The Intuitive Customer - Helping You Improve Your Customer Experience To Gain Growth

We all love to keep what is ours. As soon as we have possession of something, it becomes part of our “endowment,” a fancy word for “our stuff.” Psychologists call this the Endowment Effect, and it explains how we value things that we have, even if we got them for free. However, we also hate losing our stuff, even more that we enjoy getting new stuff. Psychologists call this Loss Aversion, and it is the overall concept that explains why your free trial might help increase your sales. Some people would rather pay for something they used to get for free than lose access to it.  In this episode, we answer a question from one of our listeners, Mohammed, who wanted to know how to convince his team to implement a free trial to increase sales. We shared our theories about why it might work and what we recommend.  Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience There are practical considerations that accompany implementation of a free trial to optimize your success. We discuss a few of them in the podcast: 02:41  We share the problem, which is part of our “In a Pickle” feature of the podcast where we address listeners problems with practical applications of the behavioral sciences.     04:48  We explain the Endowment Effect and how it relates to Loss Aversion.     08:10  Colin shares an example of how a return policy can make or break a “free-trial” experience.     14:01. We talk about how you can use the successes with a free trial to outweigh some of the costs of having one.     15:10  We talk about the concept of follow-on sales where bringing on new customers presents an opportunity to sell them additional goods and services.   18:41  Ryan talks about Reference Points and how it can be difficult to get some people to pay for something they used to get for free unless you make it clear that is the arrangement from the start. 22:01  We summarize our suggestions for Mohammed to convince his team to implement a free trial in his company to increase sales.    Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.  Customer Experience Information & Resources LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter. Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers.  Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more.  How can we help? Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

Sometimes customers don’t come back. The two biggest reasons that customers do not come back are apathy and rudeness. With either behavior on your side of the experience, you will lose customers' business. So how do you get them to say, “I’ll be back?”  Our guest Shep Hyken, author, speaker, and thought leader for the Customer Experience movement joins us to answer that question with material from his new book, I'll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again. In this episode, we discuss some of the concepts he shares in the book, including a six-step process you can use to create an I’ll-Be-Back experience for your customers.   Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience Hyken's goal with the book is to give practical tips to create better than satisfactory relationships. One of Hyken's main messages in all his work is that organizations should be better than average consistently and predictably. When you are better, customers come back.  The core message here is you have to look at those things through the customers' eyes. But, also, every individual in the company should ask, "Is this right for the customer?" before they do anything. Here are a few key moments in the discussion: 02:44   Hyken shares the main idea behind his book, including its origin and how it became his latest passion project. 06:55   Hyken explains why “Fine” the f-bomb of Customer Experience is. 09:45   We learn an abbreviated version of the six-step process to creating an I’ll-Be-Back experience. 13:49   Ryan talks about how best practices can be reductive if too many firms use the same strategy.  17:59   We discuss the importance of meeting the needs of the customers and not confusing that wisdom with the tactics used to meet them. 21:54    Hyken shares a story about when an early delivery cause a big problem for one of his clients and how it could have been avoided.  26:33   Colin introduces the idea that you should be sure that your customers are returning because they feel loyalty, and not just because they haven’t bothered to make a change. If you want to learn more about the book, please visit Hyken.com.  Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.  Customer Experience Information & Resources LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter. Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers.  Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more.  How can we help? Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

You probably didn’t mean to do it. You were just trying to market the latest brand effort to your new and existing customer base. You were doing your job; getting the message out. Unfortunately, your marketing inadvertently damaged your customer focus.  However, marketing isn’t the only area to blame for the problem. How you segment customers also contributes to this damage, as well as how well you understand your customers’ expectations of you. It turns out that all of these areas contribute to the customer orientation of your organization. Having a handle on where you are for each of them is an excellent way to improve your customer focus.  In this episode, we explore the ways that we assess an organization’s customer centricity from the most unfocused on customers, or Naïve, to the most, which are Natural. We take a deeper dive into what we look at in three contributing areas, including Customer Strategy, Marketing, and Customer Expectations. Our hope is that you will be able to do it for organizations, too, starting with your own.  Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience These three areas are significant influences on how we assess an organizations customer centricity in various ways. For Customer Strategy, we see more nuance in the customer segmentation for the Natural companies. In Marketing, we consider how much communication there is throughout an organization so everyone that is in contact with customers is “in the know.” We also look at how often a company takes on customer research to detect changes in Customer Expectations. All of these assessments help us determine where a company is on their journey to putting the customer at the center of everything they do.  Here are a few key moments in the discussion: 05:07   Colin explains how Customer Segmentation demonstrates the customer focus of a company. 10:24  We introduce the idea that the Customer Experience strategy should permeate and be the dominant throughout each department’s functional strategies. 15:31  Colin introduces the Marketing area and how that shows where customers rank in the company’s focus.  20:07  We explain why and how market research is another indicator of customer-centricity.  22:24  Colin explains why managing Customer Expectations are indicative of customer-centricity. 29:04  We share why it is important to keep up customer research to stay on top of changes with Customer Expectations.   Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.  Customer Experience Information & Resources LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on Linkedin and Twitter. Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers.  Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more.  How can we help? Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

If you are like most companies, you probably think that you put the customer at the center of everything you do. But do you? There are some critical things that the most customer centric companies do differently than the average company. It requires a mindset that understands the essential nature of it and then a consistent approach to applying it in all the areas of the company, from how you recruit talent and empower employees to how you prioritize customers in your team meetings.  In this episode, we discuss how we categorize the customer centricity of organizations and use the areas of People and Culture and Leadership to determine it.  Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience There are four distinct types of organizations regarding customer-centricity, which we call our Naïve to Natural Model. There are Naïve organizations that do not or will not put customers first, Transactional ones that know they should do more but aren’t, Enlightened companies get the importance of it but are still working on putting them there, and Natural companies, well, they just do it.  We use nine areas to determine where an organization is on this model. Two of the most significant are People and Culture and Leadership. How you handle these areas and how they relate to customers indicate where you are on your Naïve to Natural journey.  Here are a few key moments in the discussion: 03:19 Colin defines what customer-centricity is for an organization. 05:07 We share the four types of organizations that we use to codify organizations for customer-centricity.  07:04 Colin explains how there are nine areas that affect an organization’s customer centricity, starting with people. 11:36 Colin shares a story about how he knew an organization was Transactional based on how much time they devoted to customer training in employee orientation.  23:27 We introduce another area of customer centricity, Culture and Leadership. 25:44 Colin explains how they once used a speed dating format to get senior managers back in touch with customers.  27:58 We share how the position of customer issues on the company’s team meeting agenda indicates how important they think it is.  Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.  Customer Experience Information & Resources LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter. Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers.    Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more.  How can we help? Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services. 07AQTjnAJQZqFoOfBsUz

No one ever sends out an email that they hope no one will read. Well, not on purpose, anyway. No one would go through the trouble of writing, editing, circulating, and then editing an email some more only to have readers skip it and click on another, more compelling email in the inbox. We write and send emails to get people to do something, starting with reading it.  In this episode we explore the ways that email marketers can increase response rates to their campaigns using the concepts from psychology and behavioral economics. By using the way humans respond to information as a guide, you can change the reaction your email creates in people, and get them to respond more.  Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience There are two main concepts that we focus on in this episode, Framing and Loss Aversion. Framing explains how the presentation of information is never neutral and how that affects people’s reaction to it. Loss Aversion explains that we react more intensely to losses than we do to gains. Using the combination of these two concepts, you might be surprised at how different the response rate to the same information in an email can be.  Here are a few key moments in the discussion: 04:16   Ryan presents an explanation for Framing and Loss Aversion, and how you can use them to persuade people to do something. 08:51  Ryan explains how there is also a Negativity Bias at play which suggests we prefer negative information over positive information. 10:08  We make an important distinction between presenting losses and being negative,  and how one does not necessarily lead to the other every time.  12:07   We describe how FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out, is a form of Loss Aversion that can be useful when writing email copy.  15:07   Colin shares a tool that he finds helpful for writing headlines that are compelling for content, which could be useful for email subject lines. 21:54   We explain why understanding your customers goals and motivations will help you create a message that gets their attention. 24:59  We share all the specific things you can do to make your emails more compelling and increase your response rates.  Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.  Customer Experience Information & Resources LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter. Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers.  Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more.  How can we help? Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

A lot of the behavioral sciences can feel intimidating. However, it doesn’t have to be. The Five Rules Podcast Series is our attempt at giving you an easy entry point into the complex and messy world of Behavioral Science. A couple of years ago, research from some well-respected firms came back with the conclusion that investing in Customer Experience is not paying off the way that organizations had hoped. One of the reasons that might be the case is because many people are investing in Customer Experience just because everyone else is and, as a result, are focused on the wrong things. So, to change that focus and prove that your efforts are paying off, we wanted to give you a formula for success.  In this episode, we explore the 5 Rules to Guarantee a Return on Investment. From making sure you understand how your experience drives value for people to thinking outside the box to measuring everything you do; we have the way for you to prove that your programs work. But, perhaps most importantly, we show that you, as the champion of them, are the person that can get your organization the results they want and the customer-driven growth they need. Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience We designed our five rules to help change your focus to what matters to customers to drive results for your bottom line. This process starts with Emotional Signature® research, which enables you to see what drives value for your organization and the hidden wants and needs that your customers really want but probably didn’t tell you. The 5 Rules to Guarantee a Return on Investment are as follows: Do your homework.  Think outside the square. Remember, costs are part of the formula. Have a Fail-Fast Mentality Measure everything. Here are some critical moments in the discussion: 03:37  Colin explains how doing your homework means digging deeper on what customers really want so you know what drives value for your customers in your experience. 08:30  We discuss how important it is to differentiate yourself from the competition by going beyond adopting industry best practices and looking ahead when planning your strategy in the marketplace rather than responding to change afterward. 14:16  Colin shares his no-miss strategy for ensuring that what you request in the budget will get approved (Hint: It involves getting the finance team on board). 18:31  We talk about how you have to try things and fail so you can learn what works and adjust the rest; it’s a “Ready, Fire, Aim!” approach to change. 21:46  Colin shares how when you can show your results, you also show that you are a person that makes decisions based on strategy and gets results on them. 24:05 We review and summarize all five rules as well as what you should do with them. Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.  Customer Experience Information & Resources LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on Linkedin and Twitter. Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers.  Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more.  How can we help? Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

We were excited to reach our 200th Episode of the podcast! In this episode, we look back on six of our favorite podcasts from these first 200 episodes and what the key learning was from each of them.  We want to thank our listeners for tuning in each week to hear our ramblings. We are proud of what we do, but it would be meaningless if it didn’t prove to be a useful resource for people. We hope that it is and that you will continue to join us on this journey as we explore the many facets of customer behavior and the tools that facilitate customer-driven growth.  Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience We identified the following episodes as our favorites from the past 200. Each of us chose three, and if you want to hear them in their entirety, simply click on the title:  Colin's Picks How Apple Uses Psychology To Construct An Outstanding ExperienceThe Massive Importance of Memory in a Customer's Experience What is Customer Science? Ryan's Picks: 5 Rules for Ensuring Behavioral Science Works for Your Business Are You Using This Valuable Marketing Tool for Growth? Is Facial Recognition Creepy, Or Is It Just the Future? Here are a few key moments in the discussion: 04:24. We explain a new segment of the show we are adding moving forward that will help people even more than in the past.  07:41 Ryan shares his take on the 5 Rules for Ensuring Behavioral Science Works for Your Business episode.  10:54. Colin explains how Apple does a great job with the behavioral sciences in their experience when he shares his first pick.  13:57. Ryan talks about another favorite, Are You Using This Valuable Marketing Tool for Growth?, and its relationship to the Availability Heuristic. 17:15. Colin talks about memories, one of his favorite topics, with his second pick, The Massive Importance of Memory in a Customer Experience. 20:36 Ryan explains why his next pick, Is Facial Recognition Creepy, or Just The Future?, is one of his most memorable podcasts. 25:25. Colin discusses the three parts of Customer Science and why the What is Customer Science? podcast is perhaps the most significant episode of the first 200.  Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.  Customer Experience Information & Resources LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on Linkedin and Twitter. Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers.  Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more.  How can we help? Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

