CONNECTION IS EVERYTHING
June 15, Las Vegas
A Strategic Playbook for Building Customer Loyalty, Brand Intimacy, and Emotional Resonance.
speech
summary.
With the birth of the Beta generation, we now have seven different consumer demographics to serve, seven different customer groups whose needs we need to satisfy.
From Traditionalists (born after WWII) and Baby Boomers, all the way through to Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha and on to the Beta babies of today, meeting consumer needs has become a much more complex task for every salon business.
Change in all forms presses down on every industry and the demands placed on the beauty industry are no exception. Change comes at us as Technological, Economic, Social, Regulatory and most critically from customer expectations themselves.
To survive (and thrive) every brand needs to exert a greater force against these changes, otherwise we will be crushed by them. To survive and ensure our businesses are future focused, we need to have the courage to embrace new directions. We need to collaborate and have an excellence in execution to have better connections with our customer.
The old business models of the early 2000s are not serving the modern consumer of today. It would be arrogant of us to assume that we can continue to run our business the same way over the next 10 years as we have over the past 10, as arrogant as Kodak thinking digital photography would be a fad. Arrogance kills entire brands and industries, and it could kill your business faster than you think.
As customer expectations change, alongside our business and service landscape, so must the way we do business. Staying relevant is key to survival and so we aim to focus on what our customers value. It is in exploring and understanding the values of the modern customer connection, we can build brands and businesses for future success.
Take your eye off what your customers value and you run the risk of becoming irrelevant.
We discussed the following key values during the keynote.
01/BLUE DOT
CENTRICITY.
We need to place our customer at the centre, not the brand, product, salon operations or our own ways of working. The customer is not some inconvenient truth at the end of a customer journey. They are the BLUE DOT – the pulsing centre point around which everything must revolve.
Everything comes to the customer today. Why go to a restaurant when Uber Eats will deliver to your home? Why go out on the streets to flag a cab when Uber will deliver it to your door? Why use an expensive orthodontist when you can straighten your teeth with mail- order clear braces? Customer service expectations have changed. As an industry, perhaps beauty has often been product, brand or operationally led for too long. We need to shift from a transactional to a customer experience focus. The experience needs to be wholly customer centric.
Carrying the Blue Dot metaphor further, no one would open Google maps and follow someone else’s blue dot on the map – you are only shown your own. The modern customer expects to be treated personally; made feel special, have heavily customised service at every touch point.
Make them feel special by connecting personally with them. Move away from a commodity experience. Use data to better leverage that connection. Brand is everything when it comes to differentiation. Think about how your brand can better connect with your customers in a way that makes them feel like they are at the centre.
02/PHYGITAL.
We now live in a ‘Digital First World’ – a world where we all reach for our digital devices first to answer any question or solve any problem. The digital Immersion is only going to increase with the coming Quantum Computing reality and as AI and Robotics converge alongside customer expectations. Prepare for 4D connection.
Every brand proposition has to be part Physical, part Digital. Customers now expect digital to drive their experiences. The AI ‘spring-jump’ is real.
AI is set to change every industry. Most importantly, it will unleash a new set of customer expectations around hyper personalisation and relevance in their brand and service interactions. We need to engage with AI so that we free up the human talent to focus on connection.
AI is not all about productivity and efficiency – it is about using technology to better connect with customers and create better experiences. AI is only useful to us in customer experience if a customer feels something positive.
03/AGENTIC AI.
Agentic AI will also change the very nature of the customer decision making process. Once customers hand over buying control to their AI assistants, the human steps away from the decision-making process, unleashing a new channel; business-to-machine.
In an Agentic AI world, our stores become critical as a space to build real customer connections.
We need to build our brands and connection deep enough so that customers ‘call for us’. The beauty industry is already ahead in terms of this ‘depth of connection’ but customer service is going to be commoditised and so we all need to do better.
Recall the Octopus Energy story, using simple technology to make people feel better while on hold. It is the creative application of technology that makes a difference.
Your Strategy Audit
7 Questions to Answer
01
If you were to make your business proposition more BLUE DOT tomorrow, what would that look like? Where in the customer journey could you do a better job at making it about THE CUSTOMER and not about YOU?
02
Where could you implement PROACTIVE service rather than waiting for a customer to ask? How could we build loyalty and brand respect by moving towards a proactive service model?
03
What digital elements add value to the emotive customer experience? Are most of our digital tools about efficiency and process? Where are the delight moments using technology?
04
How are you using AI in social media production and bespoke advertising campaigns for your customers?
05
What AI tools are you currently using and are they making an emotive difference related to the customer connection?
06
If a customer left your business tomorrow, where is that failure most likely to have come from in your customer journey? Audit your CX processes, identify pain points and look to dissolve the friction.
07
Where is the evidence you are building relationships and Customer Lifetime Value in your customer service provision in-store? Where are you authentic and pushing past transaction into relationship?
More content
from Ken.
THE TRUST TOWER: WHY BRAND LOYALTY IS BUILT ON BELIEF, NOT BENEFITS
THE CUSTOMER INTIMACY LADDER: FROM SERVICE TO SOUL
DECODE, DELIGHT, DEVOTE: TURNING CUSTOMERS INTO TRIBES THROUGH GAMIFICATION
For those too lazy to read blogs, and to view further visual content and past performances from Ken Hughes, check out the YouTube channel where he discusses all things consumer and customer experience related.
If you want to develop a true understanding of Customer Intimacy and Brand Advocacy and understand the power of the EX/CX relationship, get yourself a copy of my latest book. Packed with inspiring stories around CX/EX, it is your backstage pass to brand brilliance.
