4 Ways To Improve Customer Feedback

WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.140 --> 00:00:10.310 combining, you know, in moment, passive and then proactive and you do in the 2 00:00:10.310 --> 00:00:13.860 reach out. There is really a great tactical way to ensure you're reaching 3 00:00:13.860 --> 00:00:17.660 the majority of your customers and letting them know we care to listen. 4 00:00:18.340 --> 00:00:23.860 When you deliver an exceptional customer experience, people can feel it. 5 00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:28.100 Then they think about it. That conscious thought often turns into the 6 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:31.860 stories that they tell stories that they tell other people that they write 7 00:00:31.860 --> 00:00:36.500 social posts about that. They write online reviews about thoughts, feelings, 8 00:00:36.500 --> 00:00:42.060 stories, action for insights into all of that. Specifically the story layer. 9 00:00:42.070 --> 00:00:46.650 You're gonna love this conversation with Aaron Waikiki. He is the CEO at 10 00:00:46.650 --> 00:00:51.060 Gather Up, which is a C X and online review platform. We get a bit into 11 00:00:51.060 --> 00:00:55.800 online reputation, but the heart of this episode is collecting and using 12 00:00:55.800 --> 00:01:01.000 customer feedback more effectively. Aaron shares four specific ways to 13 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:05.160 improve customer feedback within your organization. My name is Ethan Butte. 14 00:01:05.170 --> 00:01:09.530 It was a privilege to host this conversation. I also host the customer 15 00:01:09.530 --> 00:01:14.070 experience podcast, and I'd love to hear from you directly about these 16 00:01:14.070 --> 00:01:18.500 conversations. You can email me Ethan at bom bom dot com or find me on Linked 17 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:25.220 in Ethan Butte B E u T E. I need your feedback to improve the c X Siri's here 18 00:01:25.220 --> 00:01:29.940 on B two b growth and to improve the customer experience podcast and now my 19 00:01:29.940 --> 00:01:36.620 conversation with Aaron Waikiki of gather up customer experiences manifest 20 00:01:36.620 --> 00:01:40.900 as feelings, then thoughts, then stories. Those stories Air often 21 00:01:40.900 --> 00:01:45.410 expressed his online reviews and other digital expressions that are benefits 22 00:01:45.420 --> 00:01:51.210 or detriments to your online reputation. Today's guest brings to us four truths 23 00:01:51.220 --> 00:01:55.410 about customer experience as the backbone off your business. He spent 24 00:01:55.410 --> 00:01:59.320 the past dozen years in V, P and C level roles in marketing and technology 25 00:01:59.320 --> 00:02:04.320 firms and currently serves as CEO of Gather Up Ah Customer Experience, an 26 00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:08.910 online review engine that enables insights, empowers, marketing and 27 00:02:08.910 --> 00:02:13.750 converts customers. He also hosts the SAS Venture podcast Aaron Waikiki. 28 00:02:13.750 --> 00:02:18.050 Welcome to the customer experience Podcast. Thanks, Ethan, for having me. 29 00:02:18.440 --> 00:02:22.350 Yeah, I'm really excited about this conversation, and I love these four 30 00:02:22.350 --> 00:02:26.310 truths that that we kind of generated in a back and forth before hitting 31 00:02:26.310 --> 00:02:30.390 record in having this conversation. But before we get into it properly, you 32 00:02:30.390 --> 00:02:34.800 know, it's it's mid. May your in Minneapolis. I'm in Colorado I'm just 33 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:39.050 wondering, you know, what's the state of affairs with regard to the pandemic? 34 00:02:39.050 --> 00:02:43.830 How is it affecting you or your family, or your team members or your customers? 35 00:02:43.830 --> 00:02:47.170 Kind of What's going on from your perspective? All right, we'll try to be 36 00:02:47.170 --> 00:02:53.270 succinct and not eat up our entire time on that. But you know, one personally, 37 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:58.240 I'm enjoying four kids. I'm enjoying more time with them, you know, activity, 38 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:02.290 sports. All of those things have come to, Ah, halt. So I feel like it's a lot 39 00:03:02.290 --> 00:03:06.300 more like my childhood on getting to spend a lot more quality time instead 40 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:10.430 of running around as a business. Gather up has always been a distributed 41 00:03:10.440 --> 00:03:15.100 company with all of our team remote. So not a hard adjustment for us, by any 42 00:03:15.100 --> 00:03:20.410 means there. I usually work out of a small office where I live, but now I'm, 43 00:03:20.420 --> 00:03:23.280 you know, working from home. So hopefully during our interview today 44 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:27.060 one of my four kids doesn't pop in. They've been pretty good about that. 45 00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:30.550 But, you know, mentally, I think the really big mind shift is for the last 46 00:03:30.550 --> 00:03:34.760 15 years of my career. It's always been growth mode, no matter you know what 47 00:03:34.760 --> 00:03:38.460 business I've been leading or starting or running, and this is really the 48 00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:42.140 first time where it's been kind of a circle the wagons and figure out, you 49 00:03:42.140 --> 00:03:46.460 know, how do we sustain and survive while still trying to find those little 50 00:03:46.470 --> 00:03:51.020 opportunities? And lastly, Minnesota's a state. I feel like we're probably 51 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:56.290 edging Mawr in, like the Lower Third as being cautious. Our state is very 52 00:03:56.300 --> 00:04:00.680 healthcare minded when you have, you know, the Mayo Clinic here and things 53 00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:04.680 like that. So I kind of feel like as other states, just right now, we're 54 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:08.810 just starting to reopen. We're doing that a little bit, but I think will be 55 00:04:08.810 --> 00:04:12.880 closely watching what goes on everywhere else before we make any big 56 00:04:12.880 --> 00:04:17.110 moves as faras reopening businesses and the economy. Cool. Thank you for 57 00:04:17.110 --> 00:04:20.600 sharing that, and that's been a consistent silver lining, and I'm 58 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:24.470 experiencing the same thing. I only have one child, a teenage son, but you 59 00:04:24.470 --> 00:04:27.590 know, even if it's just two or three minutes is I'm in between meetings or, 60 00:04:27.590 --> 00:04:32.240 you know, going out to, you know, fill up the tea or something like that. You 61 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:35.000 know, it's just more time with family I think it's something that a lot of 62 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.950 people are really enjoying, and I hope some of those kind of habits that we're 63 00:04:38.950 --> 00:04:43.500 reforming stick with us whenever we're on the other side. So thank you again 64 00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:47.300 for that. So we'll start here where we always start. Which is your definition. 65 00:04:47.300 --> 00:04:50.430 Thoughts, characteristics. When I say customer experience, what does that 66 00:04:50.430 --> 00:04:54.450 mean to you, Aaron? Yeah, to me. You know, customer experience is really all 67 00:04:54.450 --> 00:05:00.120 about, like, How do you guide influence and impact your customers emotions in 68 00:05:00.130 --> 00:05:04.600 their journey with you? Awesome. How about online reputation? I know this. 69 00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:08.160 That was kind of like taken for granted, but from your I mean, it's it's what 70 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:12.050 you all do. So I thought you might be able to define that in a way that might 71 00:05:12.050 --> 00:05:16.000 be really helpful. Yeah, the easiest way I describe it when I'm talking to 72 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:20.240 people is when you think back a decade or two ago, the brand you controlled 73 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:24.860 your reputation in your voice by your billboards, your TV ads, what you put 74 00:05:24.860 --> 00:05:28.890 out there. But the evolution of the Internet has provided that same strong 75 00:05:28.890 --> 00:05:33.870 voice to every last consumer that's out there. So there's easier ways toe, 76 00:05:33.880 --> 00:05:38.670 share your opinion, post it and have it last forever. And be very visible on 77 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:44.100 Google, Facebook, Twitter, various industry sites and things like that. So 78 00:05:44.110 --> 00:05:48.130 online reputation is really how your business is reflected through the eyes 79 00:05:48.130 --> 00:05:52.930 of your customers as they tell your stories and micro formats through star 80 00:05:52.930 --> 00:05:56.750 ratings. Thumbs up, thumbs down. Recommend Yes, recommend no, and the 81 00:05:56.750 --> 00:06:00.700 details they talk about in what their customer experience and their journey 82 00:06:00.700 --> 00:06:04.590 was like when they interacted with your business. Yeah, it is very, very 83 00:06:04.590 --> 00:06:08.890 interesting. I think we're pretty deep into this at this point. I think we're 84 00:06:08.890 --> 00:06:13.460 now into, like, nuanced behavior with regard. Thio. I'm just what came to 85 00:06:13.460 --> 00:06:17.160 mind there when you say stars and I immediately my mind goes to Amazon, and 86 00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:22.860 so you know, I generally will just keep scrolling if I see something that has, 87 00:06:22.860 --> 00:06:27.500 like, three reviews because you know I wants a volume there, I want some truth. 88 00:06:27.500 --> 00:06:31.250 I want some believe it's even Even those kinds of minor behaviors are just 89 00:06:31.260 --> 00:06:36.180 adaptations to to what you just observe there, and so I'm sure this will come 90 00:06:36.180 --> 00:06:40.580 up in the course of our conversation, but you know what we're talking about 91 00:06:40.580 --> 00:06:44.960 here is the is the very, very earliest start of the customer experience and of 92 00:06:44.960 --> 00:06:47.990 the buying journey. And I think a lot of what you're going to share is gonna 93 00:06:47.990 --> 00:06:52.340 be helpful for folks who want who want to start the relationships off in 94 00:06:52.340 --> 00:06:55.770 better places. But, you know, before we get into the four truth for folks who 95 00:06:55.770 --> 00:06:59.000 aren't familiar, could you share a little bit about gather up like, who is 96 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:03.570 your ideal customer and what do you solve for them? Yeah, so are ideal 97 00:07:03.570 --> 00:07:07.430 customer. Gather up or while we start with exactly I guess what we do. What 98 00:07:07.430 --> 00:07:11.460 we aim to do is help create ah win win situation for the business and the 99 00:07:11.460 --> 00:07:15.250 customer primarily for the business. It's giving them a tool set to be able 100 00:07:15.250 --> 00:07:19.560 to engage their customers post experience, post transaction and allow 101 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:24.490 them to capture some really valuable and simple customer experience. Data 102 00:07:24.490 --> 00:07:28.690 points toe, understand? How did we do with this customer? So we capture 103 00:07:28.690 --> 00:07:32.130 things like net promoter score. How likely are they to refer that business 104 00:07:32.130 --> 00:07:36.680 to a friend or a colleague without him to ask a fuse? You know, small specific 105 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:41.390 survey questions around customer service. Did they get the value? Was 106 00:07:41.390 --> 00:07:45.040 the timing and communication great things like that? And then we help make 107 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:49.530 it easy for that customer to then go and write a review for that business. 108 00:07:49.540 --> 00:07:53.730 So it's a pretty seamless process. We always call it a the best two minute 109 00:07:53.730 --> 00:07:57.900 post convert or post sale conversation, and we want it to be in and out like a 110 00:07:57.910 --> 00:08:01.700 robbery so nice and quick and easy and allows them to understand, like, did we 111 00:08:01.700 --> 00:08:05.750 do a great job? Will this customer be out singing our praises? Or will they 112 00:08:05.750 --> 00:08:08.920 tell people that we fell short and they should consider someone else when 113 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:13.450 someone asked them for a referral that's out there? So making that whole 114 00:08:13.450 --> 00:08:18.530 process of listening to your customer easy and then what's special about us 115 00:08:18.530 --> 00:08:21.870 is we just understand how much that needs to translate into the online 116 00:08:21.870 --> 00:08:25.600 world. So not only the company hearing this and knowing this for their 117 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:29.350 internal decisions, but then how do we take this outward so that people can 118 00:08:29.350 --> 00:08:33.929 read these reviews on Google and on Facebook and on their own websites as 119 00:08:33.929 --> 00:08:37.169 well? So we have a number of tools that help make it easy for those reviews to 120 00:08:37.169 --> 00:08:41.559 be written and then published them to their own website and social platforms. 121 00:08:41.940 --> 00:08:46.400 Sounds like you're solving a very interesting and valuable problem, of 122 00:08:46.400 --> 00:08:50.060 course, because so much of that activity can be very disparate. I'm 123 00:08:50.060 --> 00:08:52.680 just thinking about some of the feedback that we collect from our 124 00:08:52.680 --> 00:08:57.290 customers. Sometimes marketing is going out to try to, you know, drive up 125 00:08:57.300 --> 00:09:01.040 reviews in a particular location. Do you find that the best thing for 126 00:09:01.040 --> 00:09:04.210 companies to find one or two spots where the online reviews matter the 127 00:09:04.210 --> 00:09:09.010 most? Or can you syndicate reviews across multiple destinations? How do 128 00:09:09.010 --> 00:09:11.680 you think about that? I think I'm what I'm thinking about here is our own 129 00:09:11.680 --> 00:09:16.830 customer base, which is very, very diverse. And so some people really want 130 00:09:16.830 --> 00:09:20.150 the reviews over here. Some people really want to build up a review rating 131 00:09:20.150 --> 00:09:23.900 over there. You know G two is a place, for example, where our SAS customers 132 00:09:23.900 --> 00:09:29.410 really wanna be Zillow or Google is where some of our maybe real estate or 133 00:09:29.410 --> 00:09:33.030 mortgage customers want their reviews to rack up like what do you advise 134 00:09:33.030 --> 00:09:38.030 around locations for reviews? Yeah, So the first thing I tell people that take 135 00:09:38.030 --> 00:09:41.630 a stair step approach to this at the very bottom of the stairs. The first 136 00:09:41.630 --> 00:09:45.840 thing you need to capture is, like, actually have customer feedback and 137 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:49.000 reviews as, like a core part of your business, right? Like not just a 138 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:52.930 marketing tactic, not just a marketing agenda of. We want 13 more Google 139 00:09:52.930 --> 00:09:57.190 reviews this month, but is listening to our customer a core part of our 140 00:09:57.190 --> 00:10:00.740 business. Then that second step is Do we have the right tools so that we're 141 00:10:00.740 --> 00:10:04.160 understanding what they think? Because, really, at the end of the day, if you 142 00:10:04.160 --> 00:10:07.110 don't know what that customer thinks, it doesn't matter where they post it. 143 00:10:07.110 --> 00:10:10.570 Someone is going to get access to it, whether it's an in person conversation, 144 00:10:10.570 --> 00:10:14.640 a message board or review site, and then that next step it that you're 145 00:10:14.640 --> 00:10:19.270 talking about, an asking specifically is yes, where your prospects going to 146 00:10:19.270 --> 00:10:23.980 be right, So you need to take a look at what happens when someone types in, you 147 00:10:23.980 --> 00:10:29.390 know, best plumber in this city. Or, you know, whatever your services in 148 00:10:29.390 --> 00:10:33.850 this area that they're looking for, and then even consider more so nowadays, 149 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:38.280 once people, even if they've been like, referred to you in in person situation 150 00:10:38.280 --> 00:10:42.100 there. Next step is to go look up your business online and what we see with a 151 00:10:42.100 --> 00:10:45.800 lot of behaviors people typing a brand name and then the word reviews after it 152 00:10:45.800 --> 00:10:49.650 into their Google search. They're gonna skip any of your content, and they want 153 00:10:49.650 --> 00:10:53.640 to go strictly to what's the public opinion? What are other consumers 154 00:10:53.640 --> 00:10:57.270 saying about this business? And when those search results come up, pay close 155 00:10:57.270 --> 00:11:00.880 attention to what's on that page, right? Google reviews It might be your 156 00:11:00.880 --> 00:11:04.810 Facebook profile could be your Yellow Pages listing. But whatever is on that 157 00:11:04.810 --> 00:11:08.780 page one, that's a really quick, you know, temp check on what your 158 00:11:08.780 --> 00:11:11.550 reputation is, and those are the sources that are gonna be right in 159 00:11:11.550 --> 00:11:15.980 front of your prospects. Great tips. I'm glad I asked that. Let's go. I'm 160 00:11:15.980 --> 00:11:19.350 calling them for truth. There just, you know, there's there's statements that 161 00:11:19.350 --> 00:11:24.830 we developed in a early exchange and and I do accept them is true. So I'll 162 00:11:24.830 --> 00:11:29.610 just I'll just read the first one off and then let's kind of get your take on 163 00:11:29.610 --> 00:11:33.790 it when we talk about it. So the first is is something that is definitely a 164 00:11:33.790 --> 00:11:37.670 truth that we have established here on this show by talking with all kinds of 165 00:11:37.670 --> 00:11:41.760 people in all kinds of seats. And that is that customer experiences where you 166 00:11:41.760 --> 00:11:46.460 compete, that is your differentiator, that you're Brandon. Your reputation 167 00:11:46.470 --> 00:11:50.360 are the moat against competition. So talk a little bit about that dynamic 168 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:54.040 from your perspective. Yeah, the easy way. Always frame this up for people to 169 00:11:54.040 --> 00:11:57.760 understand. It is like no matter what you're competing in nowadays, like it's 170 00:11:57.760 --> 00:12:02.410 an Amazon economy, right? The options that you have to get products or 171 00:12:02.410 --> 00:12:08.100 services cheaper, faster in various ways has been commoditized so greatly. 172 00:12:08.110 --> 00:12:12.620 But you're Brandon reputation is really your true separator. What are your fans 173 00:12:12.620 --> 00:12:15.740 out there saying about you? And does that make a difference to the prospect 174 00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:19.990 coming in that they might be willing to pay a little bit more because of how 175 00:12:19.990 --> 00:12:24.530 you deliver it or overlook some other things based on location, amount of 176 00:12:24.530 --> 00:12:27.500 time you've been in business, you know any of those other things because of 177 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:31.910 what your reputation looks like with it? So I tell people in that like in this 178 00:12:31.910 --> 00:12:36.100 big differentiating deciding factor. You really need to shine here, right? 179 00:12:36.100 --> 00:12:40.260 You need to be telling your customer experience story as loud and as many 180 00:12:40.260 --> 00:12:44.140 places as you can. You need to ensure it's a great customer experience story, 181 00:12:44.150 --> 00:12:48.510 so capturing it, managing it and then finding finding the right right ways to 182 00:12:48.510 --> 00:12:52.590 market with it. We could go on and on through all kinds of industries that 183 00:12:52.590 --> 00:12:57.670 thought they were so bulletproof from a cab industry. Two mattresses, things 184 00:12:57.670 --> 00:13:00.470 like that that never thought their industry would see a disruption. Or 185 00:13:00.470 --> 00:13:03.990 people could just, you know, a few clicks on a website and be getting that 186 00:13:03.990 --> 00:13:08.260 product delivered to their house. But for, you know, location based 187 00:13:08.260 --> 00:13:13.440 businesses now that Zaveri Riel, one of their biggest competitors, is anything 188 00:13:13.450 --> 00:13:17.400 that's online with it. So that reputation, how you deliver your 189 00:13:17.400 --> 00:13:21.790 service, what people that you trust in your community think about that service, 190 00:13:21.800 --> 00:13:25.180 those air, very important things in making a decision to purchase from a 191 00:13:25.180 --> 00:13:31.310 company. Absolutely. I the language I I've picked up around it is product 192 00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:34.700 parody and hyper competition, and the result of those things is you already 193 00:13:34.700 --> 00:13:38.660 offered here is commoditization And so you know a lot of these businesses 194 00:13:38.660 --> 00:13:45.190 where, you know, even even 10 even five years ago you wouldn't think about some 195 00:13:45.190 --> 00:13:48.890 of these businesses is being commoditized. And so, yeah, it's it's 196 00:13:48.890 --> 00:13:53.040 thes. It's the experience that we're able to deliver, and then the thoughts 197 00:13:53.040 --> 00:13:57.720 and feelings and stories that people are left with as a consequence and, of 198 00:13:57.720 --> 00:14:02.510 course, your ability to capture and control the good ones. In looking at 199 00:14:02.510 --> 00:14:06.600 your website, I was reminded of a really important idea, which is if 200 00:14:06.600 --> 00:14:10.260 something is going bad, you wanna be the first place a customer goes. And 201 00:14:10.260 --> 00:14:13.640 when something's going good, of course you wanna amplify and document and 202 00:14:13.640 --> 00:14:18.360 amplify that and so really, really important. Because, Askew said, Your 203 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:24.950 vote is your reputation. Number two is, And this this is just I accept this one 204 00:14:24.950 --> 00:14:28.780 intuitively, and I'm curious. What you have to share on it is, is that 205 00:14:28.780 --> 00:14:33.690 customer experience data capture must be easy on. I think this goes with some 206 00:14:33.690 --> 00:14:37.250 of the earmarks of an Amazon type experience, which is frictionless, 207 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:42.000 which is easy. I mean, there's just just so easy to buy, like by now. Done 208 00:14:42.010 --> 00:14:47.070 talk about, Of course, why the data capture must be easy. But also maybe 209 00:14:47.070 --> 00:14:52.050 it's some ways to do it. Yeah, So the most straightforward example I give is, 210 00:14:52.050 --> 00:14:55.890 You know, anytime you poppin, you've had an experience. You've done business 211 00:14:55.890 --> 00:15:01.010 with a brand. A survey shows up via email or via text, you open it, and 212 00:15:01.010 --> 00:15:04.200 then there's either a progress bar or a numbering system, and you see it's 213 00:15:04.200 --> 00:15:09.460 gonna be 2030 40 questions, right? Like the level of completing that goes way 214 00:15:09.460 --> 00:15:14.400 down. And even if you like, decide I'm going to go through with this at the 215 00:15:14.400 --> 00:15:17.440 end of it, you might have a worst opinion of the brand because they just 216 00:15:17.450 --> 00:15:21.470 ate up time in your day. And time is our biggest commodity, right? So I 217 00:15:21.470 --> 00:15:26.050 think a lot of businesses really need to understand and decide that. Yes, our 218 00:15:26.050 --> 00:15:30.640 marketing in our operations department wants incredibly granular information, 219 00:15:30.640 --> 00:15:35.220 and we want it in mass. But asking our customers that many questions is only 220 00:15:35.220 --> 00:15:38.490 gonna fatigue them. We're not going to get a many results. We need to be 221 00:15:38.490 --> 00:15:42.700 hearing from many customers assed possible. And really, the best thing is 222 00:15:42.700 --> 00:15:45.330 is you know these air customer touch points, right? And if you're not 223 00:15:45.330 --> 00:15:48.630 delighting them with the customer touch point, that makes them feel more like, 224 00:15:48.640 --> 00:15:53.510 Wow, this was easy. I could easily be heard. I could do it from my own device 225 00:15:53.510 --> 00:15:57.190 and it took me 60 seconds to tell them about my last experience, which will 226 00:15:57.190 --> 00:16:00.880 ensure my next one is great. Or I had a way to be heard that something wasn't 227 00:16:00.880 --> 00:16:05.230 exactly right. Um, and they can reach back out to me to fix it like the 228 00:16:05.230 --> 00:16:08.110 consumer should get a win out of it. And I just think that's something 229 00:16:08.110 --> 00:16:12.720 really important. Where, Yeah, it's great if your data collection gets a 230 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:17.570 win. But if it's at the expense of frustrating your customer, causing them 231 00:16:17.570 --> 00:16:20.940 friction and taking time from them, then it's not really quite the wind 232 00:16:20.940 --> 00:16:24.950 that you think it is. Yeah, I like that win win approach, and I think probably 233 00:16:24.950 --> 00:16:30.250 what happens if you make it even just a little bit too cumbersome is that 234 00:16:30.250 --> 00:16:33.050 you're going to get the extremes. You're gonna get your super fans, and 235 00:16:33.050 --> 00:16:36.400 that's always nice. It makes you feel good. It reminds, reminds why you show 236 00:16:36.400 --> 00:16:39.050 up, you know, pushed through the hard stuff day to day and you're probably 237 00:16:39.050 --> 00:16:42.930 gonna hear from the people who who are really, really angry or confused or 238 00:16:42.930 --> 00:16:46.430 frustrated because there's their feelings on both ends are so strong 239 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:50.230 that they're willing maybe to jump over the hurdle that you put in their way 240 00:16:50.230 --> 00:16:54.700 and what you're gonna be missing, I would guess, is possibly the most 241 00:16:54.700 --> 00:16:58.250 important voice of all, because you're gonna probably hear the loudest one's 242 00:16:58.260 --> 00:17:01.950 good and bad regardless. But you're gonna be missing that person. That's 243 00:17:01.950 --> 00:17:06.740 kind of just under the radar on an NPS scale. It's that it's that six or seven 244 00:17:06.740 --> 00:17:10.900 that could be potentially brought up to a nine or a 10 but could just as easily 245 00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:15.270 disappear and fall off and or they're just not gonna repeat purchase, and 246 00:17:15.270 --> 00:17:17.400 you're never going to know where they went or they're not going to renew 247 00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:19.849 their subscription. You're just not really going to know where they went 248 00:17:19.849 --> 00:17:23.450 this this big, silent. I don't know if it's a silent majority. I'm sure it 249 00:17:23.450 --> 00:17:26.140 depends on the business in the nature of what you're doing and how well you 250 00:17:26.140 --> 00:17:29.740 do it. But I would guess that what you're gonna lose if you make it too 251 00:17:29.740 --> 00:17:35.550 cumbersome. Is that person that just doesn't care enough about you to bother? 252 00:17:35.940 --> 00:17:39.770 Yeah, well, you know, tactically these air, the some of the things that I tell 253 00:17:39.770 --> 00:17:43.840 people they need to do is one. If that customer goes looking to talk to you, 254 00:17:43.850 --> 00:17:46.610 it should be very apparent, right When they come into your website, right? 255 00:17:46.610 --> 00:17:51.100 We've all is consumers had experiences where 10 clicks later, we're still not 256 00:17:51.100 --> 00:17:54.760 somewhere where we feel like we can give our opinion and talk to someone. 257 00:17:54.760 --> 00:17:59.070 So number one I tell people like your website should have a link, a button, 258 00:17:59.140 --> 00:18:03.070 something that says, you know, customer feedback. Talk to us Something along 259 00:18:03.070 --> 00:18:06.750 those lines. All of our websites have 10 different ways to buy from us. Right 260 00:18:06.750 --> 00:18:10.780 Lead forms, pop ups, all these other things. But we employ none of that to 261 00:18:10.780 --> 00:18:14.630 actually listen to the customers we've already won that we wanna keep and 262 00:18:14.630 --> 00:18:18.550 insure keep coming back. Then after that is just looking at, like, really 263 00:18:18.550 --> 00:18:23.300 easy ways. Like one feature we have is each business will have ah, text number. 264 00:18:23.300 --> 00:18:26.620 So you just text a keyword to that number. The system auto responds and 265 00:18:26.620 --> 00:18:30.410 says, Great. Let us ask you a few questions on what your experience was 266 00:18:30.410 --> 00:18:34.370 like us today. So the consumer, they're just seeing a sign. It's on the receipt, 267 00:18:34.370 --> 00:18:37.420 something easy. But they're able to do it in real time. They could be in your 268 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:41.140 business and still, you know, frustrated. But now they have a way to 269 00:18:41.140 --> 00:18:44.610 talk to you where, you know, a lot of people don't like conflict, so being 270 00:18:44.610 --> 00:18:48.080 able to do it from their own device behind their own keyboard is definitely 271 00:18:48.080 --> 00:18:51.480 easy. And then the last is just being proactive, right? And we see more and 272 00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:55.390 more of this in the market. Now we're after a purchase. Within hours or days, 273 00:18:55.390 --> 00:18:58.610 you're going to get une email or text message that says, you know, Hey, we 274 00:18:58.610 --> 00:19:01.640 want to hear from you. Here is a really easy way to do it, and it's only going 275 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:05.560 to take you, Ah, a minute to do it. But those are the smart tactical ways, and 276 00:19:05.560 --> 00:19:08.450 you need all of them kind of working together. You need something in the 277 00:19:08.450 --> 00:19:12.190 moment. You need something passive when they go looking for it, because, let's 278 00:19:12.190 --> 00:19:15.850 face it, if it's easier for me to go complain on Google or Yelp or Facebook 279 00:19:15.850 --> 00:19:19.600 about your business than it is to talk to you. You're already losing within 280 00:19:19.600 --> 00:19:24.600 that battle. So combining you know, in moment, passive and then proactive and 281 00:19:24.600 --> 00:19:28.400 you do in the reach out is really a great, you know, tactical way to ensure 282 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:31.960 you're reaching the majority of your customers and letting them know we care 283 00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:35.850 to listen. There's an easy way to do it. That's gonna be really quick for you. 284 00:19:35.860 --> 00:19:39.670 And we're both going to benefit from it. E love it really, really good tips. 285 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:42.870 What do you just a quick drive by here? What do you think about incentives, 286 00:19:43.340 --> 00:19:47.510 Should you incentivize feedback? And if so, did you have any rules around that? 287 00:19:47.520 --> 00:19:52.450 Yeah. So Number one, I would say No, I say no specifically for the reason. 288 00:19:52.460 --> 00:19:56.330 Within our process, we're asking both for direct feedback and an online 289 00:19:56.330 --> 00:20:00.320 review at the same time. And it is against FTC guidelines to incentivize 290 00:20:00.320 --> 00:20:03.160 any type of an online review, because then it's really just a paid 291 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:08.040 testimonial. So even a simple something is simple, right? And I see these faux 292 00:20:08.040 --> 00:20:12.140 pas all the time, right? You go out and get a haircut. And at the cash register, 293 00:20:12.140 --> 00:20:15.870 it might say, Hey, $5 off your next haircut If you write a great Google 294 00:20:15.870 --> 00:20:20.400 Review or a Facebook review and show it to us, all of those are are no nose, 295 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:23.400 right, because you don't wanna have something that's been, you know, a pay 296 00:20:23.400 --> 00:20:27.580 for performance of what the review looks like to me, that kind of signals 297 00:20:27.580 --> 00:20:30.980 when you need to offer an incentive. It just kind of shows were probably asking 298 00:20:30.980 --> 00:20:34.500 too many questions, taking up too much of your time. And we probably didn't 299 00:20:34.500 --> 00:20:37.380 even deliver an experience that you really want to talk about if we have to 300 00:20:37.380 --> 00:20:43.720 pay you to talk about it after the fact. Right? So, yeah, I say the couple those. 301 00:20:43.730 --> 00:20:48.630 I mean, we're always pretty solid. It's gonna, you know, very. But if somebody 302 00:20:48.630 --> 00:20:52.610 said, you know what's the interaction rate, I usually say, you know, we help 303 00:20:52.610 --> 00:20:57.530 most businesses accomplished somewhere between a 20 to 30% reaction rate when 304 00:20:57.530 --> 00:21:00.450 you're, you know, kind of doing those three different methods that I talked 305 00:21:00.450 --> 00:21:05.770 about Proactiv passive and in real time now that as when you look at, they send 306 00:21:05.770 --> 00:21:09.350 out very massive surveys. Ah, lot of those air scratching and clawing for 307 00:21:09.350 --> 00:21:13.790 single percentage points for getting feedback because too daunting to begin 308 00:21:13.790 --> 00:21:17.390 with, it's not tied to the actual experience that's done annually or 309 00:21:17.390 --> 00:21:22.030 quarterly. And it's too many too many questions that air there. So I say, Let 310 00:21:22.030 --> 00:21:26.580 the motivation be that this is awesome. They want to hear from me and a really 311 00:21:26.580 --> 00:21:30.650 great just a sneak in a really quick tip with this when you're doing any of 312 00:21:30.650 --> 00:21:34.500 those things and you baked it into your business process. When that business is 313 00:21:34.500 --> 00:21:37.870 dealing with a customer, you're saying something like, Just so you know, when 314 00:21:37.870 --> 00:21:40.850 this is all wrapped up, we're going to send you a quick five question survey 315 00:21:40.850 --> 00:21:44.230 to find out what you thought about us and hopefully, right, a great online 316 00:21:44.230 --> 00:21:47.650 review, because what you think really matters to us. So now you've already 317 00:21:47.650 --> 00:21:51.900 personally, like seated that process, and the email isn't a surprise. The 318 00:21:51.900 --> 00:21:54.960 text messages in a surprise, and you let them know like, Hey, this really 319 00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:58.950 matters and it's really easy to do so That, to me, is like a pro tip like 320 00:21:58.950 --> 00:22:01.920 give them a heads up. You're gonna ask them. Don't let it be a surprise. 