The Intuitive Customer - Helping You Improve Your Customer Experience To Gain Growth Colin Shaw, Beyond Philosophy LLC

A Master Class Part 2: Unlocking the Psychology of Customer Experience
In this episode, we continue exploring the psychology behind Customer Experience, focusing on the role of memory. Customer loyalty hinges on how memories are formed and retained. Therefore, understanding memory formation is crucial for designing impactful experiences.
Memory formation begins with encoding, where new information is processed and stored in the mind. Encoding involves several effects, including the Primacy Effect, which prioritizes remembering initial experiences, and the Recency Effect, which emphasizes recollecting recent events. Additionally, the Frequency Effect highlights the importance of repeated actions in memory retention.
Retrieval effects determine how stored memories are recalled. Professor Daniel Kahneman's Peak-End Rule suggests that people remember the most intense emotion experienced during an event and its conclusion. This rule applies to evaluative memory, shaping overall perceptions of past experiences.
Memory also has structure. Memory structure resembles a fishing net, with individual memories as knots connected to form a net, which represents the larger memory network. Retrieving one memory often triggers the recall of associated memories, along with the emotions and experiences linked to them. It’s helpful to picture the fishing net at the bottom of a shallow pool and imagine pulling it by one of the knots to the surface. You get the knot you grabbed, but all the connected knots come along, too.
Strategically managing memory formation involves planning for encoding, recall, and structure. Tactics such as leveraging primacy and recency, incorporating humor or emotional connections, and providing follow-up reminders can enhance memory retention. It's crucial to prioritize memorable aspects of the experience and reinforce positive memories over time.
Considering the interconnected nature of memory concepts, such as the relationship between encoding and recall, helps design experiences that leave a lasting impression. For instance, understanding how customers perceive value allows you, as a professional, to highlight key features that resonate with your target audience, instilling confidence in your ability to create memorable customer experiences.
In this episode, we discuss how memory plays a significant role in driving customer loyalty, making it essential to proactively shape how customers remember their experiences. By being deliberate about memory formation, businesses can create meaningful connections and foster enduring relationships with their customers.
 
In this episode, you will also learn:
The importance of encoding and retrieval in memory formation.
Strategies for enhancing memory retention, such as leveraging Primacy and Recency effects.
The role of emotional connections in shaping memorable experiences.
The significance of follow-up communication in reinforcing positive memories.
How memory structure influences the recall of associated experiences.
The interconnected nature of memory concepts and their implications for experience design.

A Master Class: Unlocking The Psychology of  Customer Experience
With this episode, we begin an eight-part series exploring customer behavior and the psychology that drives it. Each part will delve into the various psychological aspects of Customer Experiences, offering practical advice on understanding and influencing them. Our focus today is on why customers make quick decisions and how you can sway those decisions in your favor.
Understanding customer behavior is complex and influenced by multiple factors, a concept known in academic circles as high causal density. There's no one-size-fits-all solution for a perfect Customer Experience transformation; it requires a combination of approaches.
Human nature often seeks shortcuts for cognitive tasks, leading to heuristic processes. Heuristics, or mental shortcuts, simplify decision-making. We discuss four common heuristics:
Anchoring and Adjustment: People use familiar examples to estimate values quickly, which can lead to biases, especially in pricing strategies.
Focusing Effect: When faced with information overload, individuals focus on crucial details to aid decision-making. Recognizing what customers prioritize can influence their choices.
Availability Heuristic: Our brains estimate likelihood based on easily accessible examples. Understanding what information customers readily recall helps shape perceptions.
Representativeness: People often categorize based on stereotypes or representative traits. Recognizing customer expectations can guide your design approach.
Considering these heuristics, we emphasize the importance of first impressions, understanding customer values, managing expectations, and aligning your design with customer decision-making shortcuts. Recognizing the diversity in customer decision-making preferences is crucial, and segmentation plays a vital role in tailoring experiences.
This episode explores various influences and group psychological concepts tied to customer decisions. Our goal is to provide a holistic understanding of experience psychology, making you more agile in grasping customer behavior and creating plans for compelling experiences that encourage return visits.
 
