In a CX minute: Thoughts on customer experience, July 1, 2021

In a CX Minute – Episode 13

Lucky number 13, finally (technically, in numerology, is number 4 as 1 +3 equals that – and four is not a bad number… so…. lucky number 4, sort of).

Here we are again, so what do we have in this newsletter-that-takes-more-than-a-minute-to-read (since that’s the most common complaint from most of you)?

🎼 Coming out of my cage 🎼: A killer conversation

First off, another installment of the “I don’t know what I am doing, with friends” video series. This time around, Mr. Graham Hill tackles masterfully the difference between company pathways and customer journeys – and that by itself is totally worth it.

If you don’t know him (for shame!) here’s his LinkedIn profile and if you look at his recent activity, you’ll see incredible articles he published in the last few months addressing the many aspects and sides of CX. I agree with some, debated others in his timeline, and even addressed this in previous versions of this newsletter. No matter how you come about to this, he has good content.

What started our conversation was an article on MyCustomer.com about company pathways and customer journeys.

Something about it struck me as interesting and – well, you will have to watch the almost 20’ (also won’t take a minute, nothing that is worth it takes a minute… come on) of great chat with him. He does a magnificent job of explaining how the two interact (hmmm… sounds like interactions, another good word that I have used extensively lately) to create excellent experiences.

CX, the employee experience, and the hill upon which some of us will die

Moving on to another topic – customer experience intersection with employee experience. If you follow me in LinkedIn, I have devoted more than a fair share of time lately talking about this topic.

Most charlatans out there, after they figured it’s hard to be accurate about success in CX, focused on another platitude that kills me – customer experience starts with employee experience. “Hogwash,” said I, and set out to discuss this.

I’ve been told that I created a stir of conversations about the topic (Imagine that an evangelist causing conversations to happen – almost as if by design… hmm) with a few of you focused on being wrong (I mean, thinking you are right – of course, but ultimately being wrong) adding to the convo.

I went back and collected all the L-I posts about it, the comments, and wrote a new L-I article on employee experience and employee culture that encompasses the vast majority of what you need to know about it (a summary) and has the links to the original discussions about it. Please feel free to comment there or somewhere – this conversation is nowhere near over.

Your current employee experience determines future customer loyalty 

How you treat both employees and customers right now will ultimately be what folks remember. It will drive loyalty, or it will drive churn.

Class is in session: Do educated consumers make better customers?

Tangential turn number two, let’s talk about educating consumers, shall we? I wrote a great article about this in ZDNet. This is more of a summary, synthesis of what we know or should know rather than a groundbreaking thought leadership piece. It’s something that stemmed from the many (12 so far) newsletters I published here, the content of the same, and conversations I had in the many different channels I frequent.

This is, if I may say that myself, an interesting concept – educate consumers so they become good customers, and we can reduce our dependency on specific pathways to get new or better clients.

Tangential numero tres, couple of unrelated but cool links.

The Netcore eCommerce Personalization Benchmark Report for 2021 is quite interesting for the numbers it shows (and there are too many). Like:

• Conversion rates are still low (like between 1 and 1.5% low)
• 87% of brands doing e-commerce think they could improve what they do
• Almost half offer personalization, but apparently not done well since there is a gap between what they do and what customers perceive as value for what they do

There’s a lot more, download the book to get some interesting benchmarks – especially if you want to understand how well your own e-commerce is doing. Then again, ecommerce is a part of infrastructure, so not much you can do unless you are tackling that part of the house instead of thinking it’s an app… but that’s a different conversation for another day.

How a customer data platform unlocks the power of personalization 

The power of personalization, powered for business: Customer data platform (CDP) solutions help brands build on foundational insights to go beyond marketing and impact the full customer journey.

CX, conscious consumers, and privacy

Tinuti published The Consumer Privacy Trends Report (also for 2021, imagine that). This one is more subdued, not as much sizzle – but it is a great report if you want to understand that changes underway (I mean, before Google canceled it this week, we were mere weeks away from totally changing our way to market and use privacy). Touching on compliance, cybersecurity, and some overall numbers for privacy and data usage – it is useful, always good to know what’s going in the world of privacy, that’s what I say.

Face the music: Apple privacy changes hit e-commerce marketing

Apple privacy changes are right around the corner, and marketers who rely on Facebook ads are bracing for major impact. Here's what you need to know.

Tangent number four, and the final one, is something totally outside of the box – and you could even say not even related to this… except…. Some weeks ago, I shared with you a link to a report on consumer consciousness. I will apologize for the bad pun in advanced, even if not intended… that stayed in my subconscious (rimshot) and kept a place there trying to figure out what I could do with that. After all, the report talked about how willing consumers were to acquire knowledge and products that were intentional and purposeful against their journeys.

You need to read that report to understand, but it gave some good numbers and options for what to do with conscious consumers – both those seeking “the greater good” and those seeking “their better good”.

When she talks, I hear the revolution: It’s no longer enough to hold the line

Consumers are driving the next great social change via their wallets, and no amount of advertising, PR, or marketing budget can overcome the power of consumers committed to purpose.

I was talking with someone at SAP the other day and – I am sorry, cannot recall whom, but know I am grateful for the link you shared – they shared with me a link to google talks. One of the talks was Swami Sarvapriyananda talking about consciousness. Length warning – it is almost 45 minutes of his explaining consciousness – and you must pay attention (the host will chastise you about it before it starts) but it’s totally worth it.

How does it connect to CX and this newsletter?

Easy – Swami S (to those who know him and cannot spell his last name twice in one day) talks about consciousness being a state of witnessing, of understanding. And correct me if I am wrong – but isn’t that what we advocated for the last 12-13+ weeks here? Become a witness to consumer expectations and company sought outcomes, and make sure you connect them both without regards to how or why? Smart guy, Swami, smart guy.

And that completes my travel through myriad and distant topics, in more than one minute – but still… this was never about doing it one minute, ok? It’s a homage to a song, and its meaning… come on.

What says you? Comment on LinkedIn, or email me at work – lmk, and will be glad to feature you on a future video, newsletter, article, or link sharing.

Until then, stay thirsty my friends. Stay thirsty.

Read all of the ‘In a CX Minute’ content HERE.