Through the Eyes of the Customer: Product

Product

12/31/2015

To engage your employees, show them how they improve people's lives.

Here's a statistic that any CEO should be all over:

Companies with ideals of improving people's lives at the center of all they do outperform others by 400%.

There are two dynamics in this that make those companies successful:

First, they've found a way to connect their offering to improving people's lives.

Second, and perhaps most important, they've communicated this connection up, down and sideways throughout their organization, so that every employee acts it out in their jobs, every single day. That's called engagement and alignment, and companies that have it are successful in a lot of ways.

Let's go back to the first point - finding a way to connect their offering to improving people's lives...

Some products lend themselves to this "connection" more easily than others. For example, a hospital, or pharmaceutical company have obvious and direct connections to improving people's lives. But what if your product doesn't fall neatly within the spectrum of health care? What if you sell auto parts, or snack food? There's still a connection - you just have to find it.

One of the ways to finding it is to look for the positive emotions that can be associated with the use your product. A couple famous examples come to find: , and the Pepsi Generation. Tires by themselves don't necessarily trigger the "improving lives" emotion. And as for cola, well, it's sugar water - the kind of stuff that your doctor probably tells you to stay away from.

But both Michelin and Pepsi successfully uncovered the raw human emotion that can be triggered by the use of their products, and suddenly, each became very much associated with improving people's lives.

So how about your product? How does, or how can it make better the lives of the people that use it?

And when you figure it out, share it with your employees. Help every one of your employees connect the dots between what they do in their jobs, to the use of your product, by the end customer.

So, how do you improve people's lives?

Posted at 07:43 AM in Employee Engagement, Product | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/22/2014

McDonald's Secret to Growing a Brand and a Loyal Customer Base

Do you remember when the first McDonalds opened in your hometown?

In Yorktown Heights, NY, that was in 1976. The red neon sign out front said, "Over 6 Million Served." I just turned 16 and could legally apply work, so I landed my first coroporate job cooking hamburgers.

On a regular basis, the manager on duty removed unsold burgers were from the warming bin, and put them in the trash. The procedure was called "Waste and Loss." As a 16-year-old male with a voracious appetite for anything remotely edible, I couldn't understand why a company would routinely and religiously throw away food that was only cooked a couple hours earlier. Sure, those burges didn't taste as fresh as the burgers that just came off the grill, but in my mind, they was perfecty edible.

Customer Loyalty and Reputations for Quality don't happen by accident; they happen and grow over time, by continually adhering to those short-term decisions that seem hard to make, and harder to live by.

(When I speak of "quality" here, I'm not talking about nutritional quality; I'm talking about quality of product and service delivery; the ability to set expecations with your customers, and rigorously stick to a certain process so that you can deliver on those expectations over and over and over; so much so, that trust in your ability to deliver become part of your brand.)

In this blog post by Seth Godin, he points to the difficult short-term decisions that a company needs to make, in order to produce consistent quality, reputation and branding.

I recently drove past that same McDonalds where I worked 38 years ago. The sign out front no longer says "Over 6 Million Served." It now says "Billions and Billions Served." Throwing away a perfectly-good hamburger may seem foolish in the short-term, but done for the right reasons for more than 38 years, it's built one of the most famous brands in the world.

What are the "hamburgers" in your business?

Do you have the guts to throw away your less-than perfect hamburgers in order to build a better reputation?

Posted at 04:38 PM in Product, Reputation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

12/02/2013

What's Wolfgang Puck's Secret Ingredient for Success at Spago?

In the current issue of Fortune Magazine, there's an article called "Wolfgang Puck's Dining Revolution." The article revealed something about Puck's approach to the restaurant business that I didn't expect to be reading. But clearly, that "something" has been a driving force behind the success of his restaurant and food business.

When people think of wolfgang puck, they think of food. And when they think of a successful food business, they think of great-tasting food. But here's what Puck says in the article - referring to when he began his world-famous restaurant in Beverly Hills, Spago - that caught me by surprise:

"I put in an open kitchen so I could greet the customers, see when they finished their first course, and prep the next course. I wanted to give the guests something of a show, not just their food on a plate, and it became popular with Hollywood people."

So, here's this world-famous chef telling us how his primary focus, when planning a business, was not about the food, but the customers, and their experience in his restaurant.

The Point is This:

Yes, your tangible product has to be good. But if you want to be truly successful in your market, you need to plan the business around delivering a great customer experience.

How much is customer experience a part of your business plan? And what are some of the specific things you've done in the business, to back this up? What are you not doing now, that you could be doing, to improve the customer's experience in your business?

Wolfgang Puck with his staff at Spago in Beverly Hills (Fortune)

Posted at 06:57 AM in Customer Experience, Product | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

04/24/2013

For an Innovative Customer Experience, Think Outside the Product.

When companies talk about innovation, they're usually talking about creating new products, or product features. But with products becoming more easily commoditized, any competitive advantage gained through product innovation is likely to be short-lived. If you want innovation to last, think outside the product.

There's usually plenty of opportunity to differentiate, if think about what your customers do before, during and after the use of the product. Look for common "areas of pain" that customer endure during the product use cycle, and you'll find areas that are ripe for innovation.

Here are a few examples:

Cable Television Service
My cable TV provider touts their vast selection of programming; innovation for them means creating new programming packages, which leads to more options for the customer.

I don't get excited by new programming options; or the ability to record two shows, while watching a third.

Things that excite me would be remotes with fewer than 63 buttons, and a monthly statement that's designed for me, instead of the cable company's accounting department.

Financial Services
I don't care about new investment products; what I would like to see is a monthly statement that tells me what I need to know, but in far fewer than twelve pages. And a prospectus that's written for a lay person. (If I wanted was comfortable reading the average prospectus, I probably wouldn't need someone else to manage my investments.)

Oil Change Service
The place where I get my oil changed recently began offering an optional synthetic oil product. That's great, but if they want to really excite me, they'll pick my car up, change the oil, and bring the car back to me when done.

My challenge is finding the time to get the car to them; not finding synthetic motor oil.

As customers, we all have lots of problems outside of the product. If you want to give us a truly great experience, create solutions to those problems. Innovate outside of the product.

What are some of the common challenges that you face, that can be solved through a change outside the product?

Posted at 05:00 AM in Customer Experience, Customer Journey, Product | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

03/22/2013

Remarkable products should be built from the inside out.

Every year on my birthday, my mother-in-law gives me a gift card to my favorite beer store. Yes, I married well. This year, I began my annual shopping spree at Portland, Maine's RSVP Discount Beverage.

Down one of the micro-brew aisles, among the dozens of brown bottles on the top shelf, was a tall, pink ceramic bottle with a name every bit as remarkable as the bottle itself: Voodoo Doughnut Maple Bacon Ale.

The greatest minds in marketing have said that for a product to compete in a crowded market, it needs to stand out from the crowd; it needs to be visibly different; it needs to be remarkable. The Rogue Ale company - the maker of Voodoo Doughnut, absolutely nailed "remarkable" with the bottle.

I'd never seen a painted pink beer bottle before - it stood out like a Purple Cow in a field of Holsteins - so much so, that I couldn't not buy it.

My expectations were high - when I returned home, I put the bottle in the refrigerator to get it to the perfect drinking temperature. When I tasted the beer, it was far less than remarkable. Now, I realize that taste is a matter of taste, and I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that are big fans of Voodoo Doughnut Maple Bacon Ale, but I'm not one of them. There was nothing that I wanted to remember about the taste, and I surely wasn't going to sell others on buying the beer.

The point is this:

If you're going to make yourself remarkable; if you're going to shout louder than everyone else in the crowd, you need to be sure that you can back it up with substance. If your product can't live up to the hype, you can be hurting your brand and reputation.

When you make your product remarkable, do it from the inside-out. Focus on creating a great product and a great experience, before you build a great package.

What products have you bought, that were remarkable inside as well as outside?

Posted at 08:00 AM in Branding, Product, Reputation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

03/20/2013

3 Steps for Customer-focused Product Names

Have you ever been completely fooled by a product name? You think it's one thing, only to find out it's something completely different?

I was in Indianapolis recently, and as a Minor League baseball fan, I decided to check out Victory Field, the beautiful home of the Indianapolis Indians. The Indians are a Triple-A affiliate of a Major League team.

Indianapolis is a four-and-a-half-hour drive from the City of Cleveland, Ohio, and Cleveland is home to Major League Cleveland Indians. Therefore, I naturally assumed that the Indianapolis Indians were the AAA farm team of the Cleveland Indians.

But... I was wrong.

The Indians aren't affiliated with the Indians; the Indians are affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates. I know... I didn't get it, either.

When a product name confuses the customer, bad stuff can happen.

How would you like to be the parent who promised their children that they'd take them to an Indian's minor league game, only to find out that the team on the field is actually the Pirates?

When naming a product, give it a name that will make sense, and set clear expectations for the customer. While there are plenty of sound tips for naming products, I'd like to focus on three specific steps that can most impact the customer experience.

Choose a name that accurately defines the product.

If you're the Pirates, call yourself the Pirates. Don't call yourself the Indians. The customer should know what the customer is buying, and the product name shouldn't prevent that.

Choose a name that describes the benefits of the product.

A good name describes the results that customer receives from using the product. (Remember the marketing adage, "Customers don't buy 1/4 inch drill bits; they buy 1/4 inch holes.") A favorite examples of the benefits-oriented name is Leggs - the pantyhose introduced in 1969 by Hanes. Woman didn't want hosiery; they wanted the legs that resulted from wearing the hosiery.

Choose a name that will make sense to the customer; not the product designer.

Do you remember the Ford Edsel? Considered one of the greatest product and marketing failures in the history of the automobile, the Edsel was named after the son of Henry Ford. Critics said the car wasn't attractive enough to sell, but the name certainly didn't help. While it meant something to the company's founder, it had no meaning for the customer. When you name a product, do it for the customer; not for yourself.

Name your products from the customer's point of view; a well-chosen name can impact the customer experience, as well as the success of the product.

What are some of the more successful product names that you can remember, and why?

Posted at 08:00 AM in Best Practices, Branding, Marketing Best Practices, Product | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

02/21/2013

The 2 most important words in customer experience design.

It's often the little things that can make a big impact on the customer experience.

If you travel a lot, and stay in a different hotel each night, it can be easy to forget your room number, especially if your more of a visual person; a person who remembers pictures better than numbers.

That's why I really appreciate what Hampton Inn has done with the room numbers in their hotels - they've added a unique black and white photograph next to the number. So if you have trouble rembering if your room was 323 or 332, you'll probably find it a lot easier to remember the photo of the farmer riding the tractor. I had the room with the adirondack chair on the sun-drenched lawn.

When I go to sleep in a hotel, I like to keep my cell phone on the night stand, and use it as an alarm clock. And I also like to keep it plugged in, to begin the next day with a full charge. But I've found that most hotels don't have enough outlets for charging all our digital stuff.

But this particular Hampton Inn mounted a cluster of outlets and USB charging ports right above the nightstand.

Visual room numbers andU SB ports by the nightstands aren't exactly big enhancements like hot breakfast bars or state-of-the art fitness centers. But they're big in two ways:

They're simple solutions to common problems - USB ports by the nightstand may not be glamorous, but they're exactly what I needed.

They're memorable - black and white photos may not transform the Hampton Inn into a luxurios hotel, but they do trigger memories, and stir curiosity - I dare you to walk down the hall to the elevator, without looking to see what photos accompany the other room numbers.

Here's thet point:

When designing your customer experience, ask yourself if each element fits at least one of the following:

1. Is it useful to the customer?

2. Is it memorable for the customer?

Design your experience to give customers more reasons to use your service, and more reasons to remember it.

Posted at 09:16 AM in Customer Experience, Product | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

12/28/2012

Customer Experience is not always about what customers want or need.

Don't you just love instant gratification?

Sellers know this, and they're giving us more of it.

A lot of the traditional retailers, ranging from the Wal-marts of the world, to the independent boutiques throught the cities accross America are constantly trying to find ways to keep their customers from spending their money with Amazon. Buying from Amazon is easy, convenient, and it saves us a ton of our most limited resource: time.

Instant gratification brownies A recent New York Times article explains how these brick-and-mortar stores are investing a lot of resources to raise the bar on Amazon's conveniece factor, by making it possible to buy from them on-line, as in not leaving your home or office, but still having the product in your hands that very same day.

Here's one example from the Times article:

Ivy Wu did not immediately need the navy lace cocktail dress she ordered the other day. But when a representative from Shoptiques, an e-commerce site, arrived at her Midtown Manhattan office with the dress only hours after Ms. Wu, 26, had placed her order, “I was really impressed that it was here,” she said.

Even if the customer doesn't need the product today, the thrill of getting it today can enrich the customer experience.

The things that make a customer experience better, are often something detached from the what the customer is buying.

Customer Experience is not always about what customers want or need. Think outside the product - how can you improve your customers' experience?

Posted at 11:26 AM in Best Practices, Customer Experience, Product | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

09/04/2012

How Packaging, Presentation and Delivery can Change the Customer Experience

My wife and I recenlty had dinner (actually, we had drinks and a bunch of different appetizers) at The Front Porch in .

We've been on this Tuna Tartare kick lately - it all started on a cold winter's night back in January, and ever since then, any time we see it on the menu, we order it. And more than seven months later, and about a dozen orders of Tuna Tartare, the thrill had begun to fade...

Until that night in Ongunquit, every Tuna Tartare was served the same way - on a plate - tastefully arranged, but on a plate. The Front Porch changed all that by surprising us with a completely different presentation - they ditched the plate, and served it in an giant martini glass!

Same tuna, same tartare, but in truly remarkable display!

If you sell a product or service that's similar to your competitor's product, you can still be different; you can still be remarkable; you can still be the one that gets remembered. Don't let the product alone define the experience. How you package, present and deliver the goods can be the difference between mundane and memorable.

What changes can you make to your presentation, packaging and delivery, to make a more memorable experience for your customers?

Posted at 04:54 PM in Customer Experience, Product, Retail Customer Experience | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

08/25/2012

Selling Skills for the New Customer Experience

The salesperson’s role is changing, from selling a product to a customer, to selling new ideas to the customer; ideas that will change the customer’s life, or way of doing business, for the better. While there’s normally a product involved, the product is becoming less central to the sales process, and instead, becomes more involved as these newly-accepted ideas are implemented.

Yes, the product is still important. But what matters most to the customer is receiving new ideas, and leadership on how they can make the complex parts of their lives simpler, make their lives easier, and make their lives better. The companies and sales people that can deliver these ideas and provide that thought leadership are the companies and salespeople who’ll succeed in the future.

Let’s look at two examples.

Many of us associate Apple Computer with their innovative, intuitive products. But when you walk into an Apple store, those great products are not the centerpiece. The focal point in every
Apple Store is the “Genius Bar.”

Inside their stores, Apple isn't primarily promoting products. They're selling ideas, expertise and leading customers toward doing things in ways that are simpler and easier to make improvements in their lives. Yes, their customers buy plenty of i-products, but it’s the knowledge, the thought leadership around different ways of doing things that define the Apple stores.

Dieticians in Supermarkets

A recent New York Times article cites Hy-Vee is the only grocery chain in the country that posts a registered dietitian in almost every one of its 235 stores.

“That puts it at the forefront of a phenomenon sweeping the grocery business as it tries both to capitalize on growing consumer awareness of the role food plays in health and wellness and to find new ways to fend off competition from specialty markets like Whole Foods and big-box stores like Walmart.”

In other words, Hy-Vee sees a competitive advantage in offering expert advice beyond the product. These dieticians in the grocery stores are there to help the customer make improvements in their lives, by seeing foods differently and by consuming foods differently. Yes, the customers do leave the store with groceries; the product on the shelf may no longer be the real product that Hy-Vee customers are buying.

Why is this happening? What’s driving it?

Products today are becoming more similar to one another, and more commoditized. Customers today can learn a whole lot about a product through researching it on the Internet, before ever going into the store, or engaging with the company that sells the product. Therefore, the salesperson that’s a “product expert” is less relevant than he or she used to be. To attract customers into a store to make a purchase, a business must provide something beyond the product, or product knowledge.

So, what does this mean to you if you’re business owner, manager or salesperson in a business that sells products similar to those of a competitor? For starters, think about how you can change your approach to selling, and how your product can fit into your customers’ lives in ways that are different from how they currently do things.

Do you and your salespeople focus beyond the product, and think of the challenges that arise, when a customer uses your product?

With groceries, a common challenge is preparing a meal that’s fast, easy and nutritious. The challenge becomes greater, when customers need to plan an entire week’s worth of meals that fit those criteria. Hy-Vee gives their customers direct access to dietary thought leaders and their expertise to lead their customers toward new ways to solving these problems. How can you take the same approach within your business?

Posted at 03:28 PM in Product, Retail Customer Experience, Selling Skills | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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