Think Outside The Bowl- COMPETE AND STAND OUT IN A TODAY’S CROWDED MARKETPLACE

Today a great conference was held in Durham called, "Think Outside The Bowl". The event provided both inspirational and hands-on sessions to help companies increase loyalty, word-of-mouth, and most importantly, revenue. At this event they indeed took a deep dive to help your organization stand out in a sea of sameness!  The conference brought together expert faculty to teach approaches to Customer Experience, Brand Experience, and Employee Experience. The point was by focusing on experience design, companies can achieve greater results. Here is some of the top wisdom shared today at this conference:

• In a world where commoditization is the norm, differentiation is key. The kind of differentiation customers and employees will notice doesn’t come from what you say, it comes more from what you do.
• More than any other factor, your brand’s customer and employee experience will determine whether you thrive and profit or struggle and fade. There is a strong business case for winning the hearts of customers and employees, especially when it leads to increased retention and referrals. According to Gartner, a 5% increase in retention can boost profits by 25% to 125%.
• In a world where commoditization is the norm, differentiation is key. The kind of differentiation customers and employees will notice doesn’t come from what you say, it comes more from what you do.
  
• More than any other factor, your brand’s customer and employee experience will determine whether you thrive and profit or struggle and fade. There is a strong business case for winning the hearts of customers and employees, especially when it leads to increased retention and referrals. According to Gartner, a 5% increase in retention can boost profits by 25% to 125%.  

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• Be more human in business and connect more...
• Be careful of firm policies and rules to not ruin the human element of customer relationships and service
• Let technology do what tech does best so we can let people do what people do best(Relate to other humans and take care of them uniquely)
• Remember The Framework- 3 Rs:

1. Relationships: Have to have good relationships with customers and understand their needs. This is first most basic table steak item to do. Then let technology do the remembering of customer data points and help your people do the connecting and empathizing.
2. Responsiveness: Be responsive to people to support them timely. People demand improved response time. They want it now.
3. Readiness:  Be ready to harmonized customer experiences. Bridge tech experience to human experience. Serve the customers where it's needed most.

Improve Readiness:

1. Train your team. Have readiness culture, tech system, and employee experiences aligned to create that magical experience for customer
2. Collaborate so departments work together and customer communication flow seamless because to customers their are no departments
3. Understand not only what your customers need, but also the context within what and how they need it
   

• THE MOST HUMAN COMPANIES WIN- Evan Carroll

• Warmth and competence is #1 reason per what people buy and become loyal to....
• Warmth Perceptions + Competence Perceptions trigger resulting emotions and resulting behaviors...
• 4 Universal way of perceiving and reacting:

1. Warm+ Competent=Admiration Pride = Attraction, Loyalty
2. Cold+Competent = Envy/Jealousy= Obligatory Association
3. Warmth+ Incompetent= Sympathy = Indifference
4. Cold+Incompetent= Contempt= Rejection

• Basic human elements of warmth and competence is what leads to trust and loyalty by companies
• Logos that exude warmth and competence are perceived better by people just like we look at people's faces for a read on situation....
• People are the first brands, faces are the first logos
• Don't be cold and impersonal. Warmth and competence drives customer likes and loyalty- Chris Malone

• Serving a customer, not a life sentence. Enjoy your work.
• Great customer experiences start with engaged employees
• 15 ways to engage with 3 categories:

1. Building- Build situation where employees can thrive with good culture and practices so they can be primed to be great for customers
2. Belonging- Recognize teams and peoples' contributions that make a difference to customers
3. Becoming- Learn, give back, and grow your people so they are happier and healthier to be better fit to serve your customers.

• Need to have engaging experiences for employees and customers
• Green means you are growing! When you are ripe you start to rot. So stay green, keep learning!
• "If you like it you should put a ring on it". Let engagement ring!-Lauren McGhee

"Take care of your associates and they will take care of your customers"- JW Marriott

• "Your brand is what other people say about you when your not in the room"- Jeff Bezos
• The only way to deliver iconic customer experiences is through trust and empowerment by your people to have confidence and ability to exceed customer expectations.
• Leaders become great, not because of their own power, but because of their ability to empower others
• Don't micromanage so your team can rise and make decisions and trust you will support them
• Rules are good, but need to allow for them to be bent or broken so employees can make adjustments to best serve customers individually. Nordstrom motto: "Use best judgement in all decisions to support customers"
• Nordstrom known for customer service. Built on two components. The devil is in the details so do the little things right. And empower people and show you trust them
• The Ritz Carlton- "Excellence Wins" every customer relations leader is given $2k to make customers happy! Make employees feel valued and trusted!
• Chick-Fil-A vs. KFC  

-Chick-Fil-A Sells 3x as much as KFC with 1/2 the stores and closed on Sunday. The customer service experience is better (Clean, good product, employees are nice, smile, happy,and create great experiences. People become advocate and customer for life.

• "If there is no risk, there is no trust". "Amp up the trust, Amp up the empowerment"- Calvin Stovall

• "People don't care how much you know, until they know much you care" -Roosevelt
  
• Do you know we spend 10% of our life waiting...
  
• Remember the etiquette of being on time. No one in life is ever on time. People are either early or late...
  
• Same thing applies in marketing and customers we serve. No such thing as just meeting customer expectation. Either exceed or fall short. You must do the little things to make a bigger difference to exceed customers expectations.
  
• A purple gold fish = do little things to give people a better guest experience and you win. For example, "Guppy love" per a pet gold fish given for free in a bowl if you like to have a pet during your hotel stay. Give people a reason to share their experience
  
• Remember the one word "Lagniappe". Mark Twain said it's worth traveling to New Orleans to get: Lagniappe. The additional gift or receiving more then expected. ie. The 13th role in bakers dozen!
  
• 10 Important Things to remember around two categories of VALUE and MAINTENANCE.

VALUE

1. Make a good First and last impression
   
2. Offer a nice throw-in
   
3. Give sampling 
   
4. Offer a guarantee
   
5. Pay it forward

MAINTENANCE

1. Added service
   
2. Additional Convenience
   
3. Better waiting on
   
4. Handle mistakes like a pro
   
5. Give good follow-up, thanks

• "Always Exceed Expectations". For example, the Disney Parade! Now the most asked question at park is, what time is the parade? Walt Disney referred to this giving of something extra as "Plus-ing"
• What is your version of parade or purple goldfish?- Stan Phelps

• The smallest differences can make the big change your trying to achieve
  
• Be "Loud and Clear" in what you do and say....Can customer clearly hear you and understand you.
  
• 5x5= High Clarity and High Quality
  
• 4 tips to being loud and clear:

1. Think the thought! It's the difference between reading a book vs telling the story. Use theatrics and embellishments to bring your message to life. Think about what you say as you say it! This perception makes all the difference!
   
2. Be in the moment to keep fresh and convey message well!
   
3. Say it out loud. Read your written message and speak your message out loud. Learn what will trip you up and what works. Does it sound like you? Normally takes 3 times to read and talk your message out loud with follow on edits to make your 4th time message all good. You can then shift to focus on a good delivery. The 5th revision time you are ready to perform it!
   
4. Transform the Room. Make your speaking stage your room in your house. Then treat everyone like a guest at your house. Welcome them, be hospitable, engage them, and make them comfortable and connect.

• Remember it's not about perfection in speech, rather it's about connection. The audience knows you are there to connect with them so remember your presentation about the message is more about the connection vs. perfection- Stephanie Scotti 

• The Customer Experience is the sum total of all the feelings evoked
  
• Customer are emotional. Its' about the "F" word= Feelings
  
• Loyalty is emotional. Customers who are engaged and emotionally attached result in customer loyalty.
  
• Ask your team and company...How do we want our customers to feel when they interact with us and after? Then shoot for these positive good feelings you are after with these customers.
  
• There are 2 Sets of Needs. Both Business/Tangible and Personal/Intangible

1. Customer needs tool, solution, stuff, price, availability, speed, location, right fit
   
2. Then customer has emotional needs like feeling valued, appreciated, loved, acknowledged, and recognized

• Get beyond customer Satisfaction and elevate to customer joy & happiness
  
• Positive emotions make us smarter, healthier, wealthier, and achieve the upper levels of our potential. Happy people have 65% more energy.
• The F word is about E-Motion "All we are doing as leaders is taking the energy of our people and putting that route into our collective goals"- JoAnna Brandi.

• Great brands know who they are and what customers/employees want. They know what makes them unique. Attract what you want and detract things you do not want.
• Illuminate the imperfections like Kintