VOICE OF EXPERTS

The Return of the Village

Stepback is the name of a small recreated village a few miles from my home.  Roger Pierce, a master carpenter, rancher, and jack-of-all-trades, turned 100+ acres into a circa 1920s community with rustic homes, guest cabins, six wells, three active springs, and rolling pastures grazed by cows. The dwellings and country store are filled with turn-of-the-century artifacts.  You can almost hear the sound of a harmonica playing and people singing.  The last time I drove through Stepback, a brand-new Apple computer was on a tiny table next to an antique rocking chair.

I did not just awaken from a dream.  But it could have been.  However, the blend of a village-like culture with modern technology is the way of the future.  And here is my thesis.

Covid-19 has forced us to be “all in this together.”  When someone is not wearing a face mask in the grocery store, it is as out-of-place as the school principal exercising his individual freedom by lighting up a cigarette in an elementary school classroom.  The “Black Lives Matter” and “Me Too” movements are sharpening our sensitivity to issues of inclusion, fairness, and diversity.  The impact of global warming manifested as extreme weather events elevate our attention because we all travel together on spaceship Earth.  Despite our ideological schisms, we are being forced to think “village” and not “me and mine.”  This combination bodes for a more village mentality in the future.  Here are three manifestations of that renewed focus on the CX world.

Customers Included as Co-Creators, Not Just Consumers

Every organization on the planet knows it most create more innovative products, services, and solutions to survive.  As customers’ hopes and aspirations push up demand for unique offerings, providing them the same stuff is a recipe for “going out of business.”  Our business landscape is littered with bankrupted famous brands that failed to heed customers’ call to change or die.  Turning to R&D is one solution; however, organizations of the future will directly involve customers in creating valuable breakthroughs.  For example, some of Starbuck’s most popular offerings—cake pops, splash sticks, Wi-Fi in the stores, and pumpkin spice latte—all came from their customers’ imaginations, not the inventions of corporate.  In a real village environment, customers are treated like neighbours who are always eager to lend a helping hand.  And, inclusion is a likely preamble to customer loyalty.

Customer Intelligence Gathering Becomes More Personal

The era of big data has ushered in reliance on sterile, objective information that often misses the depth and drama of customer experience.  While stripping out emotion has been a source of glee for many researchers, it misses the point that customer experience is fundamentally emotional.  This sterile approach has too often left customers believing they have been listened to, but not really understood.  Much like the superficial chatter of a class reunion, such an approach can yield data without depth, information without insight.  The new frontier will see the emergence of more “human-based” intelligence gathering, not “tool-based” information gathering.  An undercover leader shopping their own brand can be more revealing than what is seen in a PowerPoint presentation in a Zoom meeting.  In a real village environment, merchants talked directly with their customers and relied more on how their customers behaved than how they indicated they intended to behave.

Customer Experience Gains Enrichment, Not Just Efficiency

The village milieu will bring back a focus on making customer experience emotionally engaging, not just efficient.   In the era of COVID-19, we have been forced to learn the power of consuming on the Internet.  There will always be service you might prefer to get via the Internet, but you might rather have a live artisan performing your massage, prostate check, or real estate closing.  While I can buy groceries on the Internet have them delivered to my house, I recall how fun it was to walk into a Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods Markets or Waitrose in the UK.  As humans, we enjoy service with sensory stimulation attached.  A real village can have the feel of a carnival.  The marketplace on Saturday became a watering hole for neighborhood connections and communal treasure hunting.  On the other side of a vaccine will be a world ready for the pent-up desire for socializing and emotional diversion.  We will finally get back to out-of-the-box customer service with a cherry on top.

“Village” is a metaphor for a collaborative, partnership-like environment.  When we recognize our connectedness as fellow consumers, it can shift our behavior from self-serving to other-serving. The byproduct is we become more generous, less greedy, more cooperative, less competitive.  We listen more and evangelize less.  We may lock our doors at night, but we are also attentive to taking care of our neighbors.  As humans, we are optimistic seekers of light.  And, I believe we will emerge from pessimistic dark days.

Stepback is a fun, nostalgic dream reflecting a romantic view of “the good old days.”  But, when the village is decorated during the winter holidays, and patrons drive from far and wide to witness it, it is doing more than meeting a fundamental customer need for entertainment.  It is calling forth the better angels in its visitors.  The customer experience at its finest should serve that same goal.

Chip R. Bell is a renowned keynote speaker and the author of several best-selling books. His newest book is the best-selling, just released Inside Your Customer’s Imagination. He can be reached at www.chipbell.com.