I am happy to announce that I am getting my first electric guitar. Many of you know that also means I am buying my first amplifier, too. The one I have my eye on is Fender’s, not because I know anything about amplifiers and their performance, but because I like how it looks like it came straight out of the 1960s. 

Nostalgia is an important part of my amplifier purchase. When I see the old-fashioned looking knobs on the amplifier, it reminds me of my childhood and the rock stars of my school days. Getting an amp that looks like that feels like an homage to my childhood dreams of being a rock star. 

Of course, the amp is a great amp, too. But I couldn’t tell you why. I can tell you I like how it looks and how it makes me feel. 

In this episode, we explore how nostalgia can help your customers feel happy about your offerings, too. If you use nostalgia to appeal to customers’ happy memories and feelings by looking at their past, they just might move forward into the future buying from you. 

Key Ideas to Improve Your Customer Experience

 The podcast begins with a description of what nostalgia is and why we feel it as human beings. Then we get into examples of how things trigger these nostalgic memories and evoke positive emotions, even if the experience in the past wasn’t a pleasant one. Then, we talk about how you can employ nostalgia to evoke the memories during customer interactions that will spill the happy and pleased over onto your experience.

• 04:39  Ryan explains what nostalgia is from a psychological perspective.    
• 06:35  We then describe why a negative experience can also make someone feel nostalgic.   
• 08:06  We talk about the Monty Python “The Four Yorkshiremen” sketch that shows how even when people complain about the past, they still seem to feel fond of it.    
• 13:21  Ryan explains some of the psychological benefits of feeling nostalgic that we enjoy as human beings.    
• 15:12  We begin to apply nostalgia to a practical insight for Customer Experience, by using happy memories to cast a Halo-effect on your experience.  
• 23:08  We explain how if you understand what makes people feel nostalgic, you can replicate that in your Customer Experience for them. 
• 25:49  Ryan and Colin explain how you can use the psychology behind nostalgia to improve your experience for people.  

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the ‘World’s Top 150 Business Influencers.’ As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers’ hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official “Influencer” on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren’t deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy’s Suite of Services.

One of our listeners, Jeanne-Claude, has a problem. He sells a complex product and despite the fact that they have the best one in the industry, the competition is outselling them. 

I can relate. I sold a complicated product when I was in corporate life, and it was always a highly competitive field. It can be challenging to communicate why you are the best when you have a complex offering and you want to tell customers all about it. However, one thing I know to be true is that it doesn’t matter who is the best; it matters who customers perceive to be the best. 

In this episode, we explore what behavioral science concepts might help Jeanne-Claude, and all the rest of you that suffer through something similar, to get the best of his competition. 

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

There are a number of factors that influence how customers perceive and offer. In the case of a complicated offering, they might be using something that is easier to compare to get them to a decision. However, it could also be the way the information is presented that drives them to the competition. It might even be that the way the choices are presented is making it difficult for them to choose Jeanne-Claude’s company. We talk about all of these concepts in this episode and how they might be influencing his results as well as how he can leverage them to change the outcome. 

Here are a few key moments in the discussion.

• 01:54  We read Jeanne-Claude’s frustrating problem that despite being the best, they are losing to the competition. 
• 03:39 Ryan explains the Evaluability Hypothesis and how it might influence the decision-making process for customers.    
• 07:50  Colin shares a story about choosing travel insurance and how a magazine provided an easier metric to choose one from the many available options.    
• 14:44  Colin explains that it is essential to understand what motivates a decision for specific customers so you can appeal to that in your communication.    
• 21:22   We introduce the concept of framing and how it might influence people’s decisions.   
• 25:42  Ryan brings Choice Architecture into the conversation and how presenting the choices in a different way might lead Jeanne-Claude’s customers in a new direction. 

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the ‘World’s Top 150 Business Influencers.’ As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers’ hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official “Influencer” on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren’t deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy’s Suite of Services.

Scarcity is something are more used to these days, particularly in light of the supply chain problems we see. Scarcity is something we feel when we are doing thing we have enough of what we need. If we don’t fix the problems at the ports, and the related problem of driver shortages to bring things in from the ports, we might see quite a few empty shelves this holiday season. 

Not that empty store shelves were anything new to most of us. After the great toilet paper shortage of early 2020, we all know that the line between chaos and order is thinner than we ever suspected. That’s because when we feel something is scarce, we assign more value to it—and sometimes react in crazy ways. 

In this episode, we brought back Dr. Professor Kelly Goldsmith of Vanderbilt University to talk more about Scarcity and how it affects our behavior. She explains how Scarcity has different types and we have various ways we respond to it. She also shares how understanding Scarcity and how it drives customer responses can make it an important tool in your marketing toolkit—but only if you know how to use it well.

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

The empty store shelves this past year have all taught us a little bit about Scarcity. It changes how we respond to situations in many ways. Dr. Goldsmith explains them to us and how we can use it in our marketing efforts. 

Here are a few key moments in the discussion:

• 04:54   Dr. Goldsmith describes what scarcity is and the difference between Objective and Subjective Scarcity.    
• 07:43   Dr. Goldsmith explains that Scarcity is always relative, and you can’t have it without also having a Reference Point.    
• 12:09   Ryan has Dr. Goldsmith explain why the toilet paper hoarding of 2020 is different than a marketing tactic, but inspired by the same psychology.   
• 15:09    We talk about the difference between a perceived need and an actual need, and how that affects our response to Scarcity.    
• 26:19   Dr. Goldsmith shares her research on Scarcity and the positives and negative potential effects of how we try to resolve it for ourselves.   
• 32:51  We all share our insight into how people can use what they know about Scarcity to improve their customer strategy. 

 Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the ‘World’s Top 150 Business Influencers.’ As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers’ hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official “Influencer” on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren’t deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy’s Suite of Services.

The 5 Rules to Dramatically Improve The Way you Deal with Customer Complaints

A lot of the behavioral sciences can feel intimidating. However, it doesn’t have to be. The Five Rules Podcast Series is our attempt at giving you an easy entry point into the complex and messy world of Behavioral Science.

Does your organization like to pretend that complaints never happen? When they do happen, does the company sweep them under the rug and hide them from everyone involved?

If so, you are not alone. Many organizations have the wrong approach to customer complaints. They see them as a problem that should never have happened. However, complaints can be a great way to get real-time feedback on moments in your Customer Experience.

In this episode we explore the five rules to help organizations deal with customer complaints. These rules help you come to better outcomes with your dissatisfied customers and how to see complaints for what they are: opportunities to improve what’s broken in your Customer Experience.

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

When it comes to handling customer complaints, there is no substitute for understanding how customers feel and showing them empathy. However, there are few other things to remember, too. Our five rules clarify the process and make it more likely that your customer complaint process will make things better instead of worse, both for customers and your bottom line.

• 03:21 We share the first rule about reading between the lines; understanding the real issue is key to good resolution, which is not what happened with Colin and his insurance company.
• 11:10  Colin reveals rule #2, which is about giving your employee the leeway and authority to resolve issues on their own, without having to get permission from someone else.
• 19:06  Ryan and Colin discuss the merits of resolving issues quickly with Rule #3.
• 24:42  Moving into the last two areas, the fourth rule is to change how your organization perceives complaints; seeing them as the free advice on your Customer Experience that you pay thousands to consultants to discover.
• 27:09  We discuss how to use empathy to resolve issues for the customer and make them feel like you care; resolving without empathy does not have the same effect. 
• 30:13   Colin gives a quick summary of the five rules and encourages listeners to write in with their business problems to get some free advice.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey.

Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the ‘World’s Top 150 Business Influencers.’ As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers’ hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on Linkedin and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official “Influencer” on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren’t deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy’s Suite of Services.

Rachel has a problem. Her boss can’t see the need to change. She is frustrated and doesn’t know what to do. Lucky for her, she listens to our podcast and took advantage of our “Help! I’m in a Pickle!” segment for our advice on what to do. 

In this episode, we explore what Rachel, or anyone who champions Customer Experience but doesn’t have the support they need from above, can do to convince her boss that there is a need for change. We share strategies and tactics anyone can use to motivate the person they report to without getting written up on their boss’s weekly report. 

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

Much of the advice we share isn’t all that different from what we share about Customer Experience. After all, in both cases, you are trying to get people to do something that you want, and that requires motivation. 

Like customers, your boss has values and metrics they think are important. They have priorities and time constraints like everyone else does, too. Persuading people requires making the change as important to them as it is to you to move Customer Experience up the priorities and give it the time and resources it needs to facilitate the customer-driven growth you want.  

Here are some key moments from the discussion:

• 02:54   We read Rachel’s email about how her boss does not use the organization’s mission and values in his decision making and she wants him to.
• 06:29   Colin shares two essential points about getting any person to do anything, customer, co-worker, or otherwise.   
• 09:11   Ryan explains how using measurement to motivate change, like a monthly update on achievement of these goals, keeps the mission and values top of mind for everyone.    
• 16:07  Colin also suggest researching the competition and seeing how they use their mission and values, then report that to the boss.    
• 18:13  Ryan suggests using the principles behind “nudging” to help the boss understand the importance of using the mission and values more in their leadership.  
• 20:45  Ryan suggests using social pressure by getting other employees excited about the mission and values, too, so it’s harder for your leadership to ignore. 
• 22:13  Colin shares a real-world example of using Social Proof to influence the leadership to come around to the organization’s new way of thinking through intra-company program where future invites were recommended by previous attendees.
• 25:02 We encourage everyone to remember that leadership can come from anywhere, so don’t be afraid lead others, no matter where you rank in the organization.  

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the ‘World’s Top 150 Business Influencers.’ As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers’ hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official “Influencer” on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren’t deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy’s Suite of Services.

Back in 1994, Steve Jobs introduced a concept at an Apple conference: that the design of their products should begin at the desired Customer Experience and work backward from there. 

Not long after that, Joe Pine co-authored a book called The Experience Economy, that changed the way at looked at the future of business. 

In 2002, I began my global Customer Experience consultancy, Beyond Philosophy, a term a bandied about long before anyone even knew what it was. By 2005, I had undertaken research to determine the 20 emotions that drive or destroy value, to prove that incorporating customer emotions into experiences provides an ROI. 

Meanwhile, Lewis Carbone was championing Customer Experience and founding his consultancy and philosophy in ExperienceEngineering™.

Now, 2021, Customer Experience as we know it is dying. 

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the concepts behind it live on and are developing into a new variant: Customer Science. 

In this episode, Pine, Carbone, and I discuss whether Customer Experience is dying and the future of experiences from our point of view. 

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

It is essential to explain that none of us think that putting the customer at the center of your experience at an organization is an idea that will never die. However, we all think that the original concept of Customer Experience from over 25 years ago has changed and morphed into new areas. What differentiated you at the turn of the 21^st century and what does it today are two very different things. Perhaps, more importantly, we discuss what Customer Experience needs to be in the future and what Customer Experience champions can do to ensure that it happens. 

Here are a few key moments in our LinkedIn live discussion:

• 05:34   Colin explains why he thinks CX is dying as we know it and Pine weighs in, too.
• 13:56     Carbone explains why he thinks it is impossible for CX to die.    
• 25:05     Colin explains what he thinks the future of CX will be, Customer Science.   
• 40:47.    Pine shares what he thinks the future of CX will be, which is focusing on providing value to customers.    
• 42:42     Carbone explains what happened with Capital One as they moved from fixing what was broken to transformative experience that changed the way they do business.
• 46:29.   Pine explains how he thinks experiences can contribute to happiness, and how it isn’t about having more things to buy. 
• 49:18    Carbone explains how CX of the future can augment the voice of the customer with the mind of the customer.

Please tell us how we are doing! Complete this short survey. 

Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the ‘World’s Top 150 Business Influencers.’ As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers’ hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official “Influencer” on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren’t deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy’s Suite of Services.