ImprintCX

Ciao! What's the secret ingredient that makes dining in Europe a happier, more relaxed experience compared to the US! 🍽️✨ I tried taking time off, a vacation, a holiday. Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about how different the restaurant experience is in Italy (actually most of Europe) compared to the US. And I started to ponder, why? What’s different…. •   The staff appears to be happier •   Staff does not hover over the table •   Specials aren’t pushed •   You’re not rushed Why? In most European restaurants, we are free to chat, relax, and enjoy the experience. On the other hand, most American restaurants expect to "turn" the table as many times as they can in an evening. Generally, European servers make a decent livable wage in addition to the guaranteed 10% tip. Unfortunately, most American servers expect and need gratuities to make a living wage; they need to serve as many customers as possible while treading the fine line of not rushing them too much. It really comes down to cultural differences. Unfortunately, I don’t see American restaurants changing, but let’s try by slowing down our pace and changing our expectations. Food is meant to be savored (well, good food, at least) with good drinks, good company, and a good chat. So, what do you think? How can we bring a bit of that European dining magic into our everyday lives? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! 🍷🍝

So awesome to sit down with Beth Karawan 🍩 (the author of The Donut Friday newsletter) about how her career leading CX for global brands led her to become a donut baker during the pandemic! She had me at "donuts"! Link to the show in the comments! #thinkdifferently #thinkdifferentlypodcast #thenewcreatives

United Airlines...We want our $0.22!  Please provide your credit card number.    Hurricane Milton is on the way, doing his darndest to ruin my vacation (a week long cooking class in Tuscany and a few days of site seeing).    I’m worried about getting the hell out of Dodge ahead of the storm, but United Airlines won’t let me until they get my money!    Changing my flight cost me an additional 45,000 miles – annoying, but I’ll deal. Charging me a 22-cent change fee – seriously?!    Has anyone at United Airlines calculated how much credit card fees cost to process a 22-cent charge?    I bet if someone did the math, they would figure out that setting a minimum threshold for change fees would actually save money in the long run.    Think of how happy customers would be to hear the agent say the 22-cent change fee is being waived. Or if it isn’t even mentioned at all – even better.    What are your thoughts? Should United have asked for a credit card to pay a 22-cent fee?

A CX toolkit 🧰 is a set of tools that, when utilized in various combinations, improve customer experience. What's in your toolkit? “𝘈 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬. 𝘈 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬.” - Jeff Duntemann While CX best practices may be the foundation for your toolkit, randomly applying them is not efficient and will usually not be successful. Every toolkit must be well thought out and created for your specific needs. Your tools must empower the organization to think and behave differently to develop and deliver more meaningful, efficient, and satisfying customer interactions. You may not own some of the tools, but it is the CX team's job to partner, educate, and lead others in the organization on how to design and use their tools to improve customer experience. Take employee experience and engagement, a tool usually owned by HR but critically important to support CX if designed correctly. “𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘺, 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru Make sure you have the right tools for the job…otherwise, it’s like cleaning the floor with a toothbrush🪥 — it’s possible, but would you want to⁉️ Whether it's journey mapping, persona development, VoC, education, or governance, here at ImprintCX, we are passionate about the power of all types of tools to navigate your CX journey. Customer experience is a MINDSET that drives growth. If this resonates, let’s talk❗

It is a sad time for organizations and the CX industry. Has CX as a profession failed? Many CEOs, in fact, all C-level executives, talk about CX, but only some really know what it means. Most believe it is just another department that creates a strategy to support the business, not that it is a business philosophy. As CX professionals, we have not done enough to win over Wall Street, Board of Directors, and C-suite executives to mandate and implement customer experience management as a business philosophy to drive growth. Because we have failed to truly win over business leaders, the US Government has introduced the “Time is Money” initiative. The initiative will set new regulations and mandate organizations to improve aspects of their service delivery. The Time Is Money initiative has numerous targets as outlined 𝗶𝗻 𝗨𝗦 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝗻𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 by Leila Hawkins: • The Federal Trade Commission aims to make a rule that “would require companies to make it as easy to cancel a subscription or service as it was to sign up for one.” • The Department of Transportation has issued a new automatic cash refunds rule that “requires airlines to pay you back the airfare when your flight is canceled or significantly changed for any reason, and you are not offered, or choose not to accept, alternatives such as rebooking.” • The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) wants to make a rule “that would require companies under its jurisdiction to let customers talk to a human by pressing a single button.” 𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁, 𝘄𝗲, 𝗮𝘀 𝗖𝗫 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀, 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝗹. We have been too focused on SHORT-TERM CX strategies to help organizations gain quick wins and reduce costs rather than address CX as the next BHAG to truly drive organizational change and growth. As CX consultants, one of the most significant values we can provide is holding a mirror up to a company’s leadership and telling them the truth. As CX professionals, we should have done/do more to drive organizational change. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀?

In CX, you get to eat dessert first. Seriously!   Let me explain.   My kitchen is my domain. I love to cook. 🧑🍳 I love the spontaneity, the unscripted process, the lack of structure, the opportunity for creativity. And, of course, I like a nice plate of Pasta Puttanesca. 🍝   It’s like Jazz. Or Improv. You adjust as you go. You play it by ear.   And yet….   I DO NOT love to bake. Luckily, my business partner Beth Karawan 🍩 does! (She’s that Donut Friday girl) I don’t like the precision required, the exact temperature, all the rules. It’s too confining for me.   But, of course, I still like a nice key lime pie.🥧   It’s like a MATH formula. You have to create the foundation and its important to get that right.    𝗦𝗼...𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗫?   I’ve found that to consistently deliver really good Customer Experiences requires both approaches…and you have to start with BAKING…before you do any COOKING. (Yes, I said to eat dessert first).   The CX Baking Scenario looks like this, nice and concrete: • Customer research • VoC • Learning & Education • Metrics • Scorecards & Dashboards     While a CX Cooking Scenario looks like this, a lot more abstract: • Understanding the why • Ideation and redesign • Storytelling • Champion program • Test and learn • Cross-functional collaboration • Company Culture   𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗧𝗛: The mix of cooking and baking is different for every organization. Most organizations need quite a bit of BAKING before they move on to COOKING. Here are some rules of thumb.   • Your brand personality. The more casual you are, the more COOKING is allowed. • Your products. Simple products can handle more COOKING. Complex products need more BAKING. • Your size. Bigger companies need more BAKING. Smaller companies can handle more COOKING. • Your industry. The more regulated, complex or unionized you are, the more BAKING you’ll need.    Life is the best classroom to test out your recipes. What does your Pie Chart look like?   Are you cooking? Are you baking? Are you doing both? In what order? Or do you need to order in….ImprintCX delivers!   𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗦𝗘𝗧 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵. 𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀, 𝗹𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸❗