Richard KISS’ed me in that he demonstrated that the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle should guide a customer experience practitioner’s strategic and tactical plans.

Below is a picture of a simple, personal, hand-written card (not just signed) from Richard thanking me for my past participation in the Forrester Community and offering me a “cup of coffee.”

The effect – maximum. The cost – minimum!

Inexpensive and incredibly effective, hand-written thank you note.

Yes, great customer experience is improved by complex initiatives such as CRM systems, employee engagement programs,  or a killer help desk interface, but massive amounts of traction can be gained by reviewing your current structure, processes and technology and making simple tweaks.

For example, are your phone system recordings sending the right messages to your customers? Do your employee’s email signatures carry a brand message and helpful hyperlinks? Do you reward your employees with a thank you and a simple gift (coffee card, sweatshirt) when they go the extra mile?

During your next customer experience planning session, be sure to KISS your team. It may be the most productive session you ever have!

And, BTW, here’s an example of when you try to fake it, how false and detrimental it can be >>>

“Please be advised that our office may be attempting to collect a debt
and any information provided may be used for that purpose.”

I felt like I had just been read my Miranda rights.

I felt dirty.

Legal obviously added this message to the greeting due to the increased number of folks who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments.  I can understand that, but what about the 90% who have been making their payments on time?

This is clearly a case where customer experience was not considered. Nine out of 10 people are calling for some reason other than a payment issue, yet the mortgage company hit everyone equally with the same negative message.

There are other methods for handling such as message, and they are just as simple to execute. Given that the user has options, such as “To make your payment by phone, press 1” or “To speak with a loan counselor about a past due account, press 5”—the legal message could be played immediately after any option related to past due accounts only. It should be an easy fix. (And if your current phone system doesn’t allow for such customization, get a new one.)

Good customer experience isn’t about expensive, extensive programs—it’s about the little things. Simple things. It’s about making a phone greeting welcoming and positive and not combative. It’s about treating customers as individuals, with individual needs, and not as a herd.

Good customer experience comes down to one simple, well-known rule:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

This summer I spent a lot of time driving my daughter back and forth from the community pool, which is right by the tennis courts. Every day I watched people pulling up across from the tennis courts into the dirt along the street despite the fact that empty parking spaces were only one block away (they are free and a flat walk!).

I was dumbfounded by the behavior and thought that folks are just lazy, but this didn’t make sense — they were going to be playing tennis after all.

I started considering the motivators behind this behavior and began thinking about how to apply that insight to customer experience design. I also had a great conversation with my friend Chris Peters who helped further clarify the behavior (thanks Chris!). I settled on three points:

• Following the Crowd

In groups, most people follow what the crowd is doing.  In this case, others were parking there so the assumption might be that the official spaces were already full (which is sometimes the case but typically not).

When designing systems or facilities think carefully about how lines may form / or crowds gather and how that may work to your advantage or against it. For example, it’s very common to see Comments tallied on a web article. The more Comments on an item the more people are likely to read and post to the item. This is advantageous for a blog that wishes to demonstrate most popular articles, but could be detrimental to an industry news publication where it might bury what may be an important, but not popular, news item.

• Too Many Choices

When confronted with too many choices people become confused and frustrated—and they resort to doing what is easiest or nothing at all. For those parking at the tennis courts, there are several parking lots very close by but this dirt area is on the main street before you enter the recreation complex. It’s the first place they see and they take it. They are not thinking about how they are damaging the grass or creating a traffic hazard. That is too much decision-making to process. They need a space, they see a space, and they take it.

By comparison I recently experienced this type of frustration searching online for a shower enclosure. Many websites had search capabilities with what seemed like unlimited drop down menus—manufacturer, color, shape, style and yes, finally size—which was the ONLY search attribute I was interested in (I have an extremely small space). Unfortunately, the site did not provide a simple search box. I was given too many choices and not provided with an easy way to avoid all the other options. When given too many choices people often fail to make a decision altogether. In my case, I just went to another website.

• No Method to Discourage the Behavior

If you want to encourage a particular behavior, there should be methods that discourage the other possible behaviors. In this situation, people parking along the street should be ticketed, but the municipality has not been doing so because when the official parking spaces are full they do allow people to park along the street (this typically occurs when there are tennis tournaments).

When thinking about your customer’s experience, there are certain behaviors you would want to encourage. For example, you might want a customer to troubleshoot their problems using an online tool before picking up the phone and speaking directly with a customer service representative.  I have seen some companies force this behavior with strong language or failure to provide a 1-800 which feels very negative and confrontational. Instead, provide an incentive to those that first use the online tool be giving a coupon or entry into a sweepstakes. Provide the 800 number to those who want it, but dangle the incentive for those that can be encouraged behave differently.

In the case of the tennis courts, I would recommend the following to change the current behavior of parking along the street:

1. The municipality has to first discourage the behavior. Moveable flower planters that block parking in the area and then can be moved for tournaments is a fairly simple method to do this.
2. Signage that directs people to the open parking spaces beyond the tennis courts is simple and even less expensive. Planting the thought “Additional Parking Available within 1 Block” would provide direction to those finding it hard to make a decision where to park.
3. And lastly, actions 1 & 2 would transfer the “crowd effect” from the undesired area to the desirable parking areas—now your using the crowd to your advantage.

1.) The overall mood and sentiment of the audience is already negative and confrontational.

2.) In our communications, we need to direct the homeowner away from what they want to do,
to what they need to do.

I began the assignment by conducting an Audience Needs Workshop with several Asset Managers and their team leads. These are the front-line employees who speak directly with the homeowner.  The workshop was divided into several exercises intended to uncover what the Asset Managers needed (they are my audience) and to create a psychologically driven, empathetic persona for the homeowners.*

The end deliverable of this 1/2 day workshop was a Communications Strategy Document that outline the overall recommended approach to the messaging. My next step is to define a “Communications Funnel” similar to a lead generation funnel that will help guide the Asset Manager from the initial cold call to the final financial resolution for the homeowner. As a new, ongoing project I’ll create a Case Study as we complete the campaign.

*Direct homeowner research was not conducted due to the client’s concerns that this would cloud their attempts to communicate with homeowners about the specific financial situation that required resolution.

My daughters and I enjoying touring DC. First time I've combined a business trip (awesome new client in Bethesda) with some personal fun. I highly recommend it! And also the reason why you're getting this "resource list" instead of a real blog post

I recently pulled together this quick list of UX resources for a colleague. It is NOT comprehensive, but since I took the time to gather what are my top go-to sources for user experience news and information, I figured I would share it.

I’m also having a crazy-busy summer between work and family I have not been able to blog …

My twitter list of UX folks:
http://twitter.com/#!/RaelinM/ux-ia-design

Publishers Focused on User Experience:

http://rosenfeldmedia.com/

http://www.rockpub.com/

Great UX Websites:

http://uxmag.com/

http://johnnyholland.org/

http://www.uie.com/

http://www.eightshapes.com/

http://www.nngroup.com/

http://www.humanfactors.com

http://contentini.com/

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/

Some Associations/ Conferences

http://uxweek.com – Coming up in August

http://www.upassoc.org/

http://www.ixda.org/

http://www.midwestux.com/

http://2011.iasummit.org/

http://ideaconference.org

This article was originally published in the Fall 2008 TAVMA (Title Appraisal Vendor Management Association) Newsletter

During down business cycles marketing budgets are often reduced, if not cut out altogether. You’re asked to do more, with less money. At times like these, I always go back to the basics, to the core fundamentals I learned about marketing in a very unlikely place — a Dairy Queen franchise in Centerville, PA.

#1 Thank Your Customers
A genuine smile and a heartfelt thank you brought people back time and time again. In business, we often forget the importance of the simple Thank You. When your employees talk to your customers on the phone, do they thank them for their business? Do your sales people send out handwritten Thank You cards? Do your senior executives take the time to place an impromptu thank you call? We often get caught up in elaborate marketing campaigns and forget about the power of a simple Thank You.

#2 Make the Customer Feel Special
I’m sure you have a favorite restaurant, a place where they greet you by name. The owner of that Dairy Queen franchise not only knew everyone in Centerville by name, she often had “goodies” for certain customers behind the counter. She’d cut out a newspaper article about someone’s child, so that they had an extra copy. Or, she’d pick up a book on a customer’s favorite hobby. One of the best ways to let a customer know they are valued is to send them something specific to their interests and goals.

#3: Put Your Mark on It
This Dairy Queen franchise was out in the middle of nowhere, yet it had direct competition, another Dairy Queen franchise less than 10 minutes away. While Dairy Queen is a great brand name and provided excellent products, the owner couldn’t rely on that brand alone. She had to distinguish her franchise from the other franchise. She put her team’s skills to use: one woman was an artist and quickly our Dairy Queen became well known for the beautiful cakes. Because products in our industry are standardized (title insurance is title insurance, an appraisal an appraisal), you need to put your special mark on it to stand out from the competition. Talk to your employees, what can you add to the product or service delivery to make your mark?

#4: Build Your Referral Network
I cursed those nights when the little league teams were lined up out both doors, long lines of screaming kids waiting for their cone; but those nights were excellent for business. The owner gave all little league coaches discounts on team cones. Sure, the cones didn’t make much money, but the parents and siblings of those little league players often ordered items that did. And the general goodwill this effort built in the community went a long way towards gaining more customers. Now is the time to build a solid network of referral partners and develop incentives that encourage the referral. Those incentives do not necessarily need to be financial—share information, pass along a referral to them, give them some market insight—and they will then likely do the same for you.

#5: Use the Power of Word Of Mouth
And speaking of community goodwill, the power of word-of-mouth is always the strongest marketing tool you have. For us, word-of-mouth is the industry trade press. During these difficult times, the trade press has cut back as well and need help developing content for their publications. Write an editorial. Craft a “how to do something better” piece. Highlight a vendor or product you use, it will help with the referral network as well. Leveraging both local and national trade publications is the least expensive marketing program to implement—all it costs is your time.

#6: Small Daily Efforts are More Productive than Big Ones
Many of my co-workers called the owner a slave-driver. If we had even one second of downtime, we were expected to clean—something, anything. And by the end of the evening, when the doors closed at 9:30, the entire place was spotless and we could go home. Those nights when the little leaguers where lined out the door? We’d be there until 10:30 at night cleaning up and it would cost the owner more to pay us. The same concept applies to marketing—consistent, low budget marketing every other month is less expensive and more effective than one big campaign. Spend your money on postcards, letter campaigns, sending small gifts, email newsletters, press releases, and other items—rather than blowing the entire budget on one big ad or event.

#7 Ask if They Would Like Sprinkles
Much like McDonalds and French fries, extra toppings at the Dairy Queen meant extra profit. In our business, there are two ways to ask if they would like sprinkles—when thanking them for the first order, ask them for the next one and cross sell your other products to your existing customers. We’re often so focused on marketing to prospects, we forget to market to our existing customer base. Use email announcements, newsletters, train your front-line employees, send letters; do everything you can to continually market yourself to your customer.

#8 Have a Big Sign
The Centerville Dairy Queen was on a long straight stretch of road, with a sign so large you could see it a mile up the road. This gave passersby a chance to react and decide to stop in for an ice cream. A smaller sign and these drivers might have just passed on by. The same applies to our industry. Be visible. Get your name out there. This doesn’t mean a full page ad in Mortgage Banking Magazine. (Although this would not hurt, I’m sure you have better ways to spend your money.) There are very cost-effective ways to “have a big sign.” First, your Internet presence, have a professional looking Web site, register in all the free or low-cost web directories you can find, join industry forums and blogs. Second, attend local, regional and national trade shows. Get your people out in the street… on a budget of course. If exhibiting is out of your price range, a lot of traction can still be gained by attending and being seen.

As you read this, your probably thinking, “These are really sales or account management tips.” And they probably are. But when markets decline and budgets are tight, the most cost effective marketing campaigns are designed to support your sales team and generate more business from your existing customers. In today’s mortgage environment, “new” leads are few and far between… your best investment is to market to your existing customers and your sales teams existing relationships.

I’m sure you’re thinking – did this really work for that Dairy Queen? Yes! It’s been 25 years since I worked there and the place is still open and busy every time I pass by.  And the competitive franchise? It’s been closed for years.

• Twitter’s False Personal Touch, Poor Email Execution >>>
• Branding and the Triad of Marketing, Training & HR >>>
• 5 Business Resolutions: Start With Mental Fitness >>>
• Everything I Learned About Marketing, I Learned at the
  Dairy Queen >>>
• Read all customer experience articles >>>

Social Media 

• People and Their Passions… Why Social Media Works. >>>
• Social Media & The Web as a Content Ecosystem >>>
• Featured in Ad Age for Qdoba Social Media >>>
• The Kizashi Road Test >>>
• Read all social media articles >>>

User Experience (UX /IA) / Digital Strategy 

• Case Study: UX Strategy for Energy Retailer >>>
• Case Study: Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Website Information Re-architecture >>>
• Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad… Email Deliverability vs. User Behavior >>>
• Online Publication Best Practices Review >>>
• Read all user-centered design articles >>>

Mortgage & Title Industry Articles 

• Case Study: Mortgage / Title Insurance B-to-B Customer Experience (CX) >>>
• Title Insurance and Coffee: Be Starbucks not Folgers >>>
• Social Media Resources for Mortgage Companies >>>
• TrueClose Mortgage Software Case Study >>>
• Smart Marketing is Measurable Marketing >>>

The parallels of the customer-company relationship and marriage are numerous. We start the relationship with some sort of contract, or vows. But then we also bring to that new relationship an entire set of assumptions and preconceived notions.

The Customers’ Unspoken Expectations

Recently, I had a conversation with a colleague about the customer, their expectations, and how that may match, or not match, what the company intends to provide. In this conversation the parallels of the customer-company relationship and marriage became apparent. We start the relationship with some sort of contract, or vows.  Some interactions, such as buying a TV, have explicit terms; others, such as buying bread, not explicit but present. Often, we bring to the new relationship an entire set of assumptions and preconceived notions about the company and our relationship with it.

For example, when buying bread I expect my brand to be available. I don’t have an explicit contract with the grocer to carry my brand, but I still expect it.  I don’t consider that my brand may not be profitable for the grocer.  The grocer and I have never talked about it.  When he discontinues it, I’m mad. I’ve now had a bad customer experience and the grocer doesn’t have a clue.

Customers Have Unspoken Expectations Even in Explicit Transactions

When you look at it from the company’s point of view, it’s a business transaction.  The company provides  XYZ in exchange for money.  But as a consumer I expect ABC and possibly even LMNOP. Unfortunately, we never speak about my expectations nor what the company was willing to provide.

Much like a marriage, honest two-way communication is needed in the customer-company relationship to ensure great customer experiences. Unfortunately, companies aren't listening well. On the flip side, customers too need to do a better job of expressing their expectations.

The quintessential example of this is bank overdraft fees.  Overdraft coverage is outlined in the account contract you sign.  The banks have a contract for XYZ, to which the consumer agrees but quietly assumes the bank will provide LMNOP, e.g. exceptions to the overdraft rule. Consumers assume banks will waive fees for certain circumstances.  Banks feel that they should not because the consumer agreed to the contract. Granted, some of these fees were excessive and unfair, but never, ever were they hidden from the consumer. Consumers complained, and many banks held their ground, but good banks did waive the fees for certain (not all) customers.

At this point government has stepped in and imposed regulations on bank overdraft fees, but in an ideal world the banks should have resolved the situation. They should have had an honest, open dialog with consumers and voluntarily worked out a better plan for overdraft protection. An open, two-way dialog with a win-win solution would have gone a long way towards re-establishing general consumer trust with the financial services industry.

