(upbeat rock music)
-: Hello, and welcome to The Sharpest Tool.
This is your host Josh where we take
the sting out of marketing by bringing you
everything that we can to the table
to help you with your business, isn't that great?
I see Sami across the table here right now,
so Sami Kretz, the vice president of
project development here at Scorpion, welcome to the show.
-: Thanks I'm happy to be here.
-: (chuckles) And I know she's really excited
to talk about everything we have to talk about, right now.
So before we dive into that actually,
I think it would be really cool
to give our viewers a little insight.
What does the vice president of
project development do exactly for the company?
-: Well, the role does a lot of things.
I would say one of the biggest things that I'm doing
on a day-to-day is just looking at the market,
thinking about what do we need to be doing?
What do we need to do from a technology standpoint,
from a customer experience standpoint?
How can we constantly be evolving what we offer
to our clients and developing on that?
-: Awesome.
-: That's what I do on a day-to-day.
-: So you have a hand in all the cool
technology and tools that Scorpion develops
for the clients, it seems like.
-: I definitely do.
-: Oh, that sounds like
a lot of fun. -: Fun.
-: So we're talking about something really important today,
and I know you've been in this space for such a long time.
You've seen the evolution of how
the online marketing space has evolved over the years,
and one of the things that we've seen
it evolve more to is this idea of engagement.
We've seen a big, big impact that businesses
will have when they have a really solid customer experience.
And I know that can be a dodgy topic
for a lot of business owners,
so I'm really amped to dive into it today.
So, why don't you give us a topical overview?
What exactly is a customer experience?
-: Yeah, the customer experience,
so think of every experience you've ever had with a business
some are memorable in a good way some aren't.
The customer experience is made up of every interaction
that takes place between a business and their customer.
So whether the customer interacts with the business
one time or maybe a hundred times,
the experience that they walk away with
is a compilation of every interaction they've had so far.
So it's the job of the business owner,
and the business as a whole, to make sure
that every touchpoint or interaction is a great one,
so the customer can walk away feeling
like they had a great experience.
So take a hotel for example, you drive up.
The valet run over to you.
They're fast, friendly.
They're helpful.
You walk in the lobby someone opens the door for you.
It smells great.
It smells like flowers.
Your bags are taking care of for you.
So far, your experience is great.
Now, take a different hotel for example, you know
-: Motel 6. (chuckles)
-: You drive up.
The parking garage is a half-mile away.
You have to pay $30 to park.
You walk in the lobby, the door difficult
to open, maybe, no one helps you.
The smell of the lobby is terrible,
kind of like a dive bar, who knows.
(chuckles)
No one offers help with your luggage.
This is a totally different
customer experience then I explained in hotel one.
Now, we know not every business can be perfect.
So if you get one negative interaction
in a whole series of touchpoints
that you have with a customer,
it's not ideal, but it's okay.
You can make up for it later with positive interactions,
and still someone can walk away
with a great customer experience.
If a customer has nine happy moments,
one not so happy moment,
they overall will appreciate your service.
Something that I like to do when
I think of a client experience,
I think of it as a series of touchpoints.
And every touchpoint has a possibility of being a green dot,
which means they had a good touchpoint,
or maybe a red one, so that's a bad touchpoint.
On a string of graded touchpoints
of their whole interaction, if your string of colored dots
at the end of the experience is almost all green,
then your customer should be happy,
and looking back on their experience in a positive light.
But if the majority of your colored dots are red,
then they had too many bad interactions,
and you can bet that they're experience
with your business is not a good one in their minds.
That'd be hotel two.
So every chance that you have as a business
to make any interaction a green dot
in the customer's experience, you should do it,
and you have to get intentional about doing it.
-: I'm so glad you put it that way
because I think a lot of our business owners
they think of like the experience or their brand
or their consistency with their image.
They feel it boils down to like their logo
or their font on their website.
-: It's not the logo.
-: It's the whole kit and caboodle just like you said.
It's every interaction with a visit.
Like your tech being out at a bar,
and how they conduct themselves
when they're wearing your shirt,
that feeds into someone's experience
that they're having with your company.
-: It's true.
-: And so, it's such an interesting way to position it.
So, how would you say this idea of customer experience
differs from merely the service that you provide a customer?
What's the difference between
customer experience and customer service?
-: Mm-hmm, well the experience that your customer has
is a lot more then just the end products that they got
or the results of a service that they have paid for.
The service being offered could honestly be spot on.
They could love the product they bought,
but if the other interactions
or touchpoints in the process were poor,
their customer experience was not a good one.
All to often people love a product,
but they hated the process of buying the product.
-: (laughs) Yeah, all the time.
