John Sills, Managing Partner at The Foundation, discusses making life better for customers and creating a more 'human' organization. He debunks myths in decision-making, emphasizes the dangers of loyalty assumptions and feedback surveys, and highlights the financial and reputational costs of a bad customer experience. He shares the five enablers and seven behaviors for improving the human experience, emphasizes the importance of personalized email outreach, and explores the need for adult-to-adult relationships and human connection in organizations.
Companies need to prioritize understanding what truly matters to their customers and delivering useful, personal, and empathetic experiences.
Successful organizations share key elements of ambition, connection, empowerment, focus, and perspective.
Personalized and humanized communication is crucial in business interactions to capture attention and elicit positive responses.
Deep dives
The Foundation: Helping Organizations Grow through Customer-Centric Approach
The Foundation is an independent consultancy that helps organizations grow by putting customers at the heart of their strategies. Through immersing in what matters to customers, they work with companies of all sizes to create sustainable growth. By spending time with customers and understanding their needs, The Foundation aims to bridge the gap between CEOs and customers. They believe that customer loyalty is not based on loyalty programs, but rather on organizations being genuinely useful to customers.
The Impact of Technology on the Human Experience
The podcast episode explores the impact of automation and technology on the human experience. While technology is beneficial when used correctly, the focus on functional efficiency and cost-cutting has compromised the human element. The myths of customer loyalty, customer feedback, and return on investment are discussed, highlighting the dangers of overlooking the authentic human connection. Organizations need to prioritize understanding what truly matters to their customers and delivering experiences that are useful, personal, and empathetic, rather than relying solely on automated systems.
Enablers for Creating a Human Experience
The podcast episode introduces five enablers that facilitate the creation of a human experience. Ambition, connection, empowerment, focus, and perspective are identified as key elements shared by successful organizations. These enablers allow companies to maintain strong connections with customers, understand their needs, and deliver genuine value. By focusing on moments that matter and taking a broad perspective, organizations can create a human-centered experience that resonates with customers and fosters loyalty.
The importance of personalized and humanized communication
In this podcast episode, the speaker emphasizes the significance of personalized and humanized communication in business interactions. They discuss the negative impact of generic and impersonal messages that flood email inboxes and spam folders. The speaker provides examples of ineffective emails that lack personalization and relevance to the recipient. They argue that personalized messages, tailored to the recipient's specific needs or interests, are more likely to capture attention and elicit a positive response. The importance of moving away from automated personalization and towards genuine human interactions is highlighted.
The behaviors that contribute to a human experience
The podcast episode also explores the seven behaviors that customers desire in organizations to foster a human experience. These behaviors include being accessible, consistent, flexible, proactive, respectful, responsible, and straightforward. The speaker gives examples illustrating the positive and negative impact of these behaviors. They stress the importance of being accessible to customers and avoiding obstacles or inconveniences in communication. The idea of adult-to-adult relationships, where customers also exhibit respectful behavior towards organizations, is discussed as a key element for a successful human experience.
