In this episode, James and Phoebe are joined by special guest Jason Friedman, the founder and CEO of CXFormula. They discuss how to develop a customer-centric mindset, while touching on the topics of emotions, confidence and much more.
Jason started his career in theatre, as a lighting designer and technician for such groups as Rush and Fleetwood Mac, as well as touring with Broadway.
“I spent a lot of those years really understanding audience on a whole different level. Everything we did was to add value to the customers.”
He cites a study where 80% of CEOs believed that they were creating amazing experiences for their customers, where only 8% of the same customers surveyed agreed. He calls this divide the “Experience Gap,” and the result of organizations not having a customer-centric mindset is a common problem today.
Jason tells entrepreneurs to literally step into the shoes of their customers in order to see situations through their lens, and from their perspective.
“You have to understand what it’s like for that customer. What are they feeling?”
He believes that the customer isn’t always right, but there has to be an alignment between the business and customer, with clear expectations in place. When this occurs, businesses are able to really create value for the customer.
Most businesses create customer experiences by default, whereas Jason’s methods reverse engineer the process and design the desired experience.
In order to really understand what the customer wants, we need to understand what is going on in his or her world, as well as what they’re looking for when interacting with your brand. In one of his businesses, he had all of his employees take an improv acting class to help them listen better and react to customer frustrations in certain situations.
“The key to any customer-centric journey is beginning with the end in mind”
In order to improve our customers’ experiences, we need to meet the client’s expectations at all times using any process or system necessary.
Jason also says businesses need to create what he calls “moments of wow.” In these situations, a spontaneous sequence is used to surprise and delight them.
It is possible to create a custom, tailored experience for a larger group. Jason says you can do this without spending a lot of time or extra money.
“How do you make them feel like the hero and that you’re the guy that takes them on that journey?”
