Total CX

Be Nice to Your Merchants and They’ll Be Nice to You

I recently did a nice thing. Someone I cared about (my ex-mother-in-law) was in the hospital, and I wanted to send flowers. And I wanted the bouquet to be memorable. I went online to view arrangements, but, even on different online florist sites, the arrangements all looked very similar.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

My ex-mother-in-law on the mend with her new dancing and singing friend.

So I looked up florists near the hospital where they would be sent. I chose one for no particular reason, and I called. A very warm woman answered, and I explained what I wanted and how important this person was to me. She asked a few questions about what she liked and made a few suggestions (including sending a stuffed duck that sang “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and flapped its wings and jumped up and down). When I gave her my budget, she assured me that she could send the duck amidst a nice basket of flowers. We continued to talk for about 10 minutes about how healing laughter can be. By the end of our conversation, she said that she enjoyed our conversation so much that she was going to upgrade the level of the flowers in the basket. I gave her my credit card, and we said goodbye.

Customers’ Moments of Truth

We add to our Customer Scenario® Mapping Guidebook by delving into the details and subtleties of capturing Customers’ Moments of Truth (MoTs) and related success metrics. Although MoTs are a part of our Customer Scenario Mapping methodology used in our Customer Co-Design practice, understanding your customers’ scenarios and the potential showstoppers to customer success should be part of your customer experience strategy outside of any specific methodology.

Getting at Customers' Moments of Truth
The New CSM Guidebook: Part 6: Identifying and Measuring Moments of Truth
By Ronni T. Marshak, Executive VP and Senior Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group, September 20, 2012

How, When, & Where Customers Want Personalized Recommendations

By Patty Seybold

As technologies evolve, so do customers’ needs and desires. In the 30+ years that we’ve been chronicling customer-critical technologies, we’ve witnessed an amazing shift in the degree to which marketers, merchandisers, and advertisers can target offers and deliver truly personalized recommendations.

Personalized Recommendations Often Delight! Today, there are amazing (and affordable) technology services that e-marketers can use to personalize the recommendations that we see on their web pages, in the emails they send us, in mobile apps we use, in the SMS messages we receive, and at the point of sale. When well-tuned, these personalized recommendation engines provide amazingly relevant suggestions, offers, and promotions.

When Do You Want Personalized Recommendations. In general, we’ve found that customers react positively to highly relevant and personalized ads. But hate it when they receive irrelevant pop ups at inopportune times. The “when” part of the equation is relatively easy. When we’re looking, shopping, and searching, we’re open to personalized, relevant recommendations. But when we’re engaged in another task, we hate being bothered with offers and recommendations, no matter how personalized they are. But there are times when it’s OK to recommend things to us—e.g., when we’re relaxing, browsing, hanging out, at leisure.