In this episode, you will also learn:
The significance of first impressions and their impact on customer anchors.
How to identify valuable areas for customers and use them for effective comparisons.
The role of customer expectations and how to align your design with their anticipated experiences.
The importance of providing information shortcuts to simplify decision-making.
Strategies for segmentation to cater to diverse customer decision-making preferences.
The overarching theme of simplification as a design approach offers customers shortcuts to decision-making and potential sales.

In this episode, Colin and Ryan tackle a listener's question about the psychology of customer loyalty, delving into its emotional and relational aspects. 
 
Loyalty, they explain, goes beyond mere repetition of behavior; it is rooted in deep emotional attachment and often requires sacrifice. Drawing parallels to personal experiences, such as loyalty to sports teams (Lutown Town Football Club, recently reinstated in the Premiership) and brands like Apple (naturally), they highlight the importance of trustworthiness and the willingness to go the extra mile in fostering loyalty.



They emphasize the significance of loyalty in defining one's identity and sense of belonging, likening it to tribalism. Even in non-tribal contexts, individuals exhibit loyalty to specific brands or products, creating a sense of community. Through personal anecdotes and examples, Colin and Ryan illustrate how businesses can earn loyalty by prioritizing customer needs and making sacrifices for their benefit, ultimately fostering long-term relationships.
 
Moving beyond misconceptions about loyalty in business, Colin and Ryan encourage organizations to define loyalty in terms of sacrifices made by both the customer and the organization, fostering a two-way relationship. They offer practical strategies for fostering customer loyalty, including recognizing the emotional connection between the organization and the customer, defining loyalty for the organization, and being loyal to customers by delivering on promises and treating them with respect.
 
In this episode you will also learn:
Loyalty is rooted in deep emotional attachment and often requires sacrifice.
Loyalty plays a crucial role in defining one's identity and sense of belonging.
Businesses can earn loyalty by prioritizing customer needs and making sacrifices for their benefit.
Defining loyalty involves considering sacrifices made by both the customer and the organization.
Practical strategies for fostering customer loyalty include recognizing the emotional connection, defining loyalty for the organization, and being loyal to customers by delivering on promises.
 

“Did I tell you about the time I …”
 
These seven words are one of many ways we signal one of our favorite things is coming next: a story. We can’t get enough of stories and look for them everywhere, from news to conversations to the commercials we can’t avoid on TV. Stories are an essential part of the human experience. 

In today's world, storytelling is crucial in various aspects of business, including marketing. 
Human fascination with narratives stems from their ability to captivate attention, evoke emotions, and aid memory retention. Stories provide context, making information easier to recall, and create emotional connections that reinforce memory.
Businesses leverage storytelling to establish their brand identity, often highlighting humble beginnings or overcoming adversity. Effective storytelling goes beyond mere anecdotes; it persuades and simplifies complex concepts, making them relatable to the audience. For instance, Ikea's narrative of cost-saving design innovations clarifies the correlation between low price and high quality.
In marketing and persuasion, storytelling proves instrumental in communicating abstract ideas and influencing consumer behavior. By tapping into emotions and personal experiences, storytellers can make their points resonate with the audience. Stories simplify complex concepts, facilitate self-awareness, and enhance brand perception.
In this episode, we explore why storytelling is such a powerful tool in a marketer's toolbox and how you can tell compelling ones to your customers. 
 
You will also learn:
The importance of storytelling in marketing and communication.
How narratives aid memory retention and emotional connection.
Examples of successful brand storytelling like how Ikea helps us buy their assemble-it-yourself furniture because it’s far more affordable that way.  
The effectiveness of storytelling in persuading and simplifying complex ideas.
Strategies for crafting compelling stories, including emotional resonance and relatability.
 
If you have a story you want to share with us, please send us a video or audio for our None of Us Are As Clever as All of Us Feature. We’d love to hear it and might feature it on the podcast and in the newsletter.
 

