One of our podcast listeners, Jeanne-Claude, wrote about a problem he was having for a recent episode. I am writing about it here today because it is likely a problem some of you share. Jeanne-Claude’s problem is that his company offers a complicated product, and despite their offering being better than the competition, the competition is winning.
Consumers do insane, possibly dangerous things when they feel a threat to their resources. In particular, highly commoditized resources we perceive as necessary for basic functioning. Unfortunately, panic buying shows that the difference between everyday life and chaos has a thin margin. However, it also reveals a powerful tool in your customer strategy: Scarcity. Today we will discuss how this motivates people’s decision-making.
Scarcity is something we are all a little more aware of these days, post-COVID. The supply chains are screwed up because the ports are backed up, and there aren’t enough drivers to get things to consumers, among other things. To talk about the scientific drivers behind Scarcity, we hosted Dr. Professor Kelly Goldsmith (@ProfGoldsmith) on a recent podcast.
Lately, my Customer Experiences have been lousy. At the beginning of the pandemic, I was more understanding when Customer Experiences weren’t great. However, 18 months later, my patience has run out, and organizations should have sorted things out by now. So, since the state of things is such a mess at the moment, we did a podcast on the 5 Rules to Dramatically Improve the Way You Deal with Customer Complaints, and I thought I would share them here as well.
Our podcast encourages listeners to tell us about problems that they would love some behavioral science or practical insights into helping them solve. We call it “I’m in a pickle,” and it is about solving real-world problems with the principles we discuss. I thought I would share a recent one we had come in here with you because many of you readers might have the same problem.
Is Customer Experience dying?
Maybe it is. At the very least, Customer Experience is dying as we know it.
I recently discussed whether Customer Experience is dying on LinkedIn Live with two other Customer Experience champions, Joe Pine, co-author of The Experience Economy, and Lewis Carbone, Customer Experience expert and speaker, and founder of ExperienceEngineering™. Here are some of the points of our discussion.
We know from industry research and personal experience that despite all the attention on it, Customer Experience is either stagnating or not getting the results CEO’s desire. Some might say it is because of COVID, but I don’t think so.
Having managed over 3,500 people in contact centers in my previous career, I was sympathetic of organizations at the start of the pandemic. They had to adapt, quickly. However, that was a long time ago now. My sympathy faded, and disappointment replaced it.. Today, COVID is an excuse for organizations to deliver poor service.
I am also disappointed in the frequency of bad experiences I have had lately, despite the focus on Customer Experience.
Why?
