Author: Jay Zaltzman

Customer experience – the secret to success

We are currently conducting research on the topic of luxury travel and have been asking people about what elevates an experience to the level of luxury.  I’ve been struck by the fact that their answers can all be boiled down to one thing: superior customer experience.

But here’s the “secret:” providing superior customer experience isn’t limited to the luxury category; mainstream companies can do it, too!  To do so, many companies need to shift their focus.  Rather than just focusing on getting good scores in customer experience surveys, they need to look beyond that and figure out how to improve the customer experience. 

https://www.stockvault.net/photo/254886/customer-satisfaction-survey

Let me give you an example: our website and email stopped working recently, so I called our web host’s tech support.  It turned out there was a technical issue, and they didn’t know when it would be fixed.  Afterward, I received a customer experience survey asking me about the rep I talked to.  She was polite and pleasant, so I gave a rating of five out of five.  The technical problem certainly wasn’t her fault.  But does that mean I was happy?  No!  One thing that would have made me happier: if I could have found the information about the technical problem on the host’s website, rather than having to make a call.  Or imagine if the rep had told me that she would move our website to a different server, so that we could be back up and running immediately.  I don’t know if that’s technically feasible, but if it were, I would have been ecstatic and would have told everyone I know!  But I wasn’t asked about what could be improved.

Our luxury travel research provides some clues about where companies can look when it comes to improving the customer experience:

  • People love personalization.  A guest at the Ritz in Bali received specific flowers in her room with a note saying the staff saw her admiring the flowers in the lobby.  While mainstream companies don’t have the staffing for that level of personalization, they can use digital tools to keep track of customer preferences.  Or it can be even simpler: United Airlines flight attendants recognize passengers in Premium Economy by name.  Customers are surprised and gratified (since that usually only happens in business class), but it’s relatively simple for flight attendants to do, since they have passenger names on the manifest.
  • People hate waiting.  Luxury providers find ways to change the experience of waiting.  For example, a cruise provider might take passengers’ registration information while they’re waiting to check in, or a restaurant might provide drinks and hors d’oeuvres while diners wait for their table.  Mainstream companies can look for ways to occupy customers while they wait… and may even discover additional selling opportunities!
  • People want their problems solved.  High-end providers empower their employees to fix customers’ problems.  The Ritz Carlton is known for allowing employees to spend up to $2,000 to solve a customer’s problem without manager approval (note: they rarely spend that much).  While mainstream companies usually can’t spend that kind of money, they can empower employees to solve problems and make exceptions to rules when appropriate.

We encourage our clients to go beyond asking their customers to score their customer experience and instead research the experience itself and look for opportunities to make customers happier.  Email me at info at bureauwest.com and let’s discuss how to do that!

Sources: “Treat Them Like Royalty: Customer Experience Lessons From Luxury Brands,” Forbes, 4/12/22; Bureau West research

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman

How Gen Z differs from previous cohorts

Generation Z, people born between 1997 and 2012, make up 20% of the US population, and are the next important group for companies to consider, both as prospective customers and potential employees.

Clockwise from top left: James Charles, Chloe Kim, Greta Thunberg, Billie Eilish,Lil Nas X, and Zendaya. (https://www.sfweekly.com/culture/who-is-gen-z-really/ Photo Credit: Grace Z. Li/ DFree/ Tinseltown/ Kathy Hutchins/ Live Oeian via Shutterstock)

I was at the QRCA Annual Conference last week – it was great to see my fellow qualitative researchers in-person! – and I attended a presentation and panel led by Jamin Brazil about Gen Z.  Whenever people talk about characteristics of cohorts, I wonder whether those characteristics have to do with the cohort specifically, or the life stage they’re in.  I still remember, at the beginning of my research career, people saying that Generation X were “slackers.”  Then, a few years later, they said “we were wrong, they’re actually hard workers!”  That’s because when they were college students they weren’t as hard working as when they got married and had kids!

Having said that, there do seem to be some characteristics that really are specific to Gen Z.  These came up in the presentation and were confirmed by the Gen Z attendees sitting with me during the session, as well as in research interviews I’ve been conducting with members of the cohort.  Marketers and employers should consider these characteristics if they want to appeal to Gen Z:

  • They are digital natives: That is, they have always lived with social media and smartphones.  As a result, they are quite experienced and savvy when it comes to inauthenticity and digital scams.  When it comes to purchasing decisions, they rely on influencers (people on social media regarded as experts or taste-makers in a specific area) more than other cohorts.
  • They are pragmatic: In contrast to Millennials who were raised by Baby Boomers and who tend to be idealistic, Gen Z were raised by Generation X parents – and saw their parents struggling during the great recession.  They tend to focus on saving money.
  • They are diverse: 49% of Gen Z identify as non-white, more than any cohort before them. They are more likely to have grown up amid diverse family structures – whether in a single parent household, a multi-racial household, or a household in which gender roles were blurred. As a result, they are less fazed than previous generations by differences in race, sexual orientation or religion.

The above has implications not just for marketers and employers, but also for researchers.  We are finding that Gen Z members are more difficult to recruit as research respondents.  They are mistrustful of traditional recruiting and worry about data security.  Research recruiters are finding greater success recruiting through social media and word of mouth, rather than traditional methods.  And Gen Z members are demanding higher research incentives, thinking of research participation in much the same light as a “side hustle.” 

How can you appeal to your Gen Z prospects?  Let’s ask them!  Email me at info at bureauwest.com.

Sources: Panel Discussion: Meet Your Future – Gen Z ARE the Future of Research, both as Participants and Researchers, QRCA Annual Conference, 5/16/22; What Are the Core Characteristics of Generation Z?, Annie E. Casey Foundation, 4/14/21; Bureau West research

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman

The metaverse – it’s not all hype

The word “metaverse” has been in the news a lot over the past few months.  The term refers to a virtual world which enables people to interact with each other and with objects remotely.  People are able to do that thanks to virtual reality and augmented reality technology, typically using a virtual reality headset or goggles.

But it’s not just for science fiction.  Surgeons can use augmented reality to conduct surgery on patients halfway around the world.  Or imagine a company that needs to train employees to fix a very large or heavy piece of equipment, say a plane.  Using this technology, the employee no longer has to get to the plane in-person, they can do so remotely and easily access any part of the plane (no ladders or cranes required!).

And there are applications in the consumer world.  The technology has been around for a while to enable people to see what furniture might look like in their own homes – but it is now easier to use than ever.  For example, Pinterest is introducing a feature that will allow shoppers to virtually place items in their home and then purchase directly from the retailer. 

Photo credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Augmented_Reality_for_eCommerce.jpg

Snapchat has introduced Shopping Lenses, which combine product catalogs with augmented reality, so customers can easily visualize products and try them on.  Before launching the feature widely, they beta-tested it with Ulta Beauty and MAC Cosmetics, both of which saw great success. For Ulta, it generated $6 million in sales and 30 million product try-ons during a two-week period; MAC’s shopping lens, meanwhile, racked up 1.3 million try-ons and saw a 17x jump in sales among women and an increase of nine times in purchase intent.

Those results would seem to indicate that it can be risky for companies to ignore the metaverse if they want to remain competitive.  Are there ways your customers, employees or stakeholders could benefit from virtual reality or augmented reality?  Consider a design thinking process to look at how stakeholders work currently and opportunities for improvement.  Email me at info at bureauwest.com.

Sources: PHYGITAL RETAIL: the convergence of physical and digital shopping, Cassandra Daily, 2/8/2022; Introducing Catalog-Powered AR Shopping Lenses, Snapchat, 1/26/22; The metaverse is a new word for an old idea, MIT Technology Review, 2/8/22

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman

Keeping brands relevant as we emerge from the pandemic

We all know customers’ relationships with brands have changed over the course of the pandemic.  Companies need to figure out how to stay relevant, and they can’t wait for the end of the pandemic.  We are in the “new normal” now.  But ironically, executives are so busy dealing with the day-to-day changes that they frequently don’t have the bandwidth to focus on brand relevance.

A great example of a category with this challenge: McKinsey just released their analysis of what the tissue industry needs to do to accommodate new customer requirements.  Marketers in all industries can learn from the situation in the tissue category.  Some highlights:

  • More than a quarter of Americans say they have switched brands since the COVID-19 pandemic began.  This comes at a time when retailers are designing future retail-store layouts, and brands must adjust to widening aisles, decluttered shelves for efficient browsing, and click-and-collect models.  How can tissue companies keep current customers and attract new ones?  While value is the main driver for switching brands, consumers are also increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of the products they buy.
  • The shift to online sales has not reversed, despite the easing of the pandemic.  Tissue companies need to adapt product offerings with optimized pack sizes and ship-ready packaging.

How can you keep your brand relevant, with customer requirements changing?  My friend and colleague Simon Little has developed and tested an iterative, agile research methodology to enable companies to determine how to more effectively engage with their customers.  He uses a combination of “inside out” and “outside in” investigation including inputs from stakeholders, experts and “extreme consumers.” 

This approach enables companies to “cut to the chase” and get to the most important learning quickly.  Simon and I are partnering on this, to enable us to work more quickly without sacrificing quality.  Let’s discuss how this approach can help your brand remain relevant.  Email me at info at bureauwest.com

Sources: Beyond COVID-19: The new consumer behavior is sticking in the tissue industry, McKinsey.com, 10/26/21; Simon Little

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman