Bureau West

We’ve all experienced situations where we try to ask deep probing questions about customers’ relationship with our brand, and they look at us blankly with a response like “what do you mean?  I needed X, Brand Y’s product was good, so I bought it.  End of story.”

It can be good to remember that our customers’ lives don’t necessarily revolve around our brand… but there’s still more to it than the transaction described above!  How can we get a deeper understanding of the customer relationship?  I recently borrowed from an exercise used in life coaching to ask research participants about the values that are most important to them, and then asked about ways in which the brand helps them achieve those values.

Here’s how I presented the exercise:

Different things are important to different people.  Following is a list of needs.  You might say all of them are desirable or important… but if you had to choose just five, which five would you say are the MOST important to you personally?

The list included 15 different values, such as the following:

• Security: certainty, predictability
• ­Compensation: money and/or benefits
• ­Achievement: mastery of a task
• Variety: diversity of activities, people, and tasks
• ­Affiliation: connect with people

I followed up with questions about how the company we were researching might help them realize those important values.  After answering the question about which values were important, participants seemed to be in a more thoughtful state of mind and went much deeper with ways the brand helps them achieve the values than they had in prior research.

Find out what’s important to your customers.  Call me at 760-469-9266 or email info at bureauwest.com.

I’ve recently been involved in several research studies in which participants provided both in-the-moment input (e.g., using a mobile app) and retrospective input (in a focus group or interview).  Looking at the differences between what people experience and what they remember can be extremely valuable, and is a great example of the peak-end rule in behavioral economics.

The peak-end rule states that people don’t remember all parts of an experience equally.  Rather, their strongest memories are of two parts of the experience: the most intense moment and the end of the experience.  I saw this in my recent research studies: people who had a high point or a great interaction during their experience tended to remember the whole experience as positive and minimized the negatives they experienced.  And the reverse was also true: people who experienced a significant negative tended to forget about the small positives they experienced.

This has important implications for companies.  It may not be enough to just try to ensure everything goes smoothly in a customer interaction: there’s always a chance that not everything will be perfect.  But small negatives can be outweighed by a great interaction.  For example, a long wait online may be forgotten if the cashier is particularly pleasant.

We can find those opportunities to create great memories by comparing what customers experience with what they remember.  Then we examine the positive memories and look for ways to create more memories like them.

Let’s design research to compare your customers’ experiences with their memories.  Call me at 760-469-9266 or email info at bureauwest.com.

 

Sources: Bureau West research; “Choices, Values, and Frames” by Daniel Kahneman  and Amos Tversky, 2000

Over the years I’ve been conducting focus groups, I’ve been struck by how customers personify companies they do business with.  Those of us who have been behind the scenes may realize that most companies are simply made up of people trying not to get fired (or perhaps even get a promotion!), but customers attribute human-like motives to companies.

But for some reason, many companies shy away from showing any kind of personality.  The default corporate personality is “neutral.”  Perhaps that feels safe, but if a company doesn’t stake out a personality, customers will attribute personality characteristics to the company anyway… and they could be negative.  We want customers to feel the company is “on their side” rather than “out to get them!”

Here’s an example of a company that’s not afraid to show personality: I recently ordered a product from Native Deodorant, and received the following shipping notification:

Your bar of Native Deodorant was gently pulled by our team of experts and placed on a gold-trimmed pillow stuffed with the finest fibers known to man. Then, a team of six inspectors examined your deodorant under a magnifying glass, ensuring it was in perfect condition.

Once the inspection was complete, our veteran polisher (he was previously employed at the Tower of London, where he was responsible for polishing the Queen’s jewels) polished it as a quiet hush fell over the warehouse. “This package is getting shipped to Jay,” he whispered. “Take good care of it.”

Conveying personality isn’t necessarily an expensive endeavor, but it requires a decision from management and follow-through to make sure the personality is conveyed in all customers’ interactions with the brand.  In recent years, airlines have been showing safety videos with personality, but unfortunately, that personality usually does not extend to other areas of the customer experience (with some exceptions, such as Virgin and Southwest).

While cute or irreverent examples of brand personality may be most memorable, that may not be appropriate for all companies.  Nor is it necessary.  An example of brand personality that sticks in my mind: when completing a joint tax return using TurboTax (by Intuit), the interview asks if either of the spouses has died in the past year.  If you answer “yes,” the software says “We’re really sorry to hear that. Our condolences.”  That gesture didn’t cost the company anything, but really touched many of their customers.  Clearly, Intuit has focused on incorporating the brand personality into the customer experience.

Let’s discuss how brand personality can help your company.  Call me at 760-469-9266 or email info at bureauwest.com.