Customers Control Our Brand

According to the Corporate Executive Board, (CEB) almost 60% of the customers’ journey is complete before they reach out to vendors. Our customers’ journey starts way before their first transaction. with us And in a Harvard Business Review, “Solution Selling is Dead” (that cites the CEB findings) because talking about our products and services is no longer good enough. It … Read more

Why there is so much Bad Design?

I am a firm believer in the Human-Centered Design Process. So, why are there so many bad designs? Here’s why: There was never a Designer involved The Designer was brought in on the project too late There wasn’t a person(s) to implement the design The implementer(s) of the design do not have the right skills … Read more

What Great Brands Do: An Interview with Denise Lee Yohn

Blending a fresh perspective, twenty-five years of experience working with world-class brands including Sony and Frito-Lay, and a talent for inspiring audiences, Denise Lee Yohn is a leading authority on building and positioning exceptional brands.  Denise is the author of the new book What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles That Separate the Best … Read more

Staging an Experience: Orchestrating Memories from Pine and Gilmore

Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore published Welcome to the Experience Economy for the Harvard Business Review in July of 1998 followed by the book, The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage, in April of 1999 with an updated edition in 2011. Pine and Gilmore provide us with the first … Read more

Getty Center Parking Garage Barrier Bars

Located in Los Angeles, California, the Getty Center is a museum that specializes in pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs. It is named after famed oilman J. Paul Getty who’s trust funds it. The center is best known for its architecture, gardens, and … Read more

Customer Enchantment: An Interview with Bob Caruso

Bob Caruso is a Managing Director at Endeavor Management bringing over 20 years’ experience in reinventing, redefining and energizing customer experiences. He’s been a part of the irreversible power shift in the relationship between customers and service or product providers and to the complex personalized experiences of today. As an alumnus of powerful global consultancies, … Read more

The Four Customer Experience Core Competencies

In the latest Temkin Insight Report, The Four Customer Experience Core Competencies, it highlights what it takes for an organization to become truly customer-centric. The report focuses on these four competencies: Purposeful Leadership: Companies need to make sure that all of their HR practices reinforce the company’s purpose. Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, explained … Read more

Your Product’s Personality Can Create Meaning, Trust and Loyal Customers – or Not

In their recent post, Emotion Communicates Personality, Forms Relationships and Creates Meaning, Trevor van Gorp and Edie Adams share with us that: “Regardless of whether you intentionally give your product a personality, people will perceive a personality.” Not surprising, van Gorp and Adams’ research find that we tend to purchase products that seem to have … Read more

The Holistic Experience between Brands, Products and Services

“Apple has been held up as the definitive example of how to integrate a brand and its products and services to create an extraordinary company. The stock market, the ultimate arbiter of American business success, now places more value on a design-driven company…”  – Reuben Steiger, Great Brands Are About Fusing Product And Service. How Do … Read more

Customer Journey Maps, Customer Profiles and Touch Points

Customer journey maps are a diagram that illustrates the steps your customers go through in engaging with your company, its products and services. The journey map is a tool to measure your customers’ satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy to create sustainable long-term revenue. Consumer behavior is driven by the innate human need to satisfy identifiable as … Read more

The Power and Financial Value of Designing a Great Customer Experience

Great designs create elegant and meaningful experiences for customers. And the design-oriented organizations understand the financial value of this:  “Apple, the epitome of a design-led organization, now has a market capitalization of $570 billion, larger than the GDP of Switzerland. Its revenue is double Microsoft’s, a similar type of technology organization but one not truly … Read more

Five Design Principles to Make a Great Customer Experience from Citrix

Citrix Design team put out this great video, Why Design Matters to Me – Using Design to Make a Difference, where they explain five design principles to craft the total experience that your customer has with your company: Make it Simple by reducing the amount of information that people have to deal with and create … Read more