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customer experiences
Before proceeding with a solution, ask yourself the following:
“Do we have enough data to know if customers have a problem that we have a unique right to solve?”
You will save yourself a lot of money and time if you ask this ahead of time and use it as a strategic filter for investment. If you don’t know why you will win, then you won’t likely win.
Nothing beats customer verbatims. Marketing teams might roll-up feedback from surveys. Sales teams may advocate for their accounts. But nothing is more powerful than the words (or video) of a customer talking about their experience. Find more ways to get that into the organization and your products will be better and your customers more loyal.
"You don't want a theory about the customer. You want to really know the customer." - Norman Winarsky
A lot of brands are talking about user experience. Products from Apple, Intuit, and so many others are lauded for their intuitiveness and great customer experience. But that brand experience extends beyond the product to how the customer is engaged in the store, on the website, in mobile apps, on social media, and the like. The brand experience is a venn diagram. You can’t just create a great product, you have to have great service. You can’t just provide an incredible in-store experience. You must also have high product quality. These things all go hand in hand.
Often we get obsessed with new ideas, new technologies, and new initiatives that we can forget that a key part of strategy is what you are going to say “no” to. This applies to us individually, in our companies and as an industry.
So, what are five things that I think the AV industry should stop doing?
1. Holding onto the past
Those of us who have been in the industry for a while like to attend the InfoComm trade show and reconnect with old friends and colleagues. This is great and useful. However, we should avoid reminiscing to the point of distraction. We should not romanticize the “good old days.” There are a lot of exciting things going on today in the industry and in order to maintain our enthusiasm, we have to make sure we are not looking backward. We must contain our cynicism, approach innovation with open minds and be constantly advocating for our customers, who may not have our experience, but whose needs are real and fresh.
2. Caring more about the technology than our customers
All the manufacturers and brands in the AV industry are proud of their innovations. The news feed around InfoComm is always crowded with “new,” “never before,” “biggest,” “brightest” and “best.” But all of the speeds-and-feeds don’t matter at all if we are not solving problems for our customers and providing them real value. They don’t care about what adjectives we use to describe our innovations or our business. They care about their own business and they care that we care about their business.
3. Treating every customer the same
Most of us in the AV industry sell to multiple vertical markets and applications. For instance, in the display space customers’ needs for large-format displays or videowalls can span multiple vertical markets. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t provide tailored solutions for different market segments. Although some high-level specifications are applicable everywhere (for instance, inches diagonal, brightness, etc.), other features are uniquely suited for particular uses. As an example, our Planar UltraRes Series UHD/4K display has features that make it perfect for executive offices and conference rooms, where there is a need to switch between full-screen presentations and the view of multiple sources at once. I love to see customers stretching a desktop across the bottom two quadrants of the display and two other sources in the top two quadrants, like a broadcast news feed or a real-time corporate performance dashboard.
4. Hiring people who fit a stereotypical “AV” profile, instead of the profile of our customers
Closely related to #2 and #3, we have a real opportunity to be increasingly relevant to our clients. I mean no offense against the exceptional professionals in the market who are white, male and highly-technical, but the market is changing and the profile of the buyers is changing and we must adapt. Those making AV decisions are increasingly diverse teams. They want partners with technical capabilities, of course. They want partners with experience, naturally. And they want more. They want teamwork, exceptional communication, a willingness to partner with the design community, the ability to speak other languages (literally and figuratively) and a deep understanding of the needs they bring to the table. Our customers want the benefits of diversity, in background and perspective. People buy from people and having a diverse workforce is increasingly important. The work that the Women of InfoComm Network council is doing is a strong step in this direction. We all have a responsibility to think about this as we make hiring decisions and as we develop our employees.
5. Assuming that the pipeline of talent is someone else’s responsibility
We all know that the key to a successful enterprise is the quality of our employees, especially in a service-dominated industry like the AV integration space. They must have the winning balance of technical chops and customer empathy. It’s a hard combination to find and some of the necessary curiosities and abilities are difficult to teach. Most integrators have developed their own hiring practices over time (starting with friends and family, advertising in local communities, poaching from other local firms, etc). There is a huge on-the-job element to most jobs in the field, which is why CTS certification and other tools from InfoComm can prove useful as we develop employees. But taking this further, we all have a responsibility to not just provide job opportunities for those who are already qualified for the work, but to develop the pipeline of talent. This could include partnerships with placement offices at local community colleges and technical schools. This could include offering an internship program for college or high school students interested in display experience. This could include participating actively in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education in the local schools in your area (where your future employees are currently studying). It’s a responsibility we all share, to ensure that the talent pipeline for your business and the AV industry is strong into the future.
This article was originally posted by InfoComm International and was reposted by Rave Publications.
This weekend, some of our friends were having car trouble. They had ruled out a dead battery or a low gas tank and they resigned themselves to call roadside assistance. The tow truck arrived and before it was hitched up, the technician did some trouble-shooting. He then shimmied under the car and tapped the starter with a hammer. It started right up. If they had gotten a bill for this service incidence, the invoice might have read:
$1 – hammer tapping
$499 – knowing where to tap the hammer
Never undervalue experience.
Each of us have had similar experiences when bringing in an expert has made all the difference. Costs avoided. Disasters averted. Downtime reduced. Customers delighted.
And yet, we all romanticize the do-it-yourselfer. Those Pinterest-fueled upstarts who can tackle professional-grade projects and make it look easy. There are television networks to celebrate their accomplishments. These shows give us confidence. Maybe even over-confidence. After all, we are seeing huge transformations in a 30 minute show. A few time lapse videos between the opening credits and the big reveal. That is certainly true in the personal world.
But it is also true in the professional world. Sometimes executives find it tempting to think they can do marketing, business development or even legal work, without trained experts. It is an all-too-common scenario to over estimate our own abilities and our time and to experience “Pinterest fail” type experiences in the work world.
So, when do you call in an expert?
1. When the risk of being wrong is extreme.
This obviously applies to litigation or regulatory compliance issues or any area where specialty knowledge is required, but it also applies to areas where the strategic risk is high. If you can experiment with little impact, then, by all means, feel free to do so. When you need a decision that is warranted or that requires technical expertise, call in the guru.
2. When time is of the essence.
Do you have a limited market window to get a product to market before big competitors sabotage your chances? Then you might want a professional sales and marketing team with industry experience who can hit the ground running. If you want to avoid delays in getting your product certified, setting up an efficient assembly line, or launching a new website, find someone who has done the work before and has a proven track record.
3. When you are better suited for other priorities.
My grandpa, who has a contractor, told a story about how a doctor client of his took vacation time to paint his own house instead of hiring someone. If he had worked that week, he could have paid a painter and had money left over, plus ended up spending more time than a professional. “It’s hard to beat a man at his own craft,” he would say. Each one of us has things that we are great at and the more time we can spend doing those things, instead of doing a mediocre job, that others could do. Know what you are good at focus your time there.
This article was featured on LinkedIn Pulse.
Jennifer was quoted in a press release announcing Planar's new PlanarView™ Visualization App.
A lot has been written about consumer-centric marketing in recent years. The desire to provide relevant content and position the brand in the context of that value. Seth Godin’s permission marketing principles. The move to personalization. The emotional attachment that brands should create for their customers. Across all communication channels and at every customer touch point.
Today’s empowered consumer doesn’t just want to be educated. They don’t just want to be engaged. Frankly, they want to be super heroes. They want to be the heroes of their own story and the brands they choose reinforce this perspective. They want to call a car whenever they need it, like the Batmobile, and the adoption of Uber and Lyft is evidence that the on-demand concept is appealing. They want to have their whims indulged. They want their news personalized and curated. They want to keep up with friends of their choosing.
As marketers we have a responsibility to build the customer experience into the core of our company’s DNAs and into every medium or channel through which we communicate. So, how can customers be granted super powers in our marketing?
First and foremost, today’s buyers must remain in control. Our terms of service, privacy policies, product quality, production practices, and priorities must align with what customers want. We start with our integrity when building trust. I know that many customers might relinquish control without a second thought, but it’s our job not to let them do themselves harm.
Secondly, we create opportunities for customers to have power on a scale that they couldn’t have without us. Today’s savvy consumers are impressed with nothing less than super human strength and the ability to fly. They want to see their name on a can of Coca-Cola. We help them place a message on a personalized M&M. We can put their picture on a billboard in Times Square. We can put a mark on the world. One that is unique to them.
This can be part of the product or service we are selling or it can it be something we do in our marketing. The distinction between the two is blurring and so is the customer’s experience of the brand across all the touchpoints, so marketing has a leadership responsibility. For instance, the new iPhone camera takes beautiful, high resolution photos and video. Why not build on the out-of-home ad campaign we have seen where photographs from iPhone users are printed on subway signs and billboards with the caption “taken with an iPhone” by creating a YouTube/Vimeo/Flickr style platform for sharing videos and photos taken with iPhones and have those images featured on the Apple site, social media, and digital billboards and in homes as an Apple TV screen saver?
Next, we can connect customers visibly within the community. We can give them something to brag about and some connection to their idols and friends. It starts with sharing features, but goes beyond that. We as market leading brands need to make our consumer constituents heros among their peers. We can provide customers street credibility or expand their influence. It’s the Apple sticker in the Macintosh boxes on Volkswagens across the country or the look of a teenager wearing Beats headphones by Dr. Dre around his neck. I see this as a gap in store and airline loyalty programs. Members with elite status aren’t given rewards that are visible to the community of other shoppers or guests that undoubtedly share other circles of influence.
It is also a limitation with the nearly ubiquitous category of hybrid cars. Imagine hybrid cars connected with a gamification system that allows one driver to compete with others for fuel efficiency. Similar to how FitBit users can track steps on a leader board. Imagine how many more fuel efficient cars would be sold with this kind of gamification?
Consumer fashion brands do this well by offering sponsorships or free product to highly influential individuals, but could that scale to something that other brands could do even if they don’t have a celebrity endorsement program or a full-scale newsroom? I imagine so, if we were creative in our marketing.
Lastly, we can give customers a mission. As marketers, we give our customers an opportunity to be involved in greater causes and the power to benefit others with their super powers. This is what Whole Foods has done with the wooden nickels for “bring your own bag” rewards or Starbucks involvement in (Red). You could allow customers to donate a perks to non-profits of their choice. Loyal customers could be allowed to pick charitable giving campaigns from their favorite brands. Customers could donate their photos from their Hawaii vacation to be featured in the advertising or on the website of the visitor’s bureau for the State. At Planar Systems we recently offered our customers and employees an opportunity to participate in a fun run in Portland, to benefit a local alternative high school. This example of the “do well, by doing good” approach which is growing in importance and influence among our customers.
With a purposeful emphasis on integrity, giving users power, community connections, and missional marketing, we can transform our customers into the super heroes that will not only show us loyalty, but will attract others to us.
This article was published on Frost & Sullivan's Digital Marketing e-Bulletin.
Jennifer Davis will be present a hands-on session on media integration at the Xplorer Digital 101 Bootcamp in Seattle on August 6th, hosted by SEGD, the Society for Experiential Graphic Design. These session will highlight the technical necessities around developing and deploying experiences in 4k, interactivity, transparent display, and video wall installations. Click the link above to register or for more information.
Some can visualize words. Some need to be shown pictures. And some need to experience things before they can learn. In any case, one style of communication doesn't work for everything. This affects not only formal education, but advertising and branding experiences as well.