Active, Two-Way Communication is Needed

Much like a marriage, honest two-way communication is needed in the customer-company relationship to ensure great customer experiences.  Unfortunately, companies aren’t listening well. The wrong tools (surveys/focus groups), combined with the squeaky wheel phenomenon, result in a short-sighted approach to the customer experience.  It’s like having a conversation with your spouse while they’re channel surfing.

On the flip side, customers need to do a better job of expressing their expectations.  The bank overdraft issues occurred because many consumers simply signed the account contracts without reading them. Consumers should pay more attention to, and ask questions about, the explicit terms of an agreement. They should also be more vocal about their unwritten expectations. This is hard for most consumers to do, therefore companies should take the lead and put in place better programs and incentives to solicit this feedback and have true discussions about it.

In a two-way relationship companies will engage customers and elevate their customer experience beyond the expectations of both company and consumer.

It’s a Financial Transaction and an Emotional Bond

Companies may not like it but marriage is a great analogy for the customer-company relationship because it involves both a financial transaction and an emotional bond.  We are all human and therefore emotional creatures. We make decisions based on logic and emotion—even B2B purchasing decisions are shown to be emotionally driven.  At the end of the day, many factors go into the customer-company relationship. Much like a marriage, it’s a complex blend of the rational and the emotional. There are many competencies required to create a great customer experience, but I believe one stands above the rest – and that is Active Listening.

Active Listening is not only collecting feedback, but digging deeper and asking why, seeking to truly understanding the customers needs and expectations. I’m talking about taking it a step beyond Voice of the Customer (VOC) and into a two-way conversation. It’s only through conversation, not just listening, that your customer will know that you are actively listening. Once they feel heard, they will then be open to listening to the company’s point of view and you will be able to set expectations about what the company is willing to give. And in this two-way relationship companies will engage customers and elevate their customer experience beyond the expectations of both company and consumer.

I’ve been doing this for 15 years in the “web world.” It seemed a natural and easy conversion to make. In my last role, where I was in-house, I naturally expanded from marketing into those other critical areas of the customer experience—sales, IT, customer service, human resources. My peers saw what user-centered design methods could accomplish and welcomed my involvement in improving their processes and interactions with the client.

But, as a consultant, I’ve hit a brick wall. I keep hearing, “We understand our customers, we can skip that part and jump right into the work.” And, “We just did a survey, we can use that.” Or, my very favorite, “Our sales people (or customer service people) talk to the customers all the time, you can just talk to them.” UGH, I’m pulling my hair out.

I believe I’m talking to the right type of company—mid-size with multiple customer touchpoints, both B2B and consumer companies. And they all have expressed a need to improve their customer experience. They want to work with me.  BUT when it comes to the process, my recommended method for accomplishing this, they reject the customer interviews…

I’m channeling Cee Lo now… Why, Whyyyy, Whyyyyyyy Baby!

Recently, I’ve been struggling with what I thought were the issues:

1.) I’m not talking to the right type of business

2.) I’m not talking to the right person at that business

3.) I’m not very good at explaining/selling the customer interviews

And while these three things may indeed be true, something else struck me today …

People do not understand the technology behind websites, therefore they can comfortably admit they are not experts, they are not expected to be. It’s easy for a salesperson or a VP of operations to say “I don’t understand how users want to use a website.”

BUT for those same people to admit that they “don’t know what their customers want” then they must not be doing their job.

Now, I know this isn’t true. It’s the wrong type of thinking. But I can’t help wonder if this thinking is preventing businesses from doing the customer interviews? Are people simply concerned about admitting that they don’t know everything about their customers?

I don’t know the answer, but I would appreciate some advice for overcoming this issue:

As a consultant, do you experience the same objections to customer interviews? How do you overcome these objections?

On the business side, how do you feel about this issue? Why do some businesses resist the customer interview?