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 re...
Mar 09, 2024•29 min
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 gl...
Mar 02, 2024•34 min
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. ...
Feb 24, 2024•32 min
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, hon...
Feb 17, 2024•37 min
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 f...
Feb 10, 2024•34 min
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 o...
Feb 03, 2024•27 min
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 mo...
Jan 27, 2024•36 min
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 c...
Jan 20, 2024•30 min
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 sur...
Jan 13, 2024•37 min
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...
Jan 06, 2024•34 min
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 fo...
Dec 30, 2023•25 min
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 sw...
Dec 23, 2023•38 min
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 th...
Dec 16, 2023•26 min
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...
Dec 09, 2023•33 min
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...
Dec 02, 2023•31 min
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, f...
Nov 25, 2023•33 min
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 S...
Nov 18, 2023•30 min
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 h...
Nov 11, 2023•29 min
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...
Nov 04, 2023•31 min
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 ea...
Oct 28, 2023•29 min
Poor Irene Beard. She is in a pickle, and she needs our help. A strong believer in brand, Beard is starting a new company and asked us for help getting people to take away what she wants them to about her company’s brand. Beard’s question brings up some interesting concepts regarding brands, their origins, their evolution, and their existence for organizations today. Before we get into any of that, it is essential to remember that your brand is a tactic. It communicates the value you provide cus...
Oct 21, 2023•35 min
So, you think the sale is in the bag. The customer signed the paperwork and everything. However, when you log in the next day to email, there is a cancellation. You think, what happened? People change their minds all the time for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes, it is about something they ordered or bought; sometimes, it is about paint color or springing for the upgrades. Why they change their mind has a lot of influences, and understanding how a customer’s mind works can help you manage t...
Oct 14, 2023•29 min
For many of us, planning can be an area of opportunity. We underestimate how much time something will take and how much time we will have available for something, particularly regarding project completion. However, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky explained why we do this, and we will tell you what we can do about it. Kahneman and Tversky call this phenomenon the Planning Fallacy. Our optimism about our future selves and the abilities and resources available causes it. For this reason, it rarely...
Oct 07, 2023•32 min
Sometimes it’s a “processing” fee. Sometimes it’s called an “admin” fee. We have even seen it labeled “convenience fee,” a refreshingly candid explanation for it. However, they are always additional fees, and if you have them in your pricing, they might have terrible implications for your customer experience. However, they might not. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of scientific evidence that points to a definite negative effect on additional fees for a customer experience. For my part, it leav...
Sep 30, 2023•32 min
We can be grumpy about the restaurant experience. This self-awareness is key, especially when we realize that our behavior closely resembles the behavior of two grouchy Muppets heckling Kermit and Fozzie from the balcony. However, it’s easy to see that every business can learn from restaurants that bungle these moments of the experience. We are aware this episode is a grumpy rant. Moreover, not everyone will agree with the things that we think restaurants do wrong. What drives us mad could be th...
Sep 23, 2023•27 min
A podcast listener is in a pickle! Catherine wants to establish that her firm is known for low prices. However, she wants their reputation to avoid seeming cheap or low quality. Cheap and low quality is brand promise few firms want to make. However, many brands want to have a reputation for low prices and high quality. Unfortunately, this brand promise is challenging to get right. Most customers don’t believe such a thing is possible. However, it is possible. Amazon got their start with a reputa...
Sep 16, 2023•30 min
Is your data ready? Is your team ready? Are you ready? Being ready is critical to the successful implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve your customer experience. The next competitive battleground for organizations will be predictive experiences, or experiences that anticipate customers’ needs. The ability to make these predictions is AI-driven. However, to do so accurately requires data, lots of quality data. Herein lies the rub for many organizations. Their data house is full...
Sep 09, 2023•40 min
We are very judgmental, particularly when it comes to prices. We can always tell whether something is a good or bad deal. The fact that some of the ways we do this are not as accurate as others doesn’t even occur to us. Knowing that customers have different ways they evaluate your pricing that are sometimes inaccurate shouldn’t upset you, though. It’s a bonus to realize it. Once you understand how people judge your pricing, you can use strategy to present it better and maximize your pricing to g...
Sep 02, 2023•41 min
It stinks to wait around for something as a customer. Whether it’s in a waiting room or a hot sweaty line at a theme park, none of us are usually very excited about waiting around for something. However, it’s a fact of life that customers have accepted over time. It also stinks to know that your experience makes customers wait sometimes. You probably would rather that your customers didn’t have to wait around and could get down to business spending money with your organization. However, despite ...
Aug 26, 2023•32 min
Waiting around for a customer experience is rarely a good thing. When customers are waiting for you, that’s usually a sign that not waiting would have been difficult or inconvenient (read: expensive) for your company. However, not valuing customers’ time is probably the most expensive mistake you can make. Then, of course, there are the times when the waiting is part of the experience. For example, the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland has several rooms you pass through before you get to the ride tha...
Aug 19, 2023•30 min
