The Future of Customer Research Teams: Innovating for Success in 2024 and Beyond   AI's enthralling me these days, and it seems the world's caught in the same spell. One realm set for a profound AI makeover is customer market research—a topic worth diving into since it's likely on many of your radars too. Exciting or nerve-wracking—depends on which way you look at it.   Qualtrics recent article, "AI Will Revolutionize the Market Research Industry" suggested a couple of thought-provoking...

During a recent discussion with a valued client, I uncovered an interesting revelation. While they were delighted with their repeat business, which they attributed to customer loyalty, a closer look at the repeat business statistics painted a different picture. What I observed wasn't a steadfast commitment from their customers; rather, it appeared to be inertia.    This prompted my realization that these customers might easily switch to a competitor if a tempting offer came along.   Now,...

Unleashing the Power of AI vs. Human Touch: Which Delivers a Superior Customer Experience?   I often say, "None of us are as clever as all of us." However, sayings are more useful when they can spur action. So, we have a proposition for you: If you have something you want to say about experiences or technology, statistics, or reports, feel free to share them via video. To learn more, click here.   To that end, Tom Martin, CEO at Glance, has submitted one about AI.    Tom makes an...

My client is disappointed with their results. Their experience improvement efforts have been successful, but not as wildly successful as they had hoped.  When my client shared this with me on a recent call, I was neither surprised nor perplexed about what was going on with them. Getting the whole organization to embrace the customer requires more than most organizations think.  You see, when you start an improvement program, you want some quick wins. So, you address the most obvious areas...

Regret is a powerful emotion. One might not think it has a place in a marketer’s messaging toolbox. However, you might be surprised to learn that in addition to being a powerful emotion, it can also be a powerful tool. The reason we regret things depends on the situation. We can regret a purchase we made. We can regret a purchase we didn’t, too. What we regret and how we respond to it requires understanding how regret happens.  Inside each of our minds, we have three selves. There is the...

It’s pickle time again here on the podcast. This time John has a pickle with his new business. He wants to know some ways that he can get other people to help him sell his products and services. We knew several ways, eight in fact, and they might help you, too.  One thing to consider when you listen to this list is how each of the tactics gets you what you want. In some cases, you might discover that our suggestion doesn’t. Or at least it doesn’t get you what you want right now. Later, once...

Colin sometimes struggles with a glass-half-empty disposition. He blames it on being born British. He felt it keenly when gathering the following 14 statistics for this episode. There are a mix of game-changing opportunities, including missed ones, and some acute risks facing organizations next year.  Ryan is American, a population Colin characterizes with as a glass-half-full disposition. He hopes by sharing these numbers gathered from reputable sources, that his American cohost might view...

When a Stanford professor brings snacks to class, it’s fun. But you can bet it’s also an experiment, and he’s probably testing how people make choices for today and for todays that will come in the future. It turns out, that timing matters a lot when it comes to the decisions we make.  The professor we are referring to is Professor Itamar Simonson, marketing professor at Stanford University and his research surrounding customer decision-making. He learned that students who chose their snack...

Poor Irene Beard. She is in a pickle, and she needs our help. A strong believer in brand, Beard is starting a new company and asked us for help getting people to take away what she wants them to about her company’s brand. Beard’s question brings up some interesting concepts regarding brands, their origins, their evolution, and their existence for organizations today.  Before we get into any of that, it is essential to remember that your brand is a tactic. It communicates the value you...

So, you think the sale is in the bag. The customer signed the paperwork and everything. However, when you log in the next day to email, there is a cancellation. You think, what happened? People change their minds all the time for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes, it is about something they ordered or bought; sometimes, it is about paint color or springing for the upgrades. Why they change their mind has a lot of influences, and understanding how a customer’s mind works can help you...

For many of us, planning can be an area of opportunity. We underestimate how much time something will take and how much time we will have available for something, particularly regarding project completion. However, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky explained why we do this, and we will tell you what we can do about it.  Kahneman and Tversky call this phenomenon the Planning Fallacy. Our optimism about our future selves and the abilities and resources available causes it. For this reason, it...

Sometimes it’s a “processing” fee. Sometimes it’s called an “admin” fee. We have even seen it labeled “convenience fee,” a refreshingly candid explanation for it. However, they are always additional fees, and if you have them in your pricing, they might have terrible implications for your customer experience.  However, they might not. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of scientific evidence that points to a definite negative effect on additional fees for a customer experience. For my part, it...

We can be grumpy about the restaurant experience. This self-awareness is key, especially when we realize that our behavior closely resembles the behavior of two grouchy Muppets heckling Kermit and Fozzie from the balcony. However, it’s easy to see that every business can learn from restaurants that bungle these moments of the experience.  We are aware this episode is a grumpy rant. Moreover, not everyone will agree with the things that we think restaurants do wrong. What drives us mad could...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

Many organizations are making a common mistake when it comes to AI. They fail to capitalize on the potential to enhance Customer Experiences through this powerful technology by building it incorrectly. By changing their strategic approach, they could gain a significant competitive advantage. Take, for instance, a telecom company that developed an AI system to detect customer churn. While it successfully identified customers likely to churn, it fell short in explaining why they were leaving. ...

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