Because the four moments of truth explored in WTF not only define the modern customer journey, the link between the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) and what I call the Ultimate Moment of Truth (UMOT) is more influential today than when the book originally published?
Why do bikes stay stable when you ride them (and fall down when you stop)?
A tiny reason is the gyroscopic stability of the wheels, but the real reason is the forward momentum of the rider. And we learn the first day we’re on the bike that forward motion is essential or we’re in trouble.
In our fast-moving world, it’s easy to get hooked on personal velocity. What’s in your inbox? Did someone follow you in the last ten seconds? Where’s the beep and the beep and the beep from your last post?
Perhaps we talk faster, interrupt, talk over, invent, dissect, criticize and then move on to the next thing. Boom, boom, boom.
Don’t want to fall off the bike.
But life isn’t a bike. It works fine if we take a moment and leave space for the person next to us to speak.
Are you going fast without getting anywhere?
Riders on the Jurassic World Velocicoaster | Credit: UNIVERSAL ORLANDO RESORT
We can get hooked on systems that want us to get hooked, on platforms that use our effort as their product, our emotions as fodder for their next milestone.
Doing something new simply because we’re worried that the old thing we were doing a minute ago isn’t fast enough is a waste. The crowd might enjoy it, but in the long run, it diminishes our contributions and our joy.
I could just as easily write about the person who is stuck, sitting in the back of the room, the corner of the Zoom, looking for deniability and a place to hide. That person with no velocity has ceased to contribute and might be in as much pain as the person who’s doing nothing but maintaining high personal velocity.
Somewhere in between the two, as in most things, is the place we’d like to be.
Customers care about end-to-end experiences, not how your company is organized. Business leaders are quick to say that a connected customer experience is a major business priority. But the truth is that they are struggling to do it well. New data captures the gap between business and digital transformation and the integrated experiences customers desire.
Countless growing departments, new services abound, and the truth remains: Customers have to see you as one company. This is why a connected, personalized, and seamless customer experience (CX)can make or break your brand. But telling this to executives is preaching to the choir. Eighty-eight percent believe a complete and consistent view of their customers is crucial to the future of their business. But fewer than one-third say they currently have that unified view. And for those 31% executives who have a single 360-degree view of customer data? Half say they lack the organizational structure to actually make use of those customer insights.
Remembering this Blast from the Past from a WARM summer several years back!
Every year in Toronto the summer ends with the Canadian National Exhibition running the last two weeks of August until Labour Day. For the first time in 30 years I decided to venture down in search of effective examples of experiential marketing and there were many to be found. In fact I’d say that many marketers are missing out on key branding and customer acquisition opportunities by not taking advantage of this annual event.
First off let’s be clear, it’s been years since I’ve been to the (CNE). This wasn’t always the case, in fact some of my earliest memories are of my Mother loading up all the kids and making the road trip from Burlington in the 1960’s. In the 1970’s I saw many classic concerts at the CNE Grandstand including T-Rex, Three Dog Night, The Guess Who, Emerson Lake & Palmer and The Beach Boys only to name a few. My CNE highlight had to be going backstage to meet RUSH and having a smoke with Neil Peart when we stepped out of the trailer to escape all the girls going ga-ga over Geddy Lee.
In the 1980’s, 90’s and since 2000 ‘The Ex’ and I went separate ways, not with any intention, we just drifted apart. But that was then and this is now, we’ve come back together so let’s dive into some of the experiential marketing seen at this year’s CNE.
Lee Odden and I have been friends for over a decade. He’s super smart, a pioneer in digital discovery and influencer, and a wonderful human being.
We recently worked together on the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report. And, to celebrate its launch, we shared a moment together diving into the world of B2B influence.
I wanted to share it with you here…transcript and video below.
It also knows that people like points, likes and something that feels like popularity.
The social media companies optimized their algorithms for profit. And profit, they figured, would come from engagement. And engagement, they figured, would come from confounding our instincts and rewarding outrage.
Ever unsubscribe from a mailing list only to keep getting emails from the brand in question? You’re not alone. It’s actually one of my biggest pet peeves, and here’s why.
Isn’t it great when you unsubscribe and start getting more emails?
Signing up for any type of email marketing list is always a leap of faith, but when everyone is professional about the process, the risk is supposed to be minimal. I sign up, see what you have to offer, and decide whether I want to stick around for more. You hold up your end of the bargain by sending quality content or offers and providing an easy way to unsubscribe if I decide it’s not for me. If I do choose to unsubscribe, then that should be the end of it. But that’s where things most often get tricky these days.
Empowering your employees will result in success for your brand…
Every retail employee is an individual with their own unique skills, outlook, and ability to solve problems. With the right training, an employee can learn to be a true ambassador for your brand, an asset to your company’s image, and a key reason that loyal customers keep coming back to your business. However, many brands put their public-facing employees into a box, with a selection of scripted responses and not many tools for genuinely addressing the problems of their customers. For them, promoting the brand is an afterthought and customer service is a means to an end.
Not every brand operates that way, of course, and the smart ones empower their employees to be more than robots. Treating your retail employees more like Mary Kay reps, rather than cogs in the machine, is crucial for establishing a better customer experience.
Why marketers need to really understand what their audiences want, before they – and their products – become irrelevant…
Does it appear that you’re followed around online with ads for things you already own? A case in point… I own three Nests, nine Nest smoke detectors and two Nest cams. So, why am I continually seeing ads for this product? Yes, I like the brand. That much was probably obvious after my first few purchases. But I’ve got enough Nests! With all the data they get from me, they really can’t find a way to stop showing me ads for products I already own, and show me something new instead?
$250 Million in funding allocated today for creating vaccines and potential treatments
The Government of Canada is supporting our country’s researchers as they do critical work to protect the health and safety of all Canadians, and people around the world, during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced support to quickly
mobilize Canadian researchers and life sciences companies to support
large-scale efforts towards countermeasures to combat COVID-19, including
potential vaccines and treatments.