Personalization is an excellent tactic for your marketing efforts. However, only some people like this personalization; some feel they're being watched. Therefore, it is important to remember that context and who's doing the personalizing matter.
 
Picture this: Colin’s at his go-to fishing store, Discount Tackle. The manager knows him, we chat, and he recommends a lure. Even though Colin can snag it cheaper elsewhere, the personalized touch keeps him coming back. 
 
We've all got our versions of this – the local diner, your loyal barber, or maybe a small biz that fuels your hobbies. Small businesses nail personalization. But big companies? They play the tech card, crunching data to determine "personalized" offerings—not always a slam dunk.
 
Why? With technology, the data sometimes gets too personal, and without a personal relationship supporting it, you're left feeling like the company is stalking you, not helping you. 
 
The trick is to balance personalization and privacy without making it weird. Discount Tackle gets it. They add value to Colin’s fishing game. Spotify does well with personalization, too. It has cool features, like Spotify Wrapped and DJ playing mode, that enhance the music and user experience but aren't creepy.
 
But then there's Facebook. Facebook dives deep into Colin’s life for personalized ads, which he doesn’t appreciate, nor do they enhance his experience. Remember: we do not pay for Facebook, but they're cashing in on us. 
 
Graham Hill on LinkedIn – he's all about putting the "customer" back in personalization. His take? Check your spam emails; they're not overly personal. He wants to see marketers’ user personalization to send the message to the right people at the optimal time.
 
We want personalization for a few reasons. It's like getting invited to an exclusive club when it's done right. Sainsbury's in England sends Colin discounts on stuff he buys. It is cool, not creepy. We also like familiar stuff. Plus, we appreciate the effort. 
 
In this episode, we explore the balance between personalization and privacy. We explain why brands should always consider who you're talking to, how you're doing it, and why. 
 
In this episode, you'll also discover:
The Balancing Act of Personalization: Learn how to balance personalizing interactions and avoiding the "too much information" zone.
The Differences Between Small vs. Big Business Tactics: Uncover how small businesses ace personalization in face-to-face talks while larger corporations use tech and the tradeoffs involved.
Value and Purpose Dynamics: Explore the critical role of value and purpose in personalization and how it can make or break customer relationships.
Why Trust and Context Matter: Understand the significance of trust and context in personalization and why it's not just about data but the emotional connection.
The Critical Nature of Adding Value, Not Just Selling: Shift your perspective from collecting data for sales to providing genuine value, making customers feel respected and appreciated.
 

Customer emotions heavily influence experiences and motivate actions, yet these motivations are often hidden, even from the customers. Organizations must uncover these hidden motivations to serve their customers better. The "Jobs to Be Done" framework, popularized by Clayton Christensen at Harvard Business School, provides a lens through which to view customer motivations.
 
Eckhart Boehme, Founder and Managing Director of Unipro Solutions, emphasizes the importance of aligning customer experiences around the idea of jobs to be done, helping organizations grow faster by understanding what customers seek to achieve through their products or services.
 
The Jobs to Be Done framework shifts focus from product features to customer motivations, urging businesses to understand the underlying needs driving customer behavior. It prompts companies to ask what customers are buying and why they are buying it.
 
Boehme also introduces the Wheel of Progress, a tool designed to help organizations understand customer journeys and progress through four phases: awareness, expectations, experience, and tradeoffs. This tool facilitates collaboration and strategy formation based on meaningful data.
 
This episode explores why understanding customer motivations is essential for effective marketing and product design. While uncovering these motivations may not be intuitive, it is a worthwhile endeavor that can lead to powerful insights and better decision-making.
 
Here are five other things you will learn in this podcast:
The significant influence of customer emotions on experiences and actions. 
The importance of uncovering hidden customer motivations for effective business strategies. 
How the "Jobs to Be Done" framework provides a valuable perspective on understanding customer needs and motivations. 
The role of tools like the Wheel of Progress in visualizing and understanding customer journeys. 
Research and analysis are necessary to uncover customer motivations and make informed business decisions.