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

There is a big challenge when measuring customer emotions as you are asking customers how they felt in an experience, as this is done retrospectively, a while after they had the experience. Many times, Customers don't remember how they felt or, for several reasons, they don't want to tell you. Using technology, you can now measure customer's emotions in real time! Critically you can measure their AUTHENTIC emotions, i.e: The REAL emotions they are feeling, through the use of micro expressions. These are involuntary, automatic movements the customer makes without even realizing what they are doing. Measuring customer emotions is vitally important as over 50% of a customer experience is about how a customer feels. The key is the authentic emotions. This appears to be a significant challenge for researcher's in today's world, as well as getting Customers to answer surveys in the first place. One key area this Authentic Emotion Measurement is being used by more progressive organizations is in digital transformation. They are using this to understand how the customer feels prior to the transformation and then by testing various ways of undertaking the transformation they can determine which has the most benefit before implementation. Another application is measuring a face-to-face interaction, where the Customer and the employee are both being measured for their emotions. This means you can now understand the emotional interaction between the two parties. Furthermore, this means you can measure the effect of employee training. For example, if an employee is trained on soft skills, what was their customer's emotions before and after this new training? This is an exciting new development in measuring customer emotions and in this podcast we delve into this in much greater detail. Listen to the podcast in its entirety to learn more about How to Measure Authentic Customer Emotions in Real Time for your Customer Experience. The Intuitive Customer podcasts are designed to explain the psychological concepts behind customer behavior. If you would like to find out from one of our CX consultants how you can implement the concepts we discussed in your organization's marketing to improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com.

We often discuss the Intuitive and Rational System and how they work together to help customers make decisions. The Intuitive System is automatic and emotional, and the Rational System is deliberate and logical. What we don't usually share is that by academic standards, this concept is relatively new. An older theory also explains why we act the way we do as customers, and you need to know about it to promote customer success. This episode of The Intuitive Customer Podcast explores the concept of bounded rationality first introduced by Nobel-Prize winning professor Herbert Simon in the 1960s. We also discuss how this concept applies to your customers' behavior and your CX strategy. People Make Decisions within Constraints Herbert Simon was a polymath, which means he was a genius in several fields. He contributed a lot to a lot of different areas. Simon was a city planner, a professor, a psychologist and one of the first computer science professors. In fact, many of the theories that we use today in computer programming are the brain-child of Simon. Simon's concept of bounded rationality is an essential concept in modern behavioral science. It means that people are rational, but they do not have infinite amounts of rationality. They are logical within constraints. The constraints that Simon refers to are common to all people. We have a limit to our attention span and memory capacity. We only have so much energy to devote to thinking. Often, we don't have all the information and cannot forecast future events with a ton of accuracy. However, if we were rational all the time, none of these limits or shortcomings would matter. To put it another way, people are not computers. They don't make rational decisions all the time, but they also don't make random decisions based on emotional whims either. We use rationality but within the boundaries of the circumstances of the decision-making environment. An example of bounded rationality influencing customer behavior could be opening an email from a retailer you like and seeing a special sale that is going to end in a short amount of time. When you are sorting through the details of the offer, which leave a little to be desired regarding clarity, your work calls to ask if you can come back to the office for an emergency. The decision-making environment you are experiencing, which includes a limited-time offer with murky details and a big crisis at the office that needs your immediate attention, will affect how you make a decision. Listen to the podcast in its entirety to learn more about how customers make decisions using bounded rationality. The Intuitive Customer podcasts are designed to explain the psychological concepts behind customer behavior. If you would like to find out from one of our CX consultants how you can implement the concepts we discussed in your organization's marketing to improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com. To subscribe to The Intuitive Customer and never miss a podcast, please click here.

Organizations do not have the luxury of focusing solely on operations these days. Over the past decade, retail as an industry has changed. To survive, retailers must put the customer at the center of everything they do. That said, not everyone believes it yet. Not so long ago, I was having a conversation in the C-Suite of a company about Customer Experience. Unfortunately, this company was not into the idea of putting the customer at the center of everything they do. Now, I won't tell you the name of the company, but I will tell you that when I read the room, I had an image of what it must have been like in the room when Blockbuster decided not to buy Netflix because "streaming is never going to catch on." Don't just take my word for it. Take Professor Barbara Kahn's from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. As a guest on our recent podcast, she spoke about how retailers are winning in today's hypercompetitive retail market. (Spoiler alert: their strategy is built around the Customer Experience.) Professor Kahn co-hosts a weekly program on Sirius XM Channel 132 called "Marketing Matters," and her new book, The Shopping Revolution: How successful retailers win customers in an era of endless disruption, discusses the chaotic world of retail. She shares the details of what worked and what didn't when she had a front-row seat to witness it unfold as the director of the Patty and Jay H. Baker Retailing Center. When she was the director of the center, she spoke with a lot of retailers. She asked them to describe their idea of the perfect retailer. They mentioned a lot of operational details from products to managing inventory to optimizing the supply chain. While their definition included understanding products and building an attractive mix of wares that a customer wants, it didn't mention the Customer Experience. Kahn decided to research her marketing library to see if there were any frameworks that were about customers, but to no avail. The frameworks she found were product and logistics-focused. She wasn't satisfied with these. So, she decided to write her own. The result was the Kahn Retailing Success Matrix, which she included in her book. http://whartonmagazine.com/issues/spring-2018/the-4-best-retail-business-strategies/#sthash.hob4hi4Z.ji6jXm2z.dpbs This episode of our podcast explores how the Kahn Retailing Success Matrix can help you with your Customer Experience. Listen to the podcast in its entirety to learn more about how The Kahn Retailing Success Matrix could work for your Customer Experience. The Intuitive Customer podcasts are designed to explain the psychological concepts behind customer behavior. If you would like to find out from one of our CX consultants how you can implement the concepts we discussed in your organization's marketing to improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com. To subscribe to The Intuitive Customer and never miss a podcast, please click here.

Beyond Philosophy won an award named one of the Best Management Consultancy Firms in the UK, by the Financial Times (FT). This was voted on by clients and peers, we couldn't be more honored or proud. This bonus episode podcast explores how you can take your idea and turn it into an Financial Times Award-Winning consultancy, too. We share our 10-Step Plan for Success and ask our listeners, what would you do if you weren't afraid? The 10-Step Plan for Creating Your Award-Winning Business: Recognize that you are an expert in something, and then tell everyone you are. When I started my Global Customer Experience consultancy, no one knew me or even what Customer Experience was. So, I told them, starting my marketing efforts with my first book, Building Great Customer Experiences (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). Then I began conference speaking. Eventually, other people began to recognize I was an expert in customer experience training, which was much better than me saying it. Have an original idea. If you aren't original, then you aren't really adding anything of value to the greater business community, or the reputation of marketing consultants in general. Be unique and useful. Be brave. It's okay to be afraid, better than okay, actually. Fear is an excellent motivator. Focus on your skills. Determine what you are excellent at and what you aren't. Then, build on those strong skills and focus on using them. Otherwise, you can get out of your area of expertise and lose your way. Give an opinion. Your opinion is why people come to you. You should always have one, even if it isn't popular. Just be careful how you deliver that unpopular opinion; too much opinion can be as bad as not enough. Know what drives value for your customers. Produce or perish, as they say (do they say that?). If you aren't getting your customers an outstanding return on investment (ROI), then why should they hire you? Accept when you make a mistake, fix it, and move on. Everyone blows it from time to time. Learn from it and move on. Whatever you do, don't quit. Success is just around the corner. Appreciate the support you get from friends and family. You need it, so be sure to recognize and reward it as often as you can. Prepare for long hours. Starting your own company is hard work. Period. Remember that consultants are the first to go in a recession. Prepare for the inevitable so you can bounce back when it's over. Listen to the podcast in its entirety to learn more about my ten-step plan and how it can help you do what you would do if you weren't afraid. We recommend you spend 5 minutes now and take a short CX Healthcheck self assessment to see how your organization is performing. https://beyondphilosophy.com/cx-assessment/survey/. It's free and will benchmark how you against hundreds of other companies. By answering a few multiple choice questions, you will understand what you need to do to take your Customer Experience (CX) to the next level. The Intuitive Customer podcasts are designed to explain the psychological concepts behind customer behavior. If you would like to find out from one of our CX consultants how you can implement the concepts we discussed in your organization's marketing to improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com.

Psychological theories help explain why people do what they do. As customer experience consultants we believe when you are working on a Customer Experience strategy psychological theory is crucial to understanding the behavior of your customers. However, psychology is unlike other sciences; it isn't exact. In fact, you might have to consider much of what psychology tells us is provisional, an impermanent hypothesis that explains what many people do most of the time. Just not all the time. This conditional nature of human behavior theory can be problematic when analyzing customer behavior or attempting to address your customers' psychology in a meaningful way in the Customer Experience. This episode of our podcast explores how people make a common mistake when applying psychological theory to their Customer Experience strategy. We also share how to fix it. It comes down to two significant issues with psychological theory: #1: Theory needs context to be exact. Unlike some of its scientific colleagues in the so-called "hard" sciences, most of the psychological theory is contingent. What is valid for human behavior at one time and in one environment is entirely different at another time and in an alternate setting. The variables matter to the outcome of human behavior. A lot. #2: Psychological theory is complicated. The complexity of human behavior makes the analysis of it equally knotty. Also, a psychological influence is not usually acting alone; multiple influences are affecting the outcome of human behavior. In addition, the boundaries of the theories can muddle matters, too. All of this to say, psychology is not an exact science with consistently predictable outcomes. Because of this gray area inherent in human behavior theories, it can be challenging to convince people to change their business-as-usual practices to incorporate the "soft stuff." Most organizations prefer to stick to their knitting and address concrete principles like price, product, and placement, instead of emotional stuff like human decision-making. Despite these issues, there is hope for using psychology to optimize your CX strategy. Many organizations are able to apply the theories of psychology to great effect regarding customer behavior and behavioral segmentation, and you can, too. Listen to the podcast in its entirety to learn more about how to properly apply psychological theories about customer behavior to your Customer Experience strategy. The Intuitive Customer podcasts are designed to explain the psychological concepts behind customer behavior. If you would like to find out from one of our CX consultants how you can implement the concepts we discussed in your organization's marketing to improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com. To subscribe to The Intuitive Customer and never miss a podcast, please click here.

The Customer Experience Industry is suffering from a lack of results. Or perhaps it might be more accurate to say, it is suffering from a lack of proof about the results Customer Experience strategy is getting. It is time for all Customer Experience professionals to champion the ROI of their Customer Experience. The problem is many of our champions do not know how. We spoke with speaker, author, and CEO of Customer Think, Corporation, Bob Thompson about his recent research and what he thinks the Customer Experience strategy needs to build the business case for its success. He narrowed down the issues to the following: Not enough organizations use their Customer Experience to differentiate themselves from their competition A lack of data exists about the results of Customer Experience efforts, on an individual level, as well as an industry as a whole Too few organizations can demonstrate an ROI in actual figures An opportunity exists and in a significant way. Moreover, the Customer Experience internal marketing needs to include ROI for Customer Experience. If we don't, it could mean the resources we have today could be reallocated to another program—one that can produce results. To be fair, if I were a CEO that had given over a budget for a Customer Experience program that was not able to show me that it had any results, I would not throw good money after bad. We need to make the business case for Customer Experience or suffer the (deserved) consequences. This episode of The Intuitive Customer podcast explores how Customer Experience consultants and Customer Experience marketers can address these issues and resolve them for their individual Customer Experience strategies. We also share recommendations about what all Customer Experience champions should focus on to solve the problems of the industry in 2019. Listen to the podcast in its entirety to learn more about what Thompson and the Intuitive Podcast team thinks can fix the problems with the Customer Experience Industry. The Intuitive Customer podcasts are designed to explain the psychological concepts behind customer behavior. If you would like to find out from one of our CX consultants how you can implement the concepts we discussed in your organization's marketing to improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com. To subscribe to The Intuitive Customer and never miss a podcast, please click here.

Stay Ahead of Your Competition with New Advances in CX Marketing This podcast discusses the five areas you can address that will change the results you get with your Customer Experience. With a focus on these five key actions, you will not only improve your Customer Experience, but you can also get a jump on the competition in the new year. 5 CX Concepts to Keep You Ahead of the Competition Focus on the ROI of CX improvement. Having a record of your return on investment (ROI) for Customer Experience programs is vital. An increase in sales is excellent. But not all ROI is sales-based. You can have an increase in your NPS (Net Promoter Score, which indicates your customers will recommend you to family and friends). You could also see improved Customer Satisfaction ratings, which are great for building a foundation for loyalty. Another area where ROI is apparent is in the costs you save by providing an improved Customer Experience. <!--more→ Segment your customers into personas. People are driven to act by different things, which vary based on life stage, demographic, and personal attributes. Grouping or segmenting your customers based on their behavior is an excellent way to segment your customer base. Then, creating personas that represent these groups help your team understand the concept. With the persona's characteristics to guide them, your team delivers an experience that appeals to each persona at an emotional level, which is the basis for creating customer loyalty. Use Digital Transformation as an enhancement, not a replacement. Digital channels provide a new opportunity for your Customer Experience. However, too many companies approach digital transformation with an aim to cut costs and often cut away programs that are currently working in their experience. Working toward a digital transformation should only lighten the load on other channels, not replace them. Embrace but manage your use of AI to enhance the experience. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an up and coming enhancement to Customer Experience that can allow you to anticipate your customers wants and needs. Combined with the power of customer personas, you can target customers right when they are considering a buying decision. However, exercise caution wielding this powerful new tool. When used too efficiently, it can damage customer relationships and cross over to the creepy side faster than you think. Measure customer emotions, but in real time with facial recognition. The success of any Customer Experience program rests on how the experience makes the customer feel. Facial recognition technology provides insight into how customers feel at the moment of the experience. New applications of it in Customer Experience can provide data that was previously unavailable at a large scale about how your moments in the experience make a customer feel. To hear more about how to apply these five concepts to your Customer Experience, listen to the episode. The Intuitive Customer podcasts are designed to explain the psychological concepts behind customer behavior. If you would like to find out from one of our CX consultants how you can implement the concepts we discussed in your organization's marketing to improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com. To subscribe to The Intuitive Customer and never miss a podcast.

