Jim Boulden: We've allowed our standards to fall. And the major one of that is ambition. All of the companies I've studied that do this well, they do it because they really care and they really want to do it. They're not accepting what I was trying to have people on half an hour on a phone. The other point I just wanted to loop around with that is so it's not just the human on the front line, it's notjust the digital,. It does have to be the organization, it does have to start with how you design your experience.
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