The information age is over: Enter the age of curation
The information age has given way to the age of curation as we try to survive and thrive in a world with an abundance of data.
In a CX Minute – Episode 14
Gotta say, the short week screwed up my schedule – apologies for the late posting this week (like a week late – sorry). Promise I will try my best next week.
It’s been a very interesting time here at Narrative HQ™. With some internal changes in personnel, focus, plans, and GTM approach, I’ve been keeping busy plotting the world-takeover that had been delayed for so long. Our narrative is solid and well differentiated, you may or may not have seen it or heard it, but you will soon – trust me.
What I am focused on now, not as much background and market information and ideas – but how to take this forward, how to help our customers embrace the ideas we are presenting, and how to create a killer value prop for different audiences.
My days are filled with research, reading, and conversations about how CX can deliver value to the enterprise, how to measure it, and how to leverage that to expand the role of CX from a single-department project (not a lot of value) to an enterprise-driven initiative that aligns strategically to the organization.
There is no more worthless discussion in enterprise tech than “who owns CX?” or “who owns the customer?”. Wish I could dispel those myths…
You may have seen me recently rallying against some of the “truths” (actually, they’re myths – since there is no proven models or data other than people repeating the same soundbites ad-nausea) of CX. Will continue, and one of the tenets of the messaging model we are building for us is the fact that CX is not easily defined, but it needs a common definition – not for the market, but for each organization.
What does CX mean to you will be different than what it means for anybody else. There is no “true” definition – it is not so simple.
How you prepare your organization to have better interactions with your customers, understand them and their expectations, and balance the outcomes and those expectations (at the end of the day, a functional “definition” of CX) while learning how to do it better next time is going to be different from everyone else.
Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers: Psychology, CX, and bias
This is not about semantics or definitions, you can look those up everywhere, but this is about something more interesting…
I found this article while researching psychology concepts to apply to CX conversations (I said this before, this is not about technology or processes – must be about a wholesome enterprise approach to customers) that is so perfect to add to the discussion on charlatans.
The article talks about Reversals in Psychology – how to spot troubled research or proofs that cannot be replicated once it reaches contact with reality and how to retract the conclusions of the study.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not only about psychology – when I was doing Economics, we used the term all the time. Apparently, all social sciences suffer from this: the lack of repeatability.
Had a great conversation with a friend who knows psychology and is way smarter than me, (most of mine are), about how biases are what create the situations where reversals happen and how because of them all studies are irreproducible – which led me down a different rabbit hole of reading about biases… sigh, job never ends.
Discussion is ongoing, BTW, so you will hear more about that… either I am right, or she is – will update you when done.
Back to why I bring this up – I was talking about this with my muse (Alan Berkson) last week and we decided it may be fun to apply that to CX. And thus – this conversation was born.
I think there are many things in CX that we treat as sacred that are not, and that the continuous repetition of the same without the ability to repeat the “original experiment” that gave birth to that myth is what troubles me the most. Mostly because these impossible conclusions are being used everywhere to justify, measure, and extend CX initiatives – and because they tend to be the death of CX initiatives.
I will be researching and writing more about this in coming weeks. I think it is a worthwhile experiment. To quote Scott Nelson, Gartner – sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers.
Now to something more fun: Interaction resolution
Pega conducted a study with interesting conclusions. While there are some data points that I think are not totally correct – there were two that I believe are exactly aligned with where the market is, and that aligns with my previous diatribes in this column and elsewhere about minding interactions, not experiences.
I have been repeating these two truths forever – and I only had “old” data (circa 2012 was latest update) to validate the statement. Glad to have some new data to support it now.
BTW, nothing has changed dramatically – the numbers were not that different 10 years ago, or 20. Focus on delivering great interactions, resolving them, making sure they are accurate and repeatable (see what I did there? Tied this link to the previous on reversals – yeah, my brain works that way…) and the rest takes care of itself.
The 10 brands with the best customer service aren’t who you’d expect
Brands hoping to provide the best customer service for their industry need to answer two key questions about their audience before creating a strategy.
“I don’t know what I’m doing” and intellectual sparring: The contradiction of Esteban*
Finally, a little nostalgia.
I think I have a dozen or so videos recorded for my “I don’t know what I am doing – with friends” show. They are great conversations, and more are coming – have half a dozen already done, another 7-8 more scheduled, and a dozen or so planned. It’s fun.
The premise of the show is to bring unscripted conversations to cover the key topics of the day and provide a different, unscripted, unstructured opinion in the form of conversation. Only thing I can guarantee about them? These are tangential discussions at best, full of incredible insights and drama.
If you haven’t, then check them out; I’m trying to prove the value of these videos internally – which is why I’d appreciate if you could take a gander to any of these that interest you, comment or give me feedback, or just tell me what’s right / wrong with them.
As always, thanks for reading and thanks for what you are going to contribute to the future of this newsletter and the show. Please send me your comments whichever way / channel is best; looking forward to them.
Talk soon – like in a minute…
