All too often a retail experience leaves us with a feeling of overwhelm and insignificance after we have just paid for a product / service with the expectation of something positive - instead:

• Staff noise!  Staff shouting at each other across the tills or the floor
• Cashiers more interested in their friend packing the customer's bags than in the customer themselves
• Items being swiped and payments processed like the customer is invisible
• The feeling of being completely ignored by rude and disinterested staff supported by incorrect or missing shelf talkers

Ask yourself if any of these are your own hot buttons as a consumer when YOU are out shopping?

These are some of mine, and I thought maybe it’s just me until we did a survey and found pretty much everyone is moaning about the same thing. Yet, we are all shopping in YOUR stores.

A brand can have the most phenomenal positioning, shop fittings, promotions and product mix, but what is it ACTUALLY like to be your Customer?

...

“Everything started as nothing”
Ben Weissenstein

Often, I discover a new company or experience that truly stands out. They naturally lead me to compare the new experience with ‘older’, long-standing organisations that I have been more regularly dealing with.

New brands are often free from the shackles of legacy systems, organisational silos, historical brand association and quite frankly, excuses. These businesses tend to have leaderships who are passionate about the customer. In fact, they have often come about in the first place because their founders have taken an outside-in approach and seen a customer problem or pain point for what it is, and they aim to fix what’s not working for customers.

What is common to most stand out new brands is that they don’t sell you a product or a service, rather they deliver an experience. An experience that feels more personal, more considered, more authentic and more relevant. These attributes make brands...

Communication is what might be regarded as the life blood of any relationship whether it is a loved one, a family, a business ... anywhere that there are two people or more.  It is the ability to engage between different people and share information.  So often the art of communication is  misunderstood as the technology that supports the sharing of the information instead of the act of delivery, receipt and the most powerful part, the understanding.  

At Fresh Eyes we have simplified the engagement required in a business to a simple triangle as illustrated in the diagram below.   The key to remember is that communication is always between people - in this case it is between the Customers, Staff and the Leadership.

How you communicate is a completely different issue.  In the diagram that site in the centre of the people that you need on the same page.

The value to your business of the key role-players all being on the same page which allows...

The connection to a customer in a world pre the Covid19 pandemic was a mix of multiple channels opening the door to a customers brand of choice.  Clearly understood by all, allowing access via multiple channels

• Physical (Face to Face)
• Remote (Email, Phone)
• Digital (Online, Automated Chats)

For most companies the decisions about what resources were deployed to engage through what channel was often a financial one, supported by the benefits of the channel ie. digital (online sales and support) could provide services cheaper than a face to face engagement that required rental and costs to support it.

The pandemic has challenged that approach as we have gone back to the baseline of a relationship. People want to be emotionally appreciated and supported by people.   It has to be said though that we cannot go backwards to the challenge is to find a New Normal that is going to connect with the very real need to be recognised and have a “human component” in...

It is a given that a relationship is born, nurtured and often lost based on human emotions.  Your relationship and retention of your customers will reflect the emotional stretch and engagement that your culture personifies.  The food that sustains the relationship is essentially every single, small, medium and large touch point that a customer has with your brand in current time.

Right now your customer has very different needs to those of 8 weeks ago.  A lot of them will craving comfort, connection and freedom to move and live as they please.   The stats tell us that prior to Covid 19 (*) , 59% of customers globally preferred to engage with a human being instead of a machine…… I have to wonder what the new stats will look like.  I believe it will be safe to assume that the number will have risen.

Being moved into an online world where there are no opportunities for a person’s senses to engage – no feeling the fabric,...

_{Submitted by:  Gill Bowmaker}

Customer engagement is considered by many as “The ongoing interactions between a brand and a customer, offered by the company and chosen by the customer.”  Expanding on the interactions the key to understand is that they can be thought of as transactions as each require something of the other party.

The mutual exchange of value in each transaction is key to defining the type and volume of customer interactions that a brand has as a goal.   It comes down to the Customer Experience (aka the emotional connection) as to whether the engagement is simply an exchange (transaction) or whether the engagement leaves the customer with a need for more (experience). 

Designing a Customer Experience Journey for the purpose of creating a long term, value driven relationship between your brand and your customers, the design should focus on your customer’s “needs and wants”, understanding...

_{Submitted by:  Gill Bowmaker}

Customer engagement is considered by many as “The ongoing interactions between a brand and a customer, “offered” by the company and “chosen” by the customer.”  Expanding on the interactions the key understand is that they can be thought of as transactions as each require something of the other party.

The mutual exchange of value in each transaction is key to defining the type and volume of customer interactions that a brand has as a goal.   It comes down to the Customer Experience and whether the engagement is simply an exchange or whether the engagement leaves the customer with a need for more. 

Designing a Customer Experience Journey for the purpose of creating a long term, value driven relationship between your brand and your customers, the design should focus on your customer’s “needs and wants”, understanding that they have choices.  Creating a...

_{Submitted by:  Gill Bowmaker}

A “Personalized Customer Experience” creates a emotional journey resulting in what we know as a memory.  If done properly will start a relationship both subconsciously and consciously with your customer. The benefit to the customer is that they feel like your brand understands “their” needs vs being one of the pack.  The benefit to your brand is that it can positively impact your revenue growth between 5 and 15% particularly for companies in the retail, hospitality, dining, financial services, entertainment and telecom industries.

The attempt at using a person’s name is the beginning of the strategy but it goes far beyond this reach out which quite frankly should be a given to any brand that plans to be around in the next couple of years.  It is a simple expectation that will allow your brand to survive.  Going as far back as 2016 brands that did not understand the power of personalisation churned up...

_{Submitted by:  Gill Bowmaker}

Perception defines our realities.  Every touch point reflects your Customer Experience Strategy as the Customers journey plays out in how they experience your brand, the perceived value and ultimately success.  It is all in the detail.  Brand synergy is about creating and adopting a common vision. It is about self (brand) reflection and how you want your Customers, Staff, Suppliers and Community to see you. 

Synergy originates from a Greek word that means “working together.” Having synergy in your brand illustrates an understanding and control of all the many moving parts in your Customer Experience Journey.   Your Customer Experience Strategy lays the foundation that your brand fulfils.  It creates the road map and guide for your team to deliver It’s inherent promise.  It maintains a positive public image.  It creates an engaging customer experience at every touch point.