Out of the Box

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Your Business has an out of box experience. Great insights await if you can make a subtle shift in perspective. And we’re all better user experience designers than we think, for one simple reason.

We are all Consumers

We all know when we've had a good customer experience. Or a bad one. It’s a small step from there to designing the out of box experience for our businesses. We simply have to step in to our customers shoes and walk a mile or two. What first impression do you present to your customers? How do you cultivate that impression over time? And how do you feel in their shoes?

Thing is, it’s easy to park your consumer experiences when you arrive at the office every day. You start looking from the inside out and forget that you’re dealing with people just like us, customers who could tell us how to make their day better. So ask them. Or role play, if that helps to get you into your customer’s mindspace. Best of all, have your team go sit with customers as they call your helpline, your accounts receivable department, your call centre, or any part of your organization that interacts with the customer.

Consider your Customer’s Routine

I often hear business leaders ponder how to fit customers into their business’s processes. This is precisely the wrong question. The world looks very different when you turn this perspective on its head:

Your business is part of your customer’s process

Any time your customers interact with your business, they spend time handling the interaction - answering a sales call, phoning for help, reading and composing emails, printing, signing and faxing documents, or clicking around your website.

How can you accommodate them better? Can your business systems extend to your customers and provide them with the easiest possible ways to get their job done?

Don’t forget Internal Customers

Same goes for users within your organization. Your business systems have an out of box experience for staff and partners. How steep is the learning curve for new hires, or for the whole team when you move from an old system to a new one? How many steps does it take to place an order, log a call, calculate a quote, or do any of the other things your staff do hundreds or thousands of times a day. Too often, little time and thought is applied to usability. Good user experience design will save a lot of time, increase efficiency, and staff morale.

And happy colleagues make for happier customers.

Looking from the Outside In

I've run this exercise with many clients.

  1. What questions come to mind if you step in to your customers shoes?
  2. What does it take for the team to deliver this service. Where do you need to make their lives easier?

You can find sample answers here.

Start the conversation with your team by asking these simple questions:

  1. Write down the 5 best interactions you had this year in your role as a consumer, or dealing with a business supplier. Then write down the 5 worst.
  2. Which of the above scenarios could apply to your customers? How many good? How many bad? What can you do to make them all line up with your best experiences?
  3. Now figure out how to repeat this exercise with your most passionate and demanding customers.

Take a look at the ideas that come out of this conversation. Odds are there’ll be some easy changes, such as streamlining your call centre script. Other changes will require investment in a system, a platform on which to build a better business.

But you’ve started on the path to innovating towards improvements that will differentiate your business, strengthen your brand.

And that’s gold dust.

As ever, contact me at graham@primeFusion.ca to discuss your outcomes.