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

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 reputation for low costs for high quality books. Over time, they built a brand known for service, delivery speed, and continuous improvement, which customers view as hallmarks of high quality. These examples are non-price influences that affect the price image.  For example, if you walk into a shop where they are serving complimentary espresso or champagne, you know that the prices are going to be high even before you see a price tag. By contrast, if you walk into a shop where everything is piled on a fold up table and supervised by a single, sullen employee scowling at their phone behind a makeshift counter, you know prices will be low. In this episode, we explore the ways Catherine can establish her firm’s reputation for low prices without seeming cheap or low quality. We also give you practical advice that will help you make the case to your customers that you are the best deal in town.  Here are some other key moments in the discussion: 03:26  We talk about brands that have done an effective job of establishing themselves as affordable and high-quality.  05:49  Ryan starts off the discussion of how to achieve this tricky feat by explaining all the influences that affect a customers’ perception of a company’s price image.  17:19  We talk about reference points and how they affect price evaluations.    22:22  The discussion turns to how communication of how you are doing this amazing thing of providing high-quality items at low prices so customers can accept it.  27:48  Ryan summarizes his advice in practical ways that Catherine, and you, can apply these strategies to overcome this pricing challenge. _________________________________________________________________ Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here. Connect with Colin on LinkedIn HERE. Follow Colin on Twitter HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  To learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services Click here.

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 of siloed data and isn’t ready for AI analysis. So, firms need to be sure that they address this challenge before devoting a ton of time and resources to the implementation.  However, there is another challenge, too. Many organizations might think they want to implement AI, because it’s so cool and people like to have the coolest, newest thing. But, in some cases, AI might not be the best fit. It isn’t magic; it has some things it does well and some that it doesn’t. Knowing what problems your organization has can help you decide whether AI can do the right things for you right now.  There’s a lot to consider before implementing AI in your customer experience. What ready means and how AI can improve customer experience are two areas that are not always well understood by organizations. Moreover, the size of the firm has little to do with the understanding; big companies are struggling the same way little ones are, albeit in different areas.   In this episode, we host The Agile Brand podcast host  Greg Kihlstrom, (www.gregkihlstrom.com) Principal Chief Strategies for GK5A, on this week’s episode to explain how organizations can get ready and what AI is positioned to provide organizations. Here are some other key moments in the discussion: 03:45  We ask Kihlstrom to explain some of the common issues he sees in the introduction of AI and technology.  09:25 Ryan lead Kihlstrom into talking about how organizations are faring with implementation, who is and isn’t having a great go at it, and where it is going in the future.  20:19  Kihlstrom explains how the most innovative companies are using AI to the extent it can provide proactive experiences.    25:49  Colin shares his worries that too many organizations will not use a unified approach in implementation. 35:25  We all share our advice about implementation and what organizations should do to make this work for them. _________________________________________________________________ Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here. Connect with Colin on LinkedIn HERE. Follow Colin on Twitter HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  To learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services Click here.

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 gain profit.  There are three basic ways that customers evaluate your prices. These have varying levels of simplicity and accuracy. The most accurate way is not the easiest, naturally, and vice versa. However, these three ways come together to deliver the good-deal-bad-deal message to your customers’ consciousness.  Some retailers are wise to these judgmental ways. They use customers’ natural propensity to compare pricing when communicating their offer, so it comes out on top against competitors. However, some choose a different tack, which doesn’t always make it easy to compare.  Still others spend their time building a reputation for low pricing while offering a few high-priced things alongside hoping that no one does the math. Since we don’t always do the math, it works.  In this episode, we explore the three ways that customers evaluate your pricing and why. We also talk about how you can present your prices in the best possible way to tip the scales away from bad deal to good.  Here are some other key moments in the discussion: 03:17  Ryan kicks off the discussion with a story about shopping for milk at Costco, and why he was wrong (and his wife was right) about the best deal for milk.   05:22  Colin shares one of his favorite YouTubers that covers things like pricing, and reveals some retailer tricks of which every consumer should be aware. 07:13  Ryan shares the three ways that people evaluate pricing, starting with internal reference pricing.   09:37  We discuss how external reference pricing also influences our pricing evaluations, and sometimes even across product categories. 11:53  Ryan explains the third category, which is price image, an evaluation we gravitate toward when we don’t have as much information. 19:32  We share the two dimensions that organizations should consider when they anticipate how customers will evaluate pricing. 22:06  We explain how price images form and how they influence our decision making. 34:19 We wrap up with some practical ways you can leverage this understanding to present your pricing in the best possible way to customers.  _________________________________________________________________ Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here. Connect with Colin on LinkedIn HERE. Follow Colin on Twitter HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  To learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services Click here.

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 your diligent efforts, you still have some time where customers are waiting around.  Instead of throwing your hands up in the air and accepting defeat, we have a few strategies that can help manage this bump in your experience’s road. Eight of them, in fact. Now, to be fair, our tips come from David Meister’s article, "The Psychology of Waiting Lines."  That said, this paper has excellent tips for you.  In this episode, we talk about Meister’s eight areas and how you can emulate other organizations that have made the waiting experience a little less painful for their customers. Here are some other key moments in the discussion: 02:37   We explain that sometimes customers have to wait, but it doesn’t have to be terrible while they do, thanks to the paper by Meister that defines what makes waiting so terrible. 03:31  Distraction is key and helps with the problem of making your customers feel like their time is occupied with more than just waiting around for you. 07:23  We use the examples of customer behavior on airplanes to explain the Meister’s concept about how people want to get started waiting, even if it is only to wait in a new position afterward.   10:49  We explain how Uber manages the third area, uncertain waits are longer than certain waits, well by letting you know the car is coming and when. 15:17. We talk about a related area of communication about waits pertaining to Meister’s area that unexplained waits feel longer than known waits and why kids don’t get it. 19:18. Unfair plays a big role in how waits feel; just ask anyone in a Disney line watching the fast pass ticket holders blow past them.  27:17 We end on the 8th area, which is that solo waits feel longer than group waits, because misery loves company, doesn’t it? _________________________________________________________________ Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here. Connect with Colin on LinkedIn HERE. Follow Colin on Twitter HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  To learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services Click here.

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 that set the mood and build anticipation of the adventure to come. When you skip it, you get to the ride faster, but you miss out on the building of the anticipation.  Part of what makes the Peter Pan wait more beneficial than your average waiting around situation for an experience is that it make the waiting more enjoyable. Many would also argue that the ride—and the park itself—provide value to customers who are waiting.  So, waiting isn’t always bad; like many things we discuss on the podcast, it depends. However, it does always reveal how internally focused you are and whether you place importance on the value of customers’ time. In this episode, we explore what it means about your focus when customers wait and how you can manage or enhance the waiting experience to engage and enhance customers’ time spent with you.  Here are some other key moments in the discussion: 02:59  After sharing some stories about waiting that made him feel cross, Colin explains that you need to value customers’ time in your experience. 10:33 We discuss how Disney manages wait time by offering Fast Track to reduce queue wait times, and signs in line that estimate how much longer you have to wait before the ride. 16:17  We talk about when waits are good for building anticipation; and how sometimes the wait is even better than the experience.  24:21 Ryan explains that his kids are excited about some changes to Minecraft that are coming that they had to wait for; and what they were waiting for might surprise you. 26:59  We suspend the conversation, and explain that listeners will have to wait to hear about the rest of the topic on next week’s episode. (See what we did there?) _________________________________________________________________ Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here. Connect with Colin on LinkedIn HERE. Follow Colin on Twitter HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  To learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services Click here.

I get mad when people waste my time. It’s probably why I have such a beef with cable companies and organizations’ call centers that have long hold times. Wasting someone’s time is also a waste of an opportunity to deliver an excellent customer experience.  The source of my ire is likely tied to time being our most precious resource by some estimations. Therefore, when you waste it, you are careless with something with a finite supply. Some of us have more than others available—or left as the case may be.  So, when an organization wastes customers’ time, it can be one of the worst things they could do to increase customer loyalty and customer-driven growth. Would you want to be anxious to return to an experience that wasted yours? Not bloody likely, I say.  By contrast, saving time is among the most essential things you could do for a customer. People will pay a premium for it, too.  Regarding time and customers, one of the most essential things you can do is to make it worthwhile. In other words, any time customers give you should return to them as a memory of time well spent.  The ideas expressed thus far here are not ours. Time progression is a critical area that key opinion leaders in the experience economy are exploring these days.  In this episode, we host Strategic Horizons’ Joe Pine, author of The Experience Economy and co-founder of the concept of Time Progression, to discuss what that means and how it can influence how customers respond to your experience.  Here are some other critical moments in the discussion: 03:22  Colin asks Pine to explain the concept of Time Progression to the listeners who have yet to become familiar with it.  09:49  We discuss organizations doing interesting things with time analysis that companies would be wise to emulate and those that have decided to take up more customer time that companies should not. 19:25  Pine explains why healthcare is a transformational experience, so it should do better with patients’ time progression. 26:02  We discuss where we think SMART products should go, as Pine wrote in HBR in his article, "Are Your Digital Platforms Wasting Your Customer's Time?" 28:53  Pine shares his practical tips for how to improve your performance regarding time progression with customers. _________________________________________________________________ Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here. Connect with Colin on LinkedIn HERE. Follow Colin on Twitter HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  To learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services Click here.

We have all been there. We think we did something great, and we look forward to getting the feedback that tells us so. Unfortunately, when we do get the feedback, we discover that we weren’t quite so great as we thought we were. It’s a matter of perception and understanding this concept can help avoid this mismatch in the future.  One of our listeners, Damien, found himself in this pickle recently. His organization has delivery stats that paint a glorious picture of achievement. However, the customer surveys do not paint delivery with that brush at all. So, Damien asks, why the discrepancy? The problem could be a challenge with perception. The internal organization has one perception of performance, the customers have another. If perception is reality, which one matters?  (Hint: say the customers. Okay, not a hint so much as a gimme, but we do our best here.) From a psychological perspective, perception isn’t the correct term. In fact, psychologists would only have perception as one part of what is going on here. To summarize, psychologists would submit that perception applies only to receiving the information through our senses. How we interpret and compare the perceived experiences to our expectations is the reason for the discrepancy.  In this episode, we take a deeper dive on what is happening here to Damien’s organization, and what they—and you— can do about it.   Here are some other key moments in the discussion: 02:05  We hear about Damien’s pickle and why he needed our help. (Do you have a business pickle, too? Tell us about it here.) 05:00  Before we move further into solving Damien’s pickle, we define our terms in the style of psychology. 10:24  Ryan ignores Colin’s request to get practical by exploring a very heady and philosophical example, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. 17:10  Colin explains how you can learn more about perception, interpretation, and evaluation of an experience and how it relates to memory by shopping for a TV in a showroom. 21:51  Colin shares a story about how he thought the Princess Lunch at Disneyland Paris was expensive; for the record, he didn’t go alone but brought along his grandchildren. 27:20 We share our practical advice for how to understand how there was such a discrepancy in perception between Damien’s organization and customers, and what to do about it.  _________________________________________________________________ Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here. Connect with Colin on LinkedIn HERE. Follow Colin on Twitter HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  To learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services Click here.

18 months. That was the timeline Colin gave himself to move from a sales job to a general manager post. It was a long time ago now, the kind of thing one remembers when they look back over a decades-long career.  However, it also worked. Colin did make that transition, moving throughout departments and learning new skills, and always with the goal of moving to general manager. Ryan, being from academia, teaches an introductory marketing course to his MBA students. It’s a class they take first semester when their enthusiasm and exuberance are high.  This abundance of energy also drives them to his office during office hours, hoping for some career advice. As an academic, Ryan has some for them, but recognizes that there is always room for more.  In this episode, we explore the key insights we have gained over the spans of our careers and share them with you. From taking advice from Colin’s father to learning how to navigate the political quagmires that many organizations foster, we give you some areas to focus on to get where you want to go.  Here are some other key moments in the discussion: 04:06 We kick it off by explaining that over the years we have seen jobs come and go and job come from out of nowhere that can change the course of a career for good or ill. 08:39  Colin shares some advice he learned from his dad, which on its face seems simple, but in truth is the one thing everybody looks for and appreciates.  12:30  We talk about the importance of looking down the road in a career rather than on the part right in front of you; you don’t want to be 50 or 60 and realize that you were headed the wrong way. 17:19  We share a strategy that seems counterintuitive, that sometimes the way forward is taking a step back or sideways.  20:17 Colin discusses how there is always something to learn, even in a bad job, so don’t forget to notice what you shouldn’t do in your career. 25:00 We talk politics (no, not those politics), and how you can use them to your advantage when you understand them in your organization. _________________________________________________________________ Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here. Connect with Colin on LinkedIn HERE. Follow Colin on Twitter HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  To learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services Click here.