321 00:22:01.930 --> 00:22:05.410 Really? Good one. And, uh, it's like some interesting details there with 322 00:22:05.410 --> 00:22:08.980 regard to incentives, in addition to the proper motivation and strategy. 323 00:22:08.990 --> 00:22:14.940 Number three. Yeah, the big picture on C X is that it needs to be visible to 324 00:22:14.940 --> 00:22:18.860 your prospects. I think I know where this is, where this one's going, but 325 00:22:18.870 --> 00:22:23.260 I've probably been on the wrong side of some of the sins here. But talk about 326 00:22:23.260 --> 00:22:28.170 visibility. Yeah, so especially in today's business environment. And I 327 00:22:28.170 --> 00:22:32.080 think a lot of people, if you start to think through this evolution of being 328 00:22:32.080 --> 00:22:36.780 visible on how you conduct business and how you work and what's going on and 329 00:22:37.140 --> 00:22:41.060 the tools that businesses use, like Social Media, to be able to amplify 330 00:22:41.060 --> 00:22:45.480 that and showcase those things, Ah, lot of companies might do a great job of 331 00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:49.260 data collection on how their customers feel, and then it all dead ends in a 332 00:22:49.260 --> 00:22:52.600 spreadsheet or a database somewhere. Anything else, and they use it to make 333 00:22:52.600 --> 00:22:56.220 some internal decisions. But what consumers really want nowadays is they 334 00:22:56.220 --> 00:22:59.460 want an open book on that, and they want to be able to see everything. So I 335 00:22:59.460 --> 00:23:03.360 think it's really important to take you know what you're learning and then be 336 00:23:03.360 --> 00:23:06.900 able to get it to a place where everyone can access it, because the 337 00:23:06.900 --> 00:23:09.990 whole goal is that you're doing an awesome job. People are having great 338 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.450 experiences overwhelmingly, more so than the average or the poor ones. And 339 00:23:14.450 --> 00:23:17.800 the public wants toe like peel through that and be able to see it when they go 340 00:23:17.800 --> 00:23:22.430 to make their decisions And we get into because of the ways that people can do 341 00:23:22.430 --> 00:23:26.210 things, you're able to get questions answered in reviews. You're able to 342 00:23:26.210 --> 00:23:30.290 understand details and facts that the website might have missed because it's 343 00:23:30.290 --> 00:23:33.760 that customer that actually went through the experience and the journey, 344 00:23:33.770 --> 00:23:37.750 sharing the same details about their journey with it and to me like that 345 00:23:37.750 --> 00:23:41.170 just builds so much more consumer confidence than the marketing pitch 346 00:23:41.140 --> 00:23:45.760 that we put on our own websites and even our social media and things like 347 00:23:45.760 --> 00:23:50.460 that. So I just think it's really important to get your customers in 348 00:23:50.460 --> 00:23:54.620 contact with your other happy customers and by posting it to your website 349 00:23:54.620 --> 00:23:57.840 social channels, the review sites, everything else that's the best way to 350 00:23:57.840 --> 00:24:01.840 do it. We have all this information right on our phone in front of us. We 351 00:24:01.840 --> 00:24:04.640 need to make sure we have is much of it out there that pants us in the right 352 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:09.850 light so that I have one observation. And then one question theon survey Shin 353 00:24:09.850 --> 00:24:13.500 is I've definitely We're definitely using a lot of the feedback that we're 354 00:24:13.500 --> 00:24:16.870 getting internally to make decisions. And it is helpful, you know, like we're 355 00:24:16.870 --> 00:24:23.180 a volume business. We have over 50,000 customers and growing. And so it's, you 356 00:24:23.180 --> 00:24:28.180 know, it's hard to to keep a pulse of what's going on. And so having multiple 357 00:24:28.140 --> 00:24:33.000 piece of feedback coming in and helping us make decisions and having what can 358 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:37.140 easily look like a number in any kind of a reporter, roundup or dashboard. 359 00:24:37.150 --> 00:24:40.760 Actually, having riel voices and real customers words internally is very 360 00:24:40.760 --> 00:24:45.230 helpful to humanize what would otherwise be this massive population 361 00:24:45.230 --> 00:24:48.620 that could be faceless if we well, if we weren't sending videos back and 362 00:24:48.620 --> 00:24:53.110 forth with a lot of them, too. But I think getting it to the website, this 363 00:24:53.110 --> 00:24:59.900 is how I got here, you know, as a consumer I trust a 4.78 star review 364 00:24:59.900 --> 00:25:03.940 much more than I trust. A five star review. Let's say they're 202 100 365 00:25:03.940 --> 00:25:07.880 ratings and one of them's a full five star and the other ones like 4.78 366 00:25:07.890 --> 00:25:12.430 There's something more honest about not being perfect talk about in places 367 00:25:12.430 --> 00:25:16.220 where you can control what gets shared. What doesn't So you and I have both 368 00:25:16.220 --> 00:25:19.750 been on websites is whether we're evaluating things for ourselves and our 369 00:25:19.750 --> 00:25:23.280 families or whether we're evaluating things for our businesses, where you 370 00:25:23.280 --> 00:25:27.350 see, you know, five stars from Chelsea and she says this five stars from Jeff 371 00:25:27.350 --> 00:25:32.280 and he says that you know, it's obviously cherry picked. And so do you 372 00:25:32.280 --> 00:25:36.820 have any advice for people in these situations? A. Do you buy my premise 373 00:25:36.820 --> 00:25:42.600 that that it is more seems a little bit more credible? Thio Thio Not quite be 374 00:25:42.600 --> 00:25:47.090 perfect than to be perfect. And you have any advice on cherry picking this 375 00:25:47.090 --> 00:25:51.800 kind of stuff? Yeah. So you just played into my fourth truth really, really 376 00:25:51.800 --> 00:25:56.230 well, right? Yeah, I think that is right. That, like, authenticity is the 377 00:25:56.230 --> 00:26:00.660 new king, right? And just as you've shown as a consumer. If you read a 378 00:26:00.660 --> 00:26:05.450 review profile that has 120 reviews and the ratings five stars, there is a 379 00:26:05.450 --> 00:26:09.830 little bit of you that says this all marketing is this sculpted? Were they 380 00:26:09.830 --> 00:26:14.840 paying to get some of these reviews? Consumers want fax, and they want the 381 00:26:14.840 --> 00:26:18.250 truth. That's their, you know. Ah. Study a couple years ago from Power 382 00:26:18.250 --> 00:26:21.800 Reviews in Northwestern University did a co study, and they found the most 383 00:26:21.800 --> 00:26:26.870 trusted rating was like 4.2 to 4.5, right, So customers don't expect you to 384 00:26:26.870 --> 00:26:31.010 be perfect. They expect you to be great. And so with that, I always caution 385 00:26:31.010 --> 00:26:34.370 people. Really, What we, you know, preach on the soap box? The biggest 386 00:26:34.370 --> 00:26:38.170 thing you should do is like be authentic, how your reviews come in and 387 00:26:38.170 --> 00:26:41.890 what those ratings are like. That's the very last piece of what's going on. And 388 00:26:41.890 --> 00:26:44.790 if you really care about what your rating is, air on Lee showing the best 389 00:26:44.790 --> 00:26:48.720 of you, you need to fix it in your process. Your customer experience 390 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:52.280 touchpoints. All those other things is like that's where you make a five star 391 00:26:52.280 --> 00:26:56.150 experience happen. It isn't in how you ask for the review or any of those 392 00:26:56.150 --> 00:26:59.160 things always said I'd be rich in on the beach if, just because our 393 