I shop online a lot. In fact, before I wrote this article, I spent a good hour browsing around some of my favorite online shops. It’s research! Although I seem to have no trouble spending more than enough money on these sites, I started thinking about what my ideal online shopping experience would look like. [...]

When I Google “define: brand,” I get the following result: trade name: A type of product manufactured by a company under a particular name Is this definition accurate? Traditional marketers would agree with Google’s definition. These individuals spend lots of time and money developing a name—an image with which to brand their products and services. They [...]

I recently struck up a conversation with some folks in the restaurant business. As we talked about the various aspects of running a restaurant, from the long hours to the impossible-to-satisfy patrons, the owner mentioned that one of the most important things he had learned from his years in the business was about the front [...]

Back in the day, I did a little studying with Gary Becker at the University of Chicago, winner of the Nobel Prize for applying micro-economic theory to criminal behavior. My use of the phrase ‘a little studying’ is precise, because my main lesson learned from this brilliant man was that ultimately economics is advanced math, and [...]

For the past five years, during the first weekend in August, I have participated in a fund raiser (the Pan Mass Challenge) where approximately 5,000 cyclists pedal a 192 miles over two days and raise $34M for cancer research. As a resident of New England, USA, August is the perfect time for long bike rides [...]

Saw Jerry Seinfeld live in beautiful downtown Fresno recently. In classic form, he did a five minute riff on the idea that, nowadays, life experiences are either Great or they Suck, and there is a mighty thin line separating the one from the other. This is primo wisdom for Customer Service Managers. Your customers have [...]

All businesses sell products. Whatever they might be—a laptop, a phone, groceries, a trip to the Bahamas, dinner in a restaurant—anything that someone pays money for is a product. Or so we all thought. I am about to argue that your product is not a product. Your product is, in fact, an experience. Think about [...]

‘I don’t remember forgetting I don’t seem to recall If I neglected to show you I love you I don’t remember at all.’ Ricky Skaggs Anyone who’s been in a relationship for more than, oh, a fortnight has learned the link between memory and caring. Forget to call: you clearly don’t care. Don’t remember that [...]

Over the last few weeks, a screenshot of an iPhone Siri conversation has been circulating the internet: This scenario has definitely been worth a few laughs online, but it also highlights how we still have a long way to go in the field of natural language processing. Decades of work have produced numerous highly touted [...]

“I wish they would only take me as I am” – Vincent Van Gogh Personas are essential to Customer Experience Management. It’s a given that good design begins with understanding the design target. A Persona nets-out as a “word portrait” of a customer type, distilling the essential elements of a market segment. The richer and more [...]