It all started with Apple's Air Tags. As soon as I heard about them, I knew that they would be exceptional, and I had to have them.  But why? I had a drawerful of other manufacturer's products that did the same thing. What was so special about these? My answer is because these were from Apple, and the reason Apple is the answer is because of Halo Effects. Halo Effects affect people's impression of you and your experiences, and, in some cases, you don't have as much control over these halos as you might like.  This episode explains what Halo Effects are, how they influence customers, and what you should do about it moving forward.  Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience Halo Effects are a widespread psychological phenomenon that forms about people and things, and even whole industries. Halo Effects describe how when you create a general impression about an entity. Then, you use that impression to fill in missing information with data that aligns with that impression moving forward. As you can probably guess, these Halo Effects can be positive or negative, and they have a lot of influence on what your customers think of you.  Here are a few key moments in the discussion: 03:13  Ryan explains what a Halo Effect is and how it affects customers' perceptions. 07:17  We explain how attractiveness is an excellent example of how Halo Effects can work quickly and automatically. 09:53  Colin shares an example about buying a car, and we get into how impressions and Halo Effects work together and change over time. 11:48  Ryan talks about how the Halo Effect can fill in details that we don't have. 16:02  Colin explains why all parts of the experience influence the Halo Effect, even if they aren't part of the core service you provide. 18:08  Ryan explains the multiplier effects that can happen of reputations for brands and organizations, both good and bad.  25:37  We talk about how you can use your familiarity with the concept of Halo Effects to manage customers' impressions of your brand experience to a better outcome.  Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. Customer Experience Information & Resources LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter. Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers.  Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more.  How can we help? Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

When it comes to your bottom line, pricing your products and services is essential. Price it too low and you can’t keep the lights on. Price it to high and nobody will buy it—and you still can’t keep the lights on. So how do you increase your margin (and keep the lights on)? Make sure your pricing is correct! However, pricing correctly is more challenging than it may seem at first. Most companies assume that increasing your margin is a matter of marking up your costs enough that you can make a profit. But there is more to it than that. In some cases, companies don’t mark it up enough, and then they still don’t make a profit.  In this episode, we explore the psychology of pricing, the difference between pricing products vs. services, and what you can do to help your customers compare your pricing to your competition, and pick your offer over theirs. Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience If you get the price wrong, you go out of business. So, there is a lot at stake with pricing. However, there is a lot at stake for in these decisions for customers, too, and they usually have even less information than you do. In other words, pricing is tricky, especially for services, which are not easy for people to compare.  Here are a few key moments in the pricing discussion: 02:24   We begin the discussion about the difference between products and services, and the different challenges with pricing and comparing them. 09:15   Colin shares a story about how a low price can send the wrong signals, too. 12:05   Ryan explains how Reference Points can help customer evaluate intangible items.  14:46    Colin shares and example of what Anchoring can do for your pricing, and how to pay too much for things in some cases. 16:56    Ryan explains that in some cases people will use environmental cues to make decisions when pricing is difficult to assess.  22:12   We talk about the signals that the dollar amounts in your pricing send and how prepayment can affect customers’ perception of price. 27:24   We share our advice on how you can use what you have learned about the psychology of pricing to increase your margins and get your pricing correct. Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.  Customer Experience Information & Resources LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on Linkedin and Twitter. Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers.  Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more.  How can we help? Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

A lot of the behavioral sciences can feel intimidating. However, it doesn’t have to be. The Five Rules Podcast Series is our attempt at giving you an easy entry point into the complex and messy world of Behavioral Science. For three years running, Beyond Philosophy has been recognized by Financial Times as a leading management consultancy organization. While I would love to take credit for it myself, I realize that we could never have won without the excellent team we have here.  Our team-building strategy is deliberate and repeatable. I have used it to help organizations that hire us to improve their Customer Experiences to build their teams. In other words, we have a strategy for creating successful Customer Experience teams that we know works. In this episode, we share the five rules for building successful Customer Experience teams. We hope that they will help you make the team you need to deliver the experience that fosters the customer-driven growth you need.  Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience When it comes to building Customer Experience teams, there is no considerable difference between them and any other team. So, in many ways, you can consider these rules as applicable for any team-building project.  Here are some highlights of the discussion: 04:28 We share Rule #1, which is to hire strategic thinkers and practical doers, so once you know what to do, you can then carry it out. 10:01  With Rule #2, we suggest hiring a team with a high EQ or emotional intelligence so they can understand and manage the emotions of themselves and others. 12:53  We talk about how understanding all the departments of an organization is essential for the CX Team with Rule #3, which is to respect cross-silo knowledge. 17:24  When we talk about Rule #4, which is to find people who can deal with conflict but with integrity, we discuss the importance of handling conflict when you are on the CX team because everyone is happy about the project until you ask them to do something. 23:14   We share Rule #5 and employ people with natural communication skills, which is vital when explaining the concepts behind why you are making changes to people from all walks of life.  29:38   We summarize the rules and why we think they are essential. Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.  Customer Experience Information & Resources LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is the Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on Linkedin and Twitter. Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers.  Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more.  How can we help? Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.