00:26:59.160 --> 00:27:03.890 beautiful emails and text messages and forms captured this in a way that even 394 00:27:03.890 --> 00:27:08.310 a one star experience suddenly turned into five stars from our system. That's 395 00:27:08.320 --> 00:27:11.530 that's not what happens with it. So I think that part is really important. So 396 00:27:11.530 --> 00:27:16.580 we tell people like post all of your reviews and be authentic and respond to 397 00:27:16.580 --> 00:27:20.100 all of your reviews that are out there. So we have a number of customers, and 398 00:27:20.100 --> 00:27:23.510 some are very large brands. They post every single review, even their one 399 00:27:23.510 --> 00:27:27.080 star reviews. But then they make sure they reply to those one star reviews to 400 00:27:27.080 --> 00:27:31.100 show those next customers. If something goes wrong and we didn't hold up, our 401 00:27:31.100 --> 00:27:34.450 end of the deal were listening. We're gonna own it. We're going to respond, 402 00:27:34.450 --> 00:27:37.920 and we're gonna offer a path to try to work this out with you. That way, when 403 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:41.950 that next customer comes in, we can all say like, Hey, if everything goes great, 404 00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:46.010 I'm gonna be happy. But for a lot of consumers air like what happens when 405 00:27:46.010 --> 00:27:49.710 things go wrong and this shows them, they're gonna hear me. I've ways to 406 00:27:49.710 --> 00:27:53.100 talk to them. They're going to correct it. And they have processes for me to 407 00:27:53.100 --> 00:27:57.400 go through, to end up being a happy, happy customer in the end. And to me, 408 00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:01.600 that is, you know, so much more important. And that sets up your 409 00:28:01.600 --> 00:28:07.260 Brandon reputation to be one of trust over everything else rather than their 410 00:28:07.260 --> 00:28:11.900 Brandon reputation. Is there just amazingly awesome at marketing and 411 00:28:11.900 --> 00:28:17.170 sculpting a perfect review? Yeah, I like it. And I did not realize I was 412 00:28:17.170 --> 00:28:20.870 teeing that up so well for for the fourth one, but it's totally true. I 413 00:28:20.870 --> 00:28:26.530 buy that outright, and I really like that honesty and I I also like this, um, 414 00:28:26.540 --> 00:28:31.220 the consistency in response in your experience, whether it's gather up 415 00:28:31.220 --> 00:28:35.240 specifically or whether it's this this kind of functionality in general. 416 00:28:35.240 --> 00:28:38.250 Obviously, customer experience is the responsibility of the entire 417 00:28:38.250 --> 00:28:43.330 organization. But with regard to say who in your experience in an 418 00:28:43.330 --> 00:28:46.910 organization, what team or what type of person is the best one? To be 419 00:28:46.910 --> 00:28:52.470 responding to those comments or to run a gather up install or these kinds of 420 00:28:52.470 --> 00:28:57.190 things is this a marketing play? Is that a C s play? Is it an operations 421 00:28:57.190 --> 00:29:00.640 play like I'm sure it varies a little bit, but speak to that a little bit. 422 00:29:00.640 --> 00:29:03.690 Like who? You know, for folks who are listening. Oh, yeah, We definitely need 423 00:29:03.690 --> 00:29:08.080 to step up our reputation game. We need to be a little bit more intentional or 424 00:29:08.080 --> 00:29:11.250 conscious here. I'm already thinking a lot about some of the stuff that we do 425 00:29:11.250 --> 00:29:14.730 well in things that we should be doing, what seats in the house are typically 426 00:29:14.730 --> 00:29:19.330 involved, you know, at the at the front line. Practical level here. Yeah, well, 427 00:29:19.330 --> 00:29:22.740 I'm first of all, even. There's a very great question, and I think, one that a 428 00:29:22.740 --> 00:29:26.910 lot of organizations air struggling with like as customer experience, has 429 00:29:26.910 --> 00:29:32.860 just matured and taken off and having such a big seat at the table, right? So 430 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:37.200 more often than not for us, the conversation usually starts in 431 00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:42.070 marketing just because of the visible eye candy of review, stars and review 432 00:29:42.070 --> 00:29:46.350 counts and all of those things. But really, to me the like, the best 433 00:29:46.350 --> 00:29:51.970 solution is where you have operations CS and marketing all at the table 434 00:29:51.970 --> 00:29:56.030 together because What we overwhelmingly find a lot of times is they're all 435 00:29:56.030 --> 00:30:00.810 using different tools to do different things. When a tool I gather up can 436 00:30:00.810 --> 00:30:04.560 come in and replace three or four tools that they're using for monitoring, 437 00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:09.850 requesting marketing all of those different pieces with it. So it doesn't 438 00:30:09.850 --> 00:30:14.050 matter really who initiates it. I think all three of those having a seat at the 439 00:30:14.050 --> 00:30:17.490 table because they all can handle different functions within it. Right 440 00:30:17.500 --> 00:30:21.450 marketing is going to care about, You know, our Google review counts how we 441 00:30:21.450 --> 00:30:25.430 look on Facebook. What can we show on our website? What can we share on 442 00:30:25.440 --> 00:30:30.150 social media toe bolster and get those things out there? Operations wants to 443 00:30:30.150 --> 00:30:33.860 see, you know, what do we need to do different in our processes? Decisions 444 00:30:33.860 --> 00:30:37.890 we make our people happy with wait times. What makes them the most upset? 445 00:30:37.900 --> 00:30:41.660 What do we need to do for training? So our team is better at answering certain 446 00:30:41.660 --> 00:30:45.840 questions or setting expectations with things that are there, and then you see 447 00:30:45.840 --> 00:30:48.860 us a lot of times, if you have that rule, that's the one that's gonna be 448 00:30:48.860 --> 00:30:52.270 responding and then saying like Hey, we understand you're upset. We have a 449 00:30:52.270 --> 00:30:56.330 process to try to remedy. You know, let's get in contact and start to work 450 00:30:56.330 --> 00:31:00.750 through this problem. So to me, my my best customers of the companies that 451 00:31:00.750 --> 00:31:04.890 like they have, you know, the Super Three, they're together and they're 452 00:31:04.890 --> 00:31:07.300 working through this, and they're each doing those parts out of one 453 00:31:07.300 --> 00:31:11.530 centralized solution for smaller businesses. The majority of time, 454 00:31:11.530 --> 00:31:14.780 though, it's going to sit inside of marketing. And then they have to learn 455 00:31:14.780 --> 00:31:19.100 toe, have some, you know, customers success, customer support, toe what 456 00:31:19.100 --> 00:31:23.260 they're doing to be able to reply and do different things with it. But it 457 00:31:23.260 --> 00:31:27.490 really is amazing how this has evolved and with some companies we get into now 458 00:31:27.490 --> 00:31:31.850 right there specific customer experience position that five years ago 459 00:31:31.860 --> 00:31:35.360 that just really didn't exist except for the, you know, some of the largest 460 00:31:35.360 --> 00:31:39.380 of corporations. But now we even see it medium and even smaller type 461 00:31:39.390 --> 00:31:44.670 organizations where they have someone dedicated to customer experience. Yes, 462 00:31:44.680 --> 00:31:48.450 interesting. And so the conversations we've been having on this shelled 463 00:31:48.440 --> 00:31:53.570 around, you know, the operator operationalization of CXS. There's a 464 00:31:53.570 --> 00:31:58.580 camp that is, you know, it matures out of the C s function. And then there's 465 00:31:58.580 --> 00:32:01.890 this other camp that I that I think you're alluding to that I feel like I'm 466 00:32:01.890 --> 00:32:06.800 or in myself, which is it's the intersection of multiple disciplines. 467 00:32:06.800 --> 00:32:12.520 Because all of these areas sales marketing, CS Product and Dev Software 468 00:32:12.520 --> 00:32:16.150 companies, of course, all see and experience the customer differently. 469 00:32:16.150 --> 00:32:19.300 And so it all needs to be brought into one place. I wouldn't How's it in any 470 00:32:19.300 --> 00:32:22.470 one team that it needs to be this cross functional thing? Anyway, we could note 471 00:32:22.470 --> 00:32:26.800 on out on that for a while. I do want to take a short pivot and and just talk 472 00:32:26.800 --> 00:32:29.420 a little bit about the SAS Venture podcast. What are you trying to do 473 00:32:29.420 --> 00:32:32.150 there? When did you start it? How's it going? And maybe what are a couple of 474 00:32:32.150 --> 00:32:37.080 things that have surprised You're delighted you on the journey? Yeah. I 475 00:32:37.090 --> 00:32:41.070 started doing it about a year and a half ago. I co hosted with a friend of 476 00:32:41.070 --> 00:32:46.430 mine, Darren Shah. He also is a founder and CEO of SAS Business, and we're at a 477 00:32:46.430 --> 00:32:49.950 conference together. You know, we both talked a lot of digital marketing 478 00:32:49.950 --> 00:32:54.560 conferences, local search Google type conferences, and we were both like, 479 00:32:54.940 --> 00:32:58.980 kind of tired of talking tactical things. So we're like, Let's just start 480 00:32:58.980 --> 00:33:02.440 having conversations about what it's like to run our companies and run SAS 481 00:33:02.440 --> 00:33:06.730 businesses and all the decisions and and things like that. So that's where 482 00:33:06.730 --> 00:33:11.020 is born from. We started that about a year and a half ago. We're just this 483 00:33:11.020 --> 00:33:16.040 week recording our episode 20. So we get, you know, about at least once a 484 00:33:16.040 --> 00:33:20.010 month it, if not more. But we really pull back the curtains on how we make 485 00:33:20.010 --> 00:33:23.820 decisions, how we build our teams, how we communicate with customers, how we 486 00:33:23.820 --> 00:33:27.830 market, how we come up with ideas for new features and the processes that 487 00:33:27.830 --> 00:33:31.210 goes through to come to market. And then what? What it has been really fun 488 00:33:31.210 --> 00:33:35.800 is last year, gather up was acquired in November, and we just got done doing a 489 00:33:35.800 --> 00:33:40.710 three part Siri's where walked through the entire acquisition. So both what 490 00:33:40.710 --> 00:33:44.060 led up to the acquisition and what talks look like was one episode, then 491 00:33:44.060 --> 00:33:48.670 one episode completely on the deal. The structure of the deal. What's part of 492 00:33:48.670 --> 00:33:53.430 it? All of those things stress, the turmoil, all of that on. Then the last 493 00:33:53.430 --> 00:33:57.670 episode was on the transition right were purchased by a firm that owns six 494 00:33:57.670 --> 00:34:01.730 other companies. So now we're part of a much larger group. And what was it like 495 00:34:01.730 --> 00:34:05.150 for employees, transitions and what things made the transition easy? What 496 00:34:05.150 --> 00:34:09.420 parts were challenges and all those different kinds of things with it. So 497 00:34:09.429 --> 00:34:12.400 just really fun to be able to talk about the day to day business and not 498 00:34:12.400 --> 00:34:16.790 so much marketing on Google, you know, different things, tactical things that 499 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:20.810 their product does. But, yeah, just kind of, Ah, a little bit of just 500 00:34:20.810 --> 00:34:24.360 getting the lay on the Davenport with another business owner and talked about 501 00:34:24.370 --> 00:34:27.920 your wins and your losses and your challenges, and that that, to me, has 502 00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:32.380 probably been the biggest win out of it is just being able to talk out loud 503 00:34:32.380 --> 00:34:37.190 about the difficult things in running and scaling a business especially, you 504 00:34:37.190 --> 00:34:40.250 know, back to start with our bootstrapped ones. Neither one of our 505 00:34:40.250 --> 00:34:44.020 companies ever took any funding, you know, we've been acquired now, which 506 00:34:44.030 --> 00:34:48.370 has changed a little bit, but yeah, it's just it's just one of those like, 507 00:34:48.380 --> 00:34:51.969 you know, talking out loud to yourself with someone else and sharing that 508 00:34:51.969 --> 00:34:56.010 conversation with others. So that's awesome. Sounds reflective and 509 00:34:56.010 --> 00:35:00.430 cathartic for you and probably highly informative for listeners were also 510 00:35:00.430 --> 00:35:03.910 bootstrapped, which is, I mean, there's a whole conversation right there about 511 00:35:03.910 --> 00:35:08.430 the opportunities and challenges that gives you good for you. Good for you. 512 00:35:08.440 --> 00:35:12.780 Yeah, way won't have that conversation here, either. But for folks that are 513 00:35:12.780 --> 00:35:17.300 interested in checking out the SAS Venture podcast, I'll link that up and 514 00:35:17.300 --> 00:35:20.950 add some other links, as we always do, with a short right up in video clips. 515 00:35:20.960 --> 00:35:25.610 Fully embedded audio Every episode is available to you at bom bom dot com 516 00:35:25.620 --> 00:35:31.180 slash podcast is B o M b b o m b dot com slash podcast. And while you're 517 00:35:31.180 --> 00:35:34.670 there, if you like this conversation with Aaron, you really like Episode 518 00:35:34.670 --> 00:35:39.280 seven with Rachel Ostrander, who is the director of runner experience at Brooks 519 00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:43.340 Running, which is a company that makes shoes that I've run in myself and that 520 00:35:43.340 --> 00:35:47.840 episodes called Superior Customer Experience starts before there's a 521 00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:52.290 customer that's Episode seven and Episode 66 with Ben Smith. Well, who is 522 00:35:52.290 --> 00:35:56.750 a C X designer and strategist with AH Company called Commotion and that 523 00:35:56.750 --> 00:36:02.120 episode we titled Restoring the Human Factor to fulfill the Big C X dreams. 524 00:36:02.120 --> 00:36:06.630 So we get into the kind of the modern C X movement and what's really about it 525 00:36:06.630 --> 00:36:09.920 and what isn't. That was kind of a background themed and what we were 526 00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:13.820 talking about here. Erin, I've enjoyed this so much. But before I let you go, 527 00:36:13.830 --> 00:36:17.300 I'm gonna give you the opportunity to say thank you or to give a mention to 528 00:36:17.300 --> 00:36:21.280 someone who's had a positive impact on your life or career and to give a nod 529 00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:25.410 or a shout out to a company that you respect for the experience they deliver 530 00:36:25.410 --> 00:36:28.840 for you as a customer, maybe one that you would write a five star review for 531 00:36:29.630 --> 00:36:34.960 nice. Yeah, ah, person that's affected me. I would have to say his name is Ben 532 00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:40.420 Moonen. He ran a small bootstrapped tech company and kind of brought me 533 00:36:40.420 --> 00:36:45.050 into the mix of of what they were doing in in the late nineties, around content 534 00:36:45.050 --> 00:36:50.150 management systems and things like that. And Ben didn't have not didn't have 535 00:36:50.150 --> 00:36:54.450 massive ambitions in the world and really taught me a lot about relaxing a 536 00:36:54.450 --> 00:36:58.680 little bit, taking things as they come to you just being easy going. But he 537 00:36:58.680 --> 00:37:02.400 just afforded me so many opportunities to do different functions, and the 538 00:37:02.400 --> 00:37:06.840 company and rolls on elevated me to like a partner and things like that so 539 00:37:06.850 --> 00:37:10.490 really, really appreciative early in my career, where he just gave me so much 540 00:37:10.490 --> 00:37:15.470 freedom, too. Learn and do and be a good sounding board. When I was in 541 00:37:15.470 --> 00:37:19.940 things and then on the brand side, I will say, And you know, this is 542 00:37:19.940 --> 00:37:24.690 interesting. Any of my friends or followers will know this. I'm a massive 543 00:37:24.700 --> 00:37:30.040 Air Jordan buff. So I would say, You know, I love so many things. That Nike 544 00:37:30.040 --> 00:37:34.300 is done over the years is in being inspirational in their messaging, and I 545 00:37:34.300 --> 00:37:38.760 really love that they get, like for myself as a guy in his mid forties. The 546 00:37:38.760 --> 00:37:43.440 fact that I'll still plunk $200 down every time they re release a pair of 547 00:37:43.440 --> 00:37:48.590 1990 Jordan's just because it allows me to, like relive my childhood when I 548 00:37:48.590 --> 00:37:52.520 couldn't afford sneakers and everything else. And so they give me this like, 549 00:37:52.530 --> 00:37:58.550 you know, emotional happiness when I get them that I'm back to being 15 16 550 00:37:58.550 --> 00:38:02.650 years years old again. But I love the way that they combine and really 551 00:38:02.650 --> 00:38:06.870 realize some of the emotional tie ins to what their products are, their 552 00:38:06.870 --> 00:38:11.290 messaging around it and so many of the different things that they do with it. 553 00:38:11.300 --> 00:38:16.000 It's just one where, yeah, I probably have more. You know, Nike gear, things 554 00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:19.190 like that. It's created an affinity where it's like, Yeah, I don't really 555 00:38:19.190 --> 00:38:24.220 buy other shoe companies stuff because of how Nike has been a part of my own 556 00:38:24.230 --> 00:38:27.170 life and journey and things like that. To me, that's really interesting. When 557 00:38:27.170 --> 00:38:30.970 a brand gets that deep inside your world, yeah, that's awesome. And that 558 00:38:30.970 --> 00:38:34.560 emotional connection just so, so powerful it transcends everything else. 559 00:38:34.560 --> 00:38:38.890 Is you already observed at the beginning of that. You know, it kind of 560 00:38:38.890 --> 00:38:45.100 takes price off the table, so you know, it could be 1 50. It could be 2 50. It 561 00:38:45.100 --> 00:38:49.070 happens to be 200 it's not too much or too little, because that's just, you 562 00:38:49.070 --> 00:38:52.650 know, I'm just connected to it. It's something I feel compelled to do for 563 00:38:52.650 --> 00:38:57.050 that relationship. That was awesome. I haven't heard that one before, and if 564 00:38:57.050 --> 00:39:02.300 folks would like to have known the fact that you were an Air Jordan fan prior 565 00:39:02.300 --> 00:39:05.340 to this where people connect with you. If they enjoy this conversation, they 566 00:39:05.340 --> 00:39:07.750 want to connect with you online. Or they want to learn more about gather up 567 00:39:07.750 --> 00:39:11.320 where some places you would send folks. Yeah, first, I mean, I'm a complete 568 00:39:11.330 --> 00:39:16.380 Twitter addict and definitely share my shoe purchases and or when I randomly 569 00:39:16.380 --> 00:39:21.150 wear them. So that's just at Aaron Waikiki on Twitter. Very active and and 570 00:39:21.150 --> 00:39:25.280 share lot there. And love, love the conversations, love meeting new people 571 00:39:25.280 --> 00:39:28.970 there. And then I write quite a bit on the gather up blogged. So from there, 572 00:39:28.970 --> 00:39:33.050 you can really understand my views on customer experience and how our product 573 00:39:33.050 --> 00:39:37.160 intersects with that and how we want to help businesses. You know, unlocked 574 00:39:37.160 --> 00:39:41.150 customer experience is the backbone of their business, so those are definitely 575 00:39:41.150 --> 00:39:45.610 the two top places where you can hear for me outside of the SAS Venture 576 00:39:45.610 --> 00:39:50.390 podcast in our monthly episodes there awesome for listeners as mentioned, 577 00:39:50.390 --> 00:39:54.830 I'll link all this stuff stuff up, including the Twitter handle at bom bom 578 00:39:54.830 --> 00:39:59.340 dot com slash podcast, where we write thes up and drop in video clips. And in 579 00:39:59.340 --> 00:40:03.250 the spirit of the episode, if you are listening to this and you enjoy it, if 580 00:40:03.250 --> 00:40:07.050 you've heard other episodes or even if this is your first one, take a minute 581 00:40:07.060 --> 00:40:11.720 out of your day and leave a review for the customer experience podcast. It's 582 00:40:11.720 --> 00:40:15.710 very, very helpful to the show. It only takes a minute to Dio. And, of course, 583 00:40:15.710 --> 00:40:18.060 while you're there, you can subscribe as well if you're not subscribed 584 00:40:18.060 --> 00:40:21.540 already. Erin, thank you so much for your time and your insights. Continued 585 00:40:21.540 --> 00:40:26.480 success to you. And I hope you find some reasons and opportunities to put 586 00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:30.050 on some of those Jordans this week. Hey, thanks, you can, I appreciate. Can I 587 00:40:30.050 --> 00:40:35.290 share one more? I think. Important tip for the Time e realized I didn't get to 588 00:40:35.290 --> 00:40:39.340 in my mind, I think really important in businesses right now among Cove in 19 589 00:40:39.340 --> 00:40:43.070 and whether you're you're reopening or you've definitely adjusted and how you 590 00:40:43.070 --> 00:40:46.340 do business, please understand that like listening and hearing from your 591 00:40:46.340 --> 00:40:50.410 customers, has actually never been more important because you're offering new 592 00:40:50.410 --> 00:40:55.240 delivery or service methods, they need to feel safe if you're reopening so you 593 00:40:55.240 --> 00:40:58.590 really need to have ways to, like, listen and understand. Do they feel 594 00:40:58.590 --> 00:41:02.850 safe in your business and interacting with you are the methods that you've 595 00:41:02.850 --> 00:41:06.330 quickly put together, right? You've You've done something that maybe you 596 00:41:06.330 --> 00:41:09.520 thought in 10 years you've now done in a month and bringing your business 597 00:41:09.530 --> 00:41:14.750 online, new forms, e commerce, whatever that might be. You need really tight 598 00:41:14.750 --> 00:41:18.910 cycles of feedback from your customers that yes, this works for me, this is 599 00:41:18.910 --> 00:41:21.670 even better. Or here's something you could do to make it even better because 600 00:41:21.670 --> 00:41:25.960 I do want to do business with you. I just need to feel safe and secure and 601 00:41:25.960 --> 00:41:29.930 good about about doing it. So I would say in this time right now, like this 602 00:41:29.930 --> 00:41:34.430 is more reason than ever toe like, be asking, How are all these changes that 603 00:41:34.430 --> 00:41:38.240 we're doing affecting you and are they helpful? And do you have any other 604 00:41:38.240 --> 00:41:42.890 ideas for us? It's awesome. Thank you for that ad. It's kind of a tie back to 605 00:41:42.890 --> 00:41:47.450 where we started around the silver linings of this situation. I think this 606 00:41:47.460 --> 00:41:53.000 interest in and responsiveness to how customers are thinking and feeling and 607 00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:56.630 what their experiences I hope that that is one of these other things where even 608 00:41:56.630 --> 00:42:01.360 though we feel the need acutely right now that even as hopefully it, let's go 609 00:42:01.360 --> 00:42:05.680 a little bit, this whole situation that we're in kind of loosens up. And we get 610 00:42:05.680 --> 00:42:09.740 back to some kind of normal that this is one of those things that we continue 611 00:42:09.740 --> 00:42:14.110 to hold very, very close and very, very fundamentally in our business. Cross 612 00:42:14.110 --> 00:42:17.760 functionally so really great at air, and I appreciate it so much, Thanks for 613 00:42:17.760 --> 00:42:22.980 the opportunity to throw it in there. Even I really appreciated errands. Call 614 00:42:22.980 --> 00:42:27.540 out there a the end to keep things in perspective, something that he learned 615 00:42:27.540 --> 00:42:32.170 fortunately earlier on in his career. I also like the first mention of Air 616 00:42:32.170 --> 00:42:36.550 Jordan as a brand here on the C X series of B two B Growth. If you've 617 00:42:36.550 --> 00:42:40.840 enjoyed this conversation, you want more. You can search the customer 618 00:42:40.840 --> 00:42:44.910 experience podcast in your preferred player, or you can go straight to the 619 00:42:44.910 --> 00:42:49.450 episodes and browse them. See video clips, get short write ups. Of course, 620 00:42:49.450 --> 00:42:53.540 we have fully embedded audio as well. You can find all that mawr at bom bom 621 00:42:53.540 --> 00:43:00.270 dot com slash podcast. That's B O M b b o m b dot com slash podcast. My name is 622 00:43:00.270 --> 00:43:04.570 Ethan Beauty. I appreciate you listening to the c x Siri's here on B 623 00:43:04.570 --> 00:43:05.220 two b growth 624 00:43:07.900 --> 00:43:11.270 For the longest time. I was asking people to leave a review of B two B 625 00:43:11.280 --> 00:43:15.270 growth and Apple podcasts, but I realized that was kind of stupid, 626 00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:20.720 because leaving a review is way harder than just leaving a simple rating. So 627 00:43:20.720 --> 00:43:24.520 I'm changing my tune a bit. Instead of asking you to leave a review, I'm just 628 00:43:24.520 --> 00:43:28.710 gonna ask you to go to BBB growth in Apple podcasts. Scroll down until you 629 00:43:28.710 --> 00:43:32.660 see the ratings and review section and just tap the number of stars you wanna 630 00:43:32.660 --> 00:43:38.510 give us no review necessary Super easy. And I promise it will help us out a ton. 631 00:43:38.520 --> 00:43:42.510 If you want a copy of my book content based networking, just shoot me a text. 632 00:43:42.520 --> 00:43:45.740 After you leave the rating on, I'll send one your way. Text me at 633 00:43:45.740 --> 00:43:50.030 4074903328