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Customer Experience and Design

The 5th P of marketing – people

5th P of Marketing

Part 2 of 2
We are rapidly moving into the holiday shopping season and retailers are in for a rubber meets the road experience. The tried and true sales gimmicks they’ve relied on in season’s past may not work so well this November and December. Consumers have become accustomed to receiving free shipping, price matching and other price-related perks. And while some of those tactics work in the short term, as author Denise Lee Yohn has found, “Competing on price produces less of an advantage now.” Competing on price, product, placement and promotion is the classic marketing template for how organizations compete (i.e., the 4Ps of Marketing). It still has value today, but it’s no longer solely relevant to attracting and retaining consumers. I believe there is an additional “P” of marketing products and services that matters more in the marketplace of today, and that is people (aka, customers, consumers). So how will retailers compete to gain consumers’ wallets this season?

I am putting my money on those retailers who will compete on delivering a superior customer experience, and who invest in delighting their customer.

I agree with Yohn when she says, “They [meaning retailers] know that people make shopping decisions not only on product, price, offers, convenience, or even service, but rather…the way they make people feel.” Successful retailing is about getting into the hearts and minds of customers and prospective customers. This is not a new phenomenon brought on by a marketplace that is digitally connected and software driven. Smart consumer products companies have placed heavy emphasis on competing on customer experience since before the previous century. Take for example Proctor & Gamble, established in 1837. As I mentioned in CX and software – consumers lead the experience, this company has embraced a customer-centered philosophy (aka, a market orientation) under its current CEO A.G. Lafley, and that is one reason among others that Lafley more than doubled sales to nearly $84 billion as its CEO. They operationalized this philosophy by spending time with their customers, observing them and listening to them in their own homes. So, this ties into my post in Part 1, and that is – savvy researchers know that they can’t take user feedback at face value. People are well meaning with their feedback on how to resolve their problems, but they are not equipped to design solutions to their problems.
To get at what keeps people up at night, to find hidden opportunities, it takes a combination of drawing users out with open-ended questions, filtering out responses that are not focused on outcomes, and most importantly demonstrating empathy. Developing empathy, that ability to “see” someone’s frustrations or their goals, is akin to attuned communication, and it reduces social distance and draws users into the conversation. It says, “I’m not judging you and everything you share is important.” This form of research, the kind that P&G has been using for decades, is not superficial; and, it takes a huge commitment by an organization to invest in that learning. But as consumers continue to chart their own experience, share those experiences, and either build up or take down companies with them, companies need to realize that indirect means (one example, intercept surveys) of user research has drawbacks. Case in point, Craig Borowski, researcher with the Gartner Company Software Advice, shared that, “For months now, a regional deli I frequent has been asking me to answer an online survey. With every meal I purchase, the cashier highlights on the receipt the web address they’d like me to visit to complete the survey. But my customer journey with this sandwich shop never had any digital components. Why would they expect me to go online and complete their survey now? Digital and online are not synonyms for convenient.” I agree with Borowski. If a retailer, or any organization for that fact, cares to know what its customers think, then buy their lunch or offer a nice gift for their time to understand their aspirations.

A customer should never have to “work” to be a customer.

The holiday season is now in full swing and smart retailers, like Nordstrom, started long before this holiday season to provide a fabulous customer experience to consumers. I truly hope that we’ll see the rise in more user research that involves users, not just observes them, in creating their delightful experiences. Because without going to people and involving them in rich dialogues, the feedback gained is largely a scientific wild a#!? guess (SWAG), a rough understanding pulled out of the air.

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Lisa McMichael

Lisa McMichael is a Senior Manager Digital Accessibility, CPACC with the Detroit Business Unit.

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