A customer asked for a £7.50 gift voucher but was told it would take up to 20 minutes on the phone and that they were 'really busy' The company then offered him 10 pounds in cash instead, which he accepted. He said: 'I don't want to gift out because I can't buy anything from your shop for five pounds... It should be more than that' If you do go back to those first principles, doing the common sense approach, it's going to get you a really long way, says Mr Scary.
After starting his career on a market stall in Essex, John Sills has spent the last twenty-five years working to make the world a better place for customers. John is the Managing Partner at the customer-led growth company The Foundation, and his writing has also been featured in publications such as The Guardian and Management Today. He joins the show to discuss his thought-provoking and timely new book The Human Experience: How to make life better for your customers and create a more successful organization. Important Links:
Show Notes:
- John’s time working on an Essex market stall
- Human vs functional customer experience
- What’s blocking the human experience?
- Why do leaders stay away from the frontline?
- Escaping Vogonization
- Does the human experience scale?
- The benefits of starting from first principles
- Why companies should empower their staff
- The link between curiosity, creativity & customer experience
- Why aren’t companies changing & why aren’t more startups disrupting?
- Are frictionless customer experiences desirable?
- The myth of customer loyalty
- Tech upgrades & immersion
- MUCH more!
Books Mentioned:
- The Human Experience: How to make life better for your customers and create a more successful organization; by John Sills
- The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
- The Customer Copernicus: How to be Customer-Led; by Charlie Dawson
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams