The Intuitive Customer - Helping You Improve Your Customer Experience To Gain Growth

What You Should Learn from Apple's Outstanding Experience   I am a huge fan of Apple products. If there were already a waiting list for the next iPhone, I would be on it. For me, buying Apple products is emotional, intuitive,   and automatic—all the things a brands needs to foster customer-driven growth.   Apple is excellent at incorporating principles of behavioral economics and psychology that a...

A global pandemic wasn't in your plans this quarter. However, we see an opportunity to enhance your relationships with customers in this global crisis.    In this episode of The Intuitive Customer, we share ten strategies for managing the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19. Our practical tips help you manage the stress and anxiety at your front lines to the best possible outcome. Our approach will b...

Shark attacks have overblown importance compared to how often they occur. But since TV and movies have made so much of these rare, and rarely fatal events, we are sure we will be the next victim. These unlikely worries are the result of a psychological phenomenon called the Availability Heuristic.   This episode of the Intuitive Customer explores the Availability Heuristic and how it can help your...

You all want growth, don't know what to prioritize to get it, and aren't nearly worried enough about the disruption AI will have on your industry. At least, that's what our research late last year told us.    This episode of The Intuitive Customer reveals the trends we identified in our research late last year. While some of it was what we expected to hear, a few trends left us gobsmacked. Hear wh...

We all misjudge other people's motivations at times. The academic term for it is a Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE). An FAE describes how we misinterpret our limitations and the motivations of others and how we mistakenly attribute successes and failures for ourselves and others.   This episode of The Intuitive Customer explores FAEs' effects on customer-driven growth. Understanding customer be...

Research in Harvard Business Review last year suggested that some companies with poor customer service are terrible on purpose to wear out disgruntled customers so they don't have to fix customer problems. Moreover, the HBR authors suggest that this method makes these organizations more profitable. This episode of The Intuitive Customer explores this idea in more detail. We discuss businesses that...

Where AI Meets CX: The Remarkable Future for Humanizing Brands   Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transform the customer experience in many ways in the coming years. One area that we see interesting applications of AI Technology is the brand personification and social media management. This new way of creating meaningful interactions with your customers will build emotional engagement with your c...

Social media has changed many things about our lives. Not only can we have a blow by blow account of what our friends and family are up to, but we can also see what they had for dinner. We can even see what friends of our friends had for dinner.   One of the other ways social media changed our lives is in how we interact with brands. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter gave us direct a...

This is The New Imperative for 2020    Our global Customer Experience consultancy engaged research at the end of 2019 to determine our direction for the next decade. We learned that, first and foremost, organizations want to gain growth. So, we have a new focus for 2020, helping organizations achieve the growth they want by assisting them in providing the Customer Experience they need to do so. Gr...

Discover This Powerful Marketing Technique to Gain Growth   How you present information has a significant effect on how your customers perceive the message. It's no secret; it's why there are marketing departments. However, what is fascinating is that when we present information, we can take advantage of things that shouldn't matter when you think about them rationally, but that do matter quite a...

Discover This Powerful Marketing Technique to Gain Growth   How you present information has a significant effect on how your customers perceive the message. It's no secret; it's why there are marketing departments. However, what is fascinating is that when we present information, we can take advantage of things that shouldn't matter when you think about them rationally, but that do matter quite a...

The Secret of Pricing Academia has a problem with names. They are not always, well, intuitive. Hyperbolic Discounting is an excellent example of a pertinent business area disguised in a difficult-to-interpret label.   Hyperbolic Discounting does not mean what you might think. If you take a look at the words in the name, you probably imagine it means embellished markdowns. However, Hyperbolic Disco...

How AI will Change CX for the Future Customer loyalty is what most businesses want. The more your customers buy from you, the more you improve your bottom line, not only in increased sales but also in decreased customer acquisition costs. Improving your Customer Experience to foster customer loyalty is often an expense that senior management can get behind. However, there is a common misconception...

1 in 4 Will Lose Their Job in 2020 At the end of 2019, global research firm Forrester predicted that 1 in 4 Customer Experience jobs will be cut in 2020. While we find this prediction grim, we do not disagree. We believe that this reality has been on the horizon for some time now.   There are many reasons why it has come to this point. One of the most significant is a misconception about what Cust...

If I asked you for $100, what would you say? My guess is no. You probably have a rule against giving people money just because they asked you.  But what if I asked you for $1? Most of us would probably be okay with that. Sure, it's still giving money, but it's only $1, and that isn't the same thing. However, by saying yes to giving me $1, you broke your rule about giving people money just because...

How to Ensure You Make Good Decisions   I am an Apple Superfan. As a loyal customer, I notice all the positive moments in my Customer Experience with them. They reinforce that my brand is the best and buying from them was a good decision.   Moreover, if I ever see an article that is negative about Apple, or positive about a competitor of Apple, I don't believe it or, worse, don't read it. I don't...

The Biggest Thing We Learned in 2019 If there is one thing we have learned in 2019, it is that customers give us a lot to think about regarding their behavior. How they behave and why are fascinating topics and one that has much influence on our Customer Experience outcomes. As we embark on a new year and a new decade, it is an excellent time to reflect on what we have learned and what made the mo...

What is Important in 2020? Yogi Berra, the New York Yankees Coach once said, "Predictions are hard, especially about the future." Predictions can be difficult; it is true. However, they can also be helpful, especially if you are trying to plan for a new year. I have been in the Customer Experience industry since before there was such a thing. When I founded Beyond Philosophy back in 2002, no one w...

Why the Strength of Customer's Emotion is Critical   Customers' emotions are a critical part of Customer Experience. Our research shows that over 50 percent of a Customer Experience is about customer emotions. Furthermore, we know that emotion drives customer behavior. Having awareness of what emotions your experience evokes when and why is critical to your Customer Experience Outcome.   However,...

Does Giving Gifts Mean More Business? It is the season of giving. No doubt, many of you sent out your gifts to your clients, suppliers, and other business associates already. But will your gifts result in more business? They might, and they might not. Like most things about interpersonal relationships, it depends on a lot of different variables. Researchers study gift giving and have for many year...

Psychology has a lot of influence on customer behavior. When it comes to making decisions, we like to find ways to make them more manageable. Anchoring and Adjustment is a mental short cut or heuristic. We use to help evaluate numbers.  Anchoring and Adjustment help us generate numbers. It works like this: First, there is a base number established either by the individual or an outside influence....

The 7 Telltale Signs of a Company NOT Committed to Customers I discovered many years ago that I could determine whether a company was committed to customers pretty quickly. When I thought about how I recognized it, I found that organizations that did not commit to customers had some shared company culture cues that indicated where their focus was. The ideas behind this discovery later became my se...

What is Really Happening on Black Friday? It's that time of year again: Black Friday sales are next week. A US tradition, Black Friday was named for the idea that it is the day retailers finally move out of the red for the year and into the black of profits. It is also the official kickoff of the holiday shopping season. However, what is really going on here? Why do people trample through the door...

Marketing Yourself We usually talk about how you should use the principles of brand management to deliver excellent Customer Experience. However, brand management is an essential part of your job search, as well. In other words, marketing your Customer Experience has given you everything you need to know about selling yourself. Moreover, it has taught you all you need to know about improving your...

Tribalism: Are You In with The In-Crowd? As humans, the need to belong is essential to us. Most of us have a deep need to feel we are part of a broader community that shares our values and interests. In other words, we need to find our tribe.  Tribes are connections between people that form communities, which can be formal or informal. Sometimes tribes are associated with where you were born and f...