Are You a Risk Taker? We all have varying levels of risk tolerance. When we shy away from risk, we call that risk-aversion. This episode of The Intuitive Customer discusses the concept of risk aversion and how it affects customers' behavior in your Customer Experience. People like sure bets better that come with less significant gains over risky ventures, even when the risky venture proposes a substantial benefit. We hate losing things. Losing things makes us much more upset than gaining things makes us happy. So, if we are risk-averse by nature then we must always be risk-averse, right? Not so fast. Human behavior is rarely predictable, and our behavior regarding risk is no different. There are exceptions and variables that can change our risk preferences. We discussed the four influences on our tolerance for risk in this episode. Four Influences on Our Tolerance for Risk: The presence of testosterone correlates with risk-taking. Research shows that when more testosterone is present in the body, people are more likely to engage in risky behavior. This correlation occurs in men and women alike. The way choices are presented changes our risk tolerance. We would rather hold on to what we have than commit to a sure loss. When decisions are framed in the context of gains, we choose the conservative options more often than the risky ones. However, when alternatives are framed in the context of losses, we will take more significant risks to avoid losses than when the options are framed as gains. This phenomenon is why bets get riskier at the horse track as the day wears on—and the losses pile up! The domain where the risk occurs affects our decisions. We might be willing to risk some of our hard-earned dollars at the track, but we are less likely to endanger things that are essential to our well-being, like our house or financial stability. The life stage we are at will affect our risk aversion. Depending on where you are in your life, and the related responsibilities that accompany that life stage will change how much risk you can tolerate. The chances you take as a young single person might be different than ones you take as a parent with a mortgage. People who are late in their career might be less willing to take on new areas than those who are just getting started. People who are close to retirement might not make the same investments as a kid opening their first retirement account, and so on. To find out how you can apply these concepts in you Customer Experience, please listen to this episode. The Intuitive Customer podcasts are designed to explain the psychological concepts behind customer behavior. As customer experience consultants, we see risk aversion show up in Customer Experience all the time. Listen in to hear how you can recognize risk aversion in your customers' behavior and address it in your Customer Experience. If you would like to find out from one of our CX consultants how you can implement the concepts we discussed in your organization's marketing to improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com. To subscribe to The Intuitive Customer and never miss a podcast, please click here. Follow Colin on Twitter @ColinShaw_CX.

There is an abundance of theory in behavioral economics which can seem overwhelming. How can Marketing and Customer experience teams start using it today. In this podcast we give you an overview of the big ideas. To do this, Ryan has developed a framework of the four key principles - a summary of the four principles of human behavior. Ryan calls this the 4R's. 1: Reference points. Reference points is the idea that people evaluate almost anything by comparing it to something else. If you want to figure out how people are going to evaluate something you need to figure out where they're starting from. 2: Reason What are the reasons that people have for choosing or not choosing to use your service? What are the reasons people use to for justify their choice? How does Behavioral economics affect this? 3: Resources All businesses want their experience to be easy. Customer crave this. But why? The reason is because people have a limited amount of cognitive resources to devote to things, a limited amount of attention, a limited amount of patience. Try to consider that when you are trying to anticipate how people are going to make decisions and how they're going to evaluate an experience. 4: Replacement This is the idea that people like to get 'stuff' done and that includes making decisions. If people need to make some certain evaluation with regards to your experience, your product or service. In fact, evaluating the offering on its merits or are they using some heuristic or some substitution to answer your question? If you would like to find out how you can implement these in your organization, please listen to the podcast to hear Colin & Ryan explain this further. Or please contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com . Follow Colin on Twitter @ColinShaw_CX.

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