-: Or a customer a experiencing a plumbing issue for example,
and a business may come fix the problem,
but that's not the tell-all of
their experience as a whole with the business.
I have another example.
-: All right.
-: So think of your house, it's flooding.
You find a local person online who can fix it.
They have a terrible website it takes you
five minutes to find the phone number,
but you're finally able to call.
Someone answers they place you on hold,
of course your house is flooding,
but then they hang up on you on accident.
(chuckles)
So you call back, you're more frantic
because your house is flooding,
and they say okay we'll be there in 30 minutes.
30 minutes later you're calling.
They're not answering your calls now.
Your house is still flooding, so soon you have to
leave your house and your waiting outside
because your house is filling with water.
Your now outside its 105 degrees your hot, your unhappy.
This company finally shows up five hours later,
but they fix the problem.
So the service was performed, but you hate them.
That experience with that company was a bad experience.
In a more normal example, the service may have been fine,
but things to think about was,
was the technician pleasant to work with?
Was he on time?
Did he work in a timely efficient manner?
Did he clean up after himself when he was done? (gasps)
Were there some odd hidden costs at the end
that the customer didn't expect?
Those things will be taken into account
when the customer thinks about their experience.
It wasn't just that the sink was fixed
or they stopped the flooding.
-: Totally.
-: You have to think about the whole
experience not just the service.
-: It's the small touchpoints, right?
Did they put booties on their feet
before they walked into your house?
-: Did they wipe their feet and put booties on, yeah.
-: It's so simple, but it makes such an impact.
In your estimation, why do you think
customer experience is so crucial to a business?
What does it really do?
What's the real impact?
-: Well, I mean the customer experience
is what brings people back to your business.
The customer experience is what makes your customers
tell their friends about your business.
If you can wow your customer in every interaction,
they're going to remember that.
You'll stand out from your competitors.
Your customer experience is everything
when it comes to growing your business
and winning against your competition.
All the places you think about that you love,
there's normally someone or something that created
or continues to create a great experience in your mind.
It's one that you want to continue having,
and that's what your customer experience
can do for your clients.
-: Yeah, absolutely.
Now, let's talk about bottom line a little bit.
-: Sure.
-: Being you know when it comes to the financial aspect
the financial add that certain business activity
is actually creating for themselves.
So, how does the cost experience
actually impact the bottom line?
Have you seen it impact the bottom line
with certain businesses you've been dealing with?
-: Absolutely, I mean repeat business referrals
those are key to a business's bottom line.
When you think of dollars that you put into marketing,
it costs more to get a new client
than it does to provide a great experience
and keep your existing clients coming back.
And the more repeat business you have,
the higher your bottom line will be.
We see this all the time.
But, honestly, you can't do it for just that reason.
You should believe that you want to deliver
that great experience, and that's what your all about.
If you do the bottom line increasing,
the other stuff comes with a bonus and it's important,
but you can't fake the importance of a customer experience.
-: That's right.
-: You have to be committed to creating that.
And if you're constantly disappointing
customers with their experience,
they're going to look elsewhere for your services.
So, you have to bet that their going to be telling
their friends about their experience too.
And at the very least, when someone asks
if they know of a business that can complete
the services that you offer, your business's name
is not going to be coming out of their mouth,
if they had a negative experience.
So, ultimately creating that customer experience
is what's going to bring your customers back
and raise your bottom line.
-: I love that.
You know the quote comes to mind
people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
-: Exactly.
-: And, so making sure that you have a really strong why
in terms of your customer experience,
if it's just about the dollars people are gonna see that.
It can't be just that because
that is not a sustainable business model.
-: It has to be important to you,
part of your values as a business.
-: Absolutely, what are some other ways?
I know this can be really unapproachable
for a lot of business owners.
They're thinking, "Ah, that's just that
"fancy hotel down the road. (chuckles)
"They just have it locked down.
"That's not me.
"I can't do this."
Where do business owners start?
What are some of the ways that business owners
can improve their experience today?
-: I mean the end of it is just find out
what your customers want, and what they expect
with a business like yours.
You can start by asking yourself questions.
What is it about other businesses that I really like?
What experience did they give you,
and what did that do for you when you were there?
And then ask yourself a hard question,
what do you have to improve on right now
to be like that, be like those
other businesses that you just thought of?
You can use things like surveys, feedback touchpoints,
comment cards, listen to your employees,
they often have suggestions, to find out
exactly what your customers want.
Then wow them by giving them what they want and more.
Remember your customers are your best source of learning.
If they don't like something,
listen to why they don't like it.
Find out how you can do better.
Put yourself on a journey to constantly improve
your experience by asking for that real feedback.
And one other thing on that that I'm thinking,
is if you're just focused on your business efficiency,
you often are going to miss out on some of those
little things that can allow you to go
above and beyond with your customer's experience.
Those little things really make a difference,
and they make you stand out,
and that's what makes customers bring back their friends.
-: Definitely.
-: Don't focus as much on just sheer efficiency,
think about the impact that putting in that
little extra care into the experience
can have on your business as a whole.
-: I remember hearing a business owner put it this way,
they were like, "If you wanna know how you can
"fix your business or revamp your business,
he said, "look at the trash." (chuckles)
He's like, "Look at what your customers
"are throwing away from your food product
"that's where you need to start in terms of revamping."
So, I think it's such a practical way to get about that,
and then you talk a lot about some ways that
a business owner can go about evaluating
message surveys, and comment cards, and things like that.
Are there any other thoughts or ideas that you have
in terms of they can go about getting the feedback
and evaluating the current customer experience
that they can see where they want to take it?
-: Yeah, I mean there's a ton of ways you can go about this.
You may have heard of things like the secret shopper.
I've heard of people doing that.
You can really get first hand experience
of what it's like to be your customer.
If you can't go unnoticed doing that in your own business,
send someone else in, but then have them report back
every detail of the experience that they had
being the customer, the good and the bad.
And, I think that's a great starting point
to see what your current customer experience looks like.
Another thing, I mean you can listen
to some of the customer service calls.
See what your customers have to say,
and try to read between the lines.
If they had a complaint, then you obviously didn't
meet their expectations, so where did you miss the mark?
How can you change your customer experience
to make sure that doesn't happen?
Something I would suggest before you make changes
take a snapshot of your metrics.
What does your customer retention rate look like?
How much of your business right now is repeat business?
How much of you business is referral business?
What does your reputation look like?
These are things that you should track,
and then with a focus on improving your customer experience,
you can watch how those metrics improve.
-: Definitely, so those are some great ways
to identify where you can start fixing things.
So what are some things would you say
that business owners need to consider
when improving the customer experience.
So they've identified the problem,
now how do we go about fixing it?
-: Yeah, the first thing I would do
is think about what your core business values are,
and don't sacrifice the most important
value to your business in order to do better
in other areas of business.
So Disney, they talk about their core values,
and the first core value that they have is safety.
So before anything, their park
and any decisions that they make in the park,
they have to take safety into account first.
Even if they're working to be more efficient
or put on a better show, they can't sacrifice
their core value of safety.
At the end of the day, if there's a traumatic
accident and a child's injured,
the chances of that family coming back are null.
The chances of that becoming news are high.
(chuckles) So you have to really
think about what your values are after safety,
their values are courtesy, show, and efficiency.
But in that order, their not going to sacrifice
aspects of their show to be more efficient.
Think about the lines at Disneyland.
Why don't they make rides shorter,
and make the ride go faster to speed up
the line and be more efficient?
Well, that would sacrifice the value
that they have of show, the examples can go on and on.
But look at your business, what are your core values?
That's what a business owner needs to do.
What will you not sacrifice?
And when improving your customer experience,
be sure the choices you make are in line with your values.
What may improve the happiness of your customers
may not be the most efficient, and that's okay
as long as the experience and happiness of your customers
is important in your business values.
Other things to consider to improve
your customer experience testing and measuring.
You have to test and measure key factors.
Throwing the process out the window is not the right answer.
Pick something you want to look into
whether it's something that receives complaints
or something that you know you could improve on,
and determine what metric you're gonna look at to improve.
And then make the change you think was better
for the experience, and measure it
and if it did or did not make a change.
So keep in mind also change might not be immediate,
but don't give up if you don't see change in two weeks.
You have to be patient and stick with it.
In the long run it's going to be worth it
putting that focus on customer experience.
-: I know in the manufacturing world
they have these things that I've noticed,
kaizen events, so it's an annual purging if you will
of the inefficiencies of the process.
It almost seems like a little bit at play here
you should make it a part of your culture
to constantly evaluate and constantly see
how you can make the experience that much better.
And it seems like a really big task in the beginning,
but it's all made by baby steps, one step after another,
and one foot in front of the other,
and that's what leads you down that path.
-: Yeah, and if you're doing every one of those steps
thinking with your biggest core values in mind,
you're always going to be moving in the right direction.
-: Absolutely, well Sami this has been awesome.
I really appreciate you taking the time
out of your busy product development schedule to join us.
I really appreciate it, so thank you so much.
-: Of course, I had a great time.
-: Awesome, so for all of you listening,
if you enjoyed everything that
was talked about here, and you'd like to listen more,
definitely hit that subscribe button
wherever you might be listening too.
And from all of us here at The Sharpest Tool,
my name's Josh, we'll catch you next time, thanks.
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