CONNECTION IS EVERYTHING
speech
summary.
The old business models of the early 2000s are not serving the modern consumer of today. The nature of ‘search’ has shifted. As we prepare for AI Agents to take over the search/evaluate/purchase elements of the consumer decision making process, it is the Experience and Advocacy elements that become the differentiator and core competitive advantage.
Convenience, frictionless and efficient have all become table stakes.
As customer and employee expectations change, alongside our business and service landscape, so must our brand offering. 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 for future success.
Take your eye off what your customers value and you run the risk of becoming irrelevant.
We discussed five key values during the keynote.
01/CONNECTION.
The keynote was entitled ‘Connection is Everything’ for a reason.
Relationships and belonging are the driving forces of human happiness.
The need to move away from a transactional model to one that puts the customer and employee relationship at the centre is key
This is particularly true as AI agentic prepares to commoditise CX and EX. When every brand has access to the same technology, where is the differentiation?
It is in the connection you create with your audience.
As we dive deeper into this agentic AI, humanoid robotic future, the law of Economics kicks in – ‘that which is scarcer becomes more valuable’. Human empathy, human connection, and human emotion and interaction all become a bigger part of a brand’s CX competitive advantage.
02/Blue dot
centricity.
Using The Wizard of Oz as our overarching metaphor, we realised that the story is all Dorothy’s to share. It is her experience, her tale.
We need to place our customer and employee at the centre, not the brand, product, operation, 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 and talent management expectations have changed.
As brands, we have often been product, brand or operationally led for too long. We need to shift from a transactional to a CX and EX focus. The experience needs to be wholly customer and employee 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, and 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.
03/CONNECT WITH
HEART.
The Tin Man lacked a heart and felt empty. Life is worth less when you can’t feel anything, and it is the same for our customers and employees.
We need our employees to be empowered to make a difference in our customers’ lives. EX and CX are intimately entangled.
Recall that Virgin Atlantic Goldfish story. Not only are the brand values brought to life in the arising brand storytelling, but it demonstrates the depth of connection when employees make the effort to delight a customer, to go beyond expectations.
If we are not creating daily goldfish stories, why should our employees or customers bring our brand to life in the stories they tell?
Continuing to go beyond customer expectations is how you delight, how you build tribe and fandom. You end up with brand advocates, customers who tattoo your logo on their skin. This is the belonging we all crave as brands.
04/CONNECT WITH
INTELLIGENCE.
The Scarecrow had a body but no brain, no direction, hanging paralysed on his frame.
The data, software and tech stack is not intelligence. They are the foundations of potential insight, understanding and action. Similarly AI is nothing unless we harness its power to better connect with customers and employees.
That was brought to life with the Octopus Energy story. Music played just for your 14-year-old nostalgic self. Turning the pain of waiting into enjoyment. This is everything data and AI should be. Connecting with intelligence. Using data to make customers and employees feel special.
Data and technology are never the answer. They are the inputs, the enablers. It is how you make a customer feel. That is the endgame.
05/COURAGE.
The Lion lacked courage.
Courage is often the ability to do the right thing, even when it is painful or uncomfortable. Brands and HR departments often fail to get uncomfortable, preferring to stick to the safety of policy and procedure.
Again, we turn back to the importance of empowering employees to make a difference, evident in that Ritz Carlton laptop story. One employee can make a major difference with a customer, but they need to have the confidence, courage and empowerment to do so.
Our talent needs to understand that they are wearing the ‘glittery red shoes’, that they had the power all along. They have the power to make a difference.
06/RELATIONAL.
Ultimately, building Customer Lifetime Value and Customer Intimacy is about building Relationships. It is about moving away from that old ‘transaction model’ and moving towards a model that is based around putting the Relationship at the centre. This is why Experience Management has become such an inherent part of most companies’ strategy.
It is only when emotions are engaged do we build relationship, when the customer ‘feels’ something. We need to become a trusted partner in life for our customers, not just another brand.
The more we embed emotional response and authentic, compassionate customer interactions in the customer experience, the more we build that bond with that customer. We achieve that scale and depth of connection mentioned earlier.
Look for ways to build significant relationships, with depth, authenticity and purpose. Recall the Taylor Swift fan enraptured with experiencing the product. This type of engagement only comes when there is a significant relationship related to the brand experience.
In our future deep-fake, AI-fuelled world, authentic relationship will be everything. The experience a customer or employee has should also build that relationship depth.
Customer Intimacy is the endgame.
Your Strategy Audit
10 Questions
to Answer.
01
If you were to make your product / 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 or employee to ask? How could we build loyalty and brand respect by moving towards a proactive service model?
03
Where do we routinely go beyond customer/employee expectations into the delight space? What 5 ideas could we bring to life in a customer/employee journey that would make a Customer/employee smile in delight?
04
What AI and digital elements add value to the emotive customer and employee experience? Are most of our digital tools about efficiency and process? Where are the delight moments using technology?
05
What moments have we created in the last 3 months that would be your Goldfish and Ritz Carlton stories? Who is telling your Brand Story today?
06
How do you share the moments of delight and above customer expectation internally? How does the organisation hear, routinely, that we are delighting our customers?
07
Who is your Excite & Delight Director within your team, responsible for delivering moments that go beyond customer expectation in-store. Who are they in HR?
08
What are you doing in the Employee Experience space that motivates your employees to want to deliver 5-star CX service? All of the values discussed apply to employees also.
09
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.
10
Where is the evidence you are building relationships, climbing the Customer Intimacy ladder and building Customer Lifetime Value in your customer/employee experience? Where are you authentic and pushing past transaction into relationship?
More content
from Ken.
THE RISE OF ZILLENNIALS: BRAND VALUES OF A NEW GENERATION
THE TRUST TOWER: WHY BRAND LOYALTY IS BUILT ON BELIEF, NOT BENEFITS
THE CUSTOMER INTIMACY LADDER: FROM SERVICE TO SOUL
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.