At first glance, authenticity appears straightforward. To be authentic, one simply needs to be genuine in their thoughts and actions. However, as is often the case with our discussions in the podcast, the subject becomes complex under scrutiny.  Our motivation to discuss authenticity stems from a podcast listener's request. They find themselves grappling with authenticity in their experience and want to know how to improve and leverage it to generate growth with their customers. Consider the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London. It has meticulously recreated Holmes's apartment. As part of the London School's team, Professor Kent Grayson, MA, PhD, a scholar fascinated by authenticity, would engage museum visitors by posing a seemingly absurd question: Is the apartment portrayed in the museum authentic? However, it’s a silly question. It cannot be authentic since Sherlock Holmes himself lacks authenticity. Nevertheless, individuals earnestly responded to Professor Grayson's query. Some offered genuine critiques, pointing out anachronistic furniture pieces and other details. It was ironic that the attendees thought that the fictional place inhabited by an imaginary detective was inauthentic because the end table was from the wrong period…but there it is. In this podcast, we discuss authenticity and how it matters in Customer Experiences. What we discover is elementary, our dear Watsons. Here are some other key moments in the discussion: 02:05   Ryan explains about the London Business School Professors research about the authenticity of the Sherlock Holmes Museum.  07:02  We discuss how a thing doesn’t have to be real to be authentic; it just has to feel real. 13:22  Colin explains that every experience is authentic; however, what it reflects about an organization might not be what customer want or value.  20:38  We cover the idea that the customer perception is key, so making customers feel an experience is authentic is essential. 30:03  We discuss the key takeaways that we have from this discussion and how it can help your experience. _________________________________________________________________ Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here. Connect with Colin on LinkedIn HERE. Follow Colin on Twitter HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  To learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services Click here.

Have you ever noticed how many vitamin options there are at a drug store? If not, you should know there are hundreds. It is bloody overwhelming.  All these vitamins got us thinking about differentiation. If your product isn’t that different from another, like a B-12 vitamin, how do you differentiate yourself from the competition?  Vitamin companies are not alone here. One of our listeners wrote in with a business pickle about differentiation on how to have it in an ever-competitive market. The answer lies in the experience. But how? What does differentiation even mean? And what does B-12 do for you anyway? (It does lots of stuff, by the way; you should probably take it if you don’t get enough.) When you are too close to something, you might have a hard time seeing what your differentiation could be. Your usually helpful depth of offering knowledge can be a hinderance. The nuances of competitive improvement might be authentic but too deep in the minutiae to distinguish you.  In other words, your competitive advantage might be real, but really boring to your customers. So, instead of coming up with something that is a competitive differentiator, you come up with this minor detail, emphasizing something the customer doesn’t care about or doesn’t recognize they should. Therefore, it takes an outside perspective sometimes to see what is possible regarding differentiation. And sometimes, this differentiation from the outside is disruptive and turns everything in your industry on its ear.  In this episode, we explore the ways our listener and you can differentiate yourself from the competition. As a bonus, we package it into five rules that you can use to drive your actions.  Here are some other key moments in the discussion: 06:44  We kick off the discussion with the first rule, which tells us that different means different and not just a little different. (They do get better, we promise.) 10:07  We get into the discussion about how disruption is often the key to differentiation that matters; otherwise, everyone ends up chasing the same goals and having little variance from one another.   17:50  We introduce the third rule, which is define the Who and the How Much, two key areas for besting the competition.  22:49 Rule number four says what are you going to differentiate on, meaning what area of your offering will be your competitive advantage.  25:35 We introduce the last rule, which is shamelessly bias, that experience is the hardest thing for your competitor to copy.  _________________________________________________________________ Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here. Connect with Colin on LinkedIn HERE. Follow Colin on Twitter HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  To learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services Click here.