Episode summary
The development of technology has brought so many advantages. In fact, thousands of companies use technology every day to reduce sales costs and focus on self-service.
But it's not just about the value of technology to the business; it should always be about what creates value for the customer.
In this episode of CX Education, our host Heather Share welcomes Mike Wittenstein, Founder and Managing Partner at Storyminers. Mike and Heather discuss the importance of customer experience and what customer experience designers do. They talk about using technology to create value, the problem of too many messages, and the benefits of building a story while creating a different customer experience.
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Guest-at-a-glance
💡 Name: Mike Wittenstein
💡 What he does: Mike is the founder and managing partner of Storyminers.
💡 Company: Storyminers
💡 Noteworthy: Mike is a strategic advisor who helps leaders develop a powerful leadership story so their strategies can increase and sustain their competitive advantage. A lifetime of diverse global experiences has taught Mike how to ask tough questions in a kind manner, translate clients' words into stories, and express business strategies as customer and employee experiences. With his teams at Storyminers, he has helped over 1,000 clients in 24 countries create over $2 billion in value.
💡 Where to find Mike: Linkedin l Website
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Key insights
⚡ A CX designer really cares about customers. Customer experience is your customers' holistic perception of their experience with your business or brand. It encompasses every aspect of a company's offering — the quality of customer care, advertising, packaging, product and service features, ease of use, and reliability. Customers want you to commit to them, to engage with them, and according to Mike, that's what a customer experience designer does. "They think about the interactions, and they set everyone up for success. They don't just look at the little path of getting the transaction done, or buying the doll, or buying the clothes and trying them on. They think about everything — how people feel; what stories are they going to tell — it goes way deeper than just the surface."
⚡ You should do things WITH customers instead TO customers. Today, when everyone spends most of their time on their phones, people are completely cut off from personal experience, which is precious. Mike points out that keeping in touch with customers is important and explains how it makes a difference between companies. "We've become a group of people, and whether we're customers or employees or strategists and designers, we tend to think about doing things 'to people.' Like, 'Let's make the customer do this,' instead of doing things for them. When you do things for them, there's a whole different attitude and posture, feeling, grace, and harmony that happens when you do things with people. You have the opportunity to connect, to build relationships, to share, and to co-create."
⚡ Use technology for customer value creation. While technology has enabled companies to improve their business and reduce costs, it can also be used to improve customer experience. As Mike notes, if it's digital, anytime you use it, it can create a record, an indelible footprint, and you can make value for customers. "If we're collecting information when they're online, and then in the store, and then on their phone and through conversation, what if we put all of that together and we were able to meet more of our customers' needs? What value could we create for them? That's that five- or ten-second profit pause
