, which definitively needs to protect the company, also needs to be customer centric and how they can be without getting disbarred. 
• 26:31  We share the last example of how IT has become one of the most essential parts of the experience, especially when you consider the importance of managing the organization’s online presence and technology integrations.

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Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

Follow Colin on LinkedIn HERE.

Regret is a powerful emotion. One might not think it has a place in a marketer’s messaging toolbox. However, you might be surprised to learn that in addition to being a powerful emotion, it can also be a powerful tool.

The reason we regret things depends on the situation. We can regret a purchase we made. We can regret a purchase we didn’t, too. What we regret and how we respond to it requires understanding how regret happens. 

Inside each of our minds, we have three selves. There is the Actual Self, the one we are despite any notions we might have. There is also the Ought Self. This self is the one with obligations and responsibilities. Then, there is the Ideal Self, which is who we want to be. Regret is often a conflict between the Actual Self and one of the other two. 

What we regret and who we blame has a lot to do with comparisons between these selves internally. Also, these comparisons might differ depending upon the customer segment to which the individual belongs. Therefore, to use regret as a marketing tool, it is essential to understand what comparison your customers are making and to what standard or value they hold.  

In this episode, we explain the psychology of regret, how it drives our future behavior, and what to do about it if it happens to your customers after buying your product or service. We also discuss how you can use it to create improved experiences with no regrets for your customers. 

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 01:49  Colin explains how he was once a Sony Superfan and how it led to one of the purchases he regrets nearly every day. 
• 03:49   Ryan explains how Colin’s perception of self plays a role in his purchase regret regarding the television by explaining the different selves we each have.
• 10:23  We get into the idea that how much regret we feel has a lot to do with how much control we think we had regarding the decisions made.      
• 14:53  We discuss the impact of regret in customer experience settings and start a discussion about how an organization could respond.
• 19:04  Ryan explains that people regret different things in the short term vs. the long term. 
• 25:46  We both share our final thoughts on the key takeaways a marketer should have about how to leverage regret in their messaging.

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Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

Follow Colin on LinkedIn HERE.

It’s pickle time again here on the podcast. This time John has a pickle with his new business. He wants to know some ways that he can get other people to help him sell his products and services. We knew several ways, eight in fact, and they might help you, too. 

One thing to consider when you listen to this list is how each of the tactics gets you what you want. In some cases, you might discover that our suggestion doesn’t. Or at least it doesn’t get you what you want right now. Later, once you have worked your way down the “to-dos” with your marketing and sales, one of the ones that didn’t work then would now.

For example, with Beyond Philosophy, Colin didn’t like the first tactic, Affiliated Marketing. He felt that by getting into a relationship where he was contractually bound to suggest a specific company might compromise his integrity to his clients. So, Colin has carefully avoided that one. 

However, that might not be the same for your business vertical or philosophy. It’s these goals for the communication or tactic that should drive these decisions for which ways work best for your business.

In this episode, we help John with his business pickle—and some of you, too—with our eight suggestions for what you can do to get other people to sell for you. 

Are you “in a pickle” at your firm, too? Tells us about here and we might feature your pickle on an episode of the podcast. 

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 06:09  We share the first tactic, Affiliated Marketing, which allows you to recruit others to present and close your product on your behalf. 
• 10:03  The second tactic, Referral Programs, is another way you can leverage the relationships you have to make new ones. 
• 17:48  We discuss Joint Ventures, including some that worked well and some that didn’t.
• 21:07  We encourage John to sponsor a sports stadium, or at least a local soccer team, because sponsorships are a great way to build awareness.
• 26:09  Ryan and Colin share final thoughts about how John’s new business can use these tactics to get other entities selling for him.

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Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

Follow Colin on LinkedIn HERE.

Colin sometimes struggles with a glass-half-empty disposition. He blames it on being born British. He felt it keenly when gathering the following 14 statistics for this episode. There are a mix of game-changing opportunities, including missed ones, and some acute risks facing organizations next year. 

Ryan is American, a population Colin characterizes with as a glass-half-full disposition. He hopes by sharing these numbers gathered from reputable sources, that his American cohost might view these numbers with a bit more positivity. 

Will Colin be disappointed? Maybe, maybe not. 

For example, one statistic says by applying certain principles, organizations can expect 85 percent increase in sales growth and more than 25 percent in gross margins. It sounds great because it is. 

However, another statistic shows that only 30 percent of organizations have improved their experiences enough to satisfy customers over the last ten-plus years, and it’s getting worse not better. It does not sound great because it isn’t. 

This episode explores 14 statistics from reputable sources that present some compelling numbers regarding the whole Customer Experience movement—and what can happen if you ignore it or focus your efforts on less impactful components. From opportunities to risk, don’t miss out on this episode before you start planning your next year. 

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 05:31  We get into the first statistic from Gallup and how it can really sell the experience program to the revenue-oriented and a second from them about the emotional nature of deciding.
• 11:53  Colin shares his statistic from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) regarding how 70 percent of organizations remained flat or decreased customer satisfaction and that the index is at its lowest point since 2006.
• 19:14  We discuss the merits of growing existing customers versus recruiting new ones, but that 44% percent of companies still focus on customer acquisition, even though the probability of selling to an existing is 60 percent.  
• 23:06  Colin shares a statistic from Emplify that explains why customers will pay a higher price to buy from you. 
• 27:52  We discuss the last stat from Zendesk which explains how quickly you can lose a customer and what these stats revealed about Customer Experiences.

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Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

Follow Colin on LinkedIn HERE.

When a Stanford professor brings snacks to class, it’s fun. But you can bet it’s also an experiment, and he’s probably testing how people make choices for today and for todays that will come in the future. It turns out, that timing matters a lot when it comes to the decisions we make. 

The professor we are referring to is Professor Itamar Simonson, marketing professor at Stanford University and his research surrounding customer decision-making. He learned that students who chose their snack at each class tended to choose the same one. However, students that chose a snack on one day for three future classes tended to have more variety. 

Why the difference? It turns out that people like to make the same decisions over and over, especially about things like what to eat for a snack or dinner. But we are much more optimistic about how much our future selves will want something different. 

What about new choices? People do make them, particularly when they are for the future, but most times we are content to make the same choice over and over again. 

In this episode, we discuss why we are like this, why we sometimes think we won’t be like this someday, when we are better person, and why you should understand how to accommodate this customer behavior in your experience. 

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 02:22  Ryan shares the example from Professor Simonson and how people chose differently when it is for that day of class or for future classes. 
• 08:12  Colin brings up the famous marshmallow test that researchers did by convincing children not to eat a marshmallow right away so they could get two; few kids made it, though. 
• 14:42  We discuss how when it comes to things like breakfast or food in general, we tend to make the same choices, but other times we don’t, but usually for the future, when a better version of ourselves exists.     
• 22:08  Ryan shares what can happen if people continue to make choices to buy things they don’t use and how it can backfire on your experience.   
• 25:40 We share practical advice about what you can do with this information to provide the proper experience for the future selves your customers want to be and the actual selves they are today.

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Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

Follow Colin on LinkedIn HERE.