The best businesses seem to sense what the customer needs and immediately respond with value. In fact, they deliver a continuous flow of value. They know that customer wait time dissolves the customer's trust and feeds their doubt. Minimizing wait time delivers bottomline results, but wait time can be tough to pin down. It's sneaky. It hides in places like cars & trucks, airplanes, telephone…
To earn and keep a customer, whatever we offer has to be worth it to them. "It" is a manifested outcome at a reasonable cost, and cost is more than dollars and cents. It's the total time, effort, information, & money necessary to acquire their outcome. Time, effort, and information are part of their experience. They are the hassle factor part of what the customer…
This last Sunday I found myself at a popular Chinese restaurant in San Francisco, renown for their fried chicken wings. The customer experience is… um… strict. Prospective customers must sign up on a dry erase board and wait for their name to be called. Names are hurriedly called out by a hair-trigger host. If there’s no immediate response, he moves on (erasing the “no-show.”) If…
“I like cake. It makes my body happy!” — Zach, age 6 No one wants a slice of cake. We want how the cake makes us feel as it melts into our mouth. What do we really want when we go to out to eat? Belonging? Companionship? Status? What do we really want when we go to a hair stylist? Confidence? Self-actualization? Research has revealed…
Humans are irrational. Yes, we're capable of being rational, but for the most part we go with what “feels right.” We love novelty, but cling to familiar. We’re hard wired to seek out newness, but fear change. We travel to new, exotic places only to spend our time in a familiar hotel (with a Starbucks in the lobby). We love the excitement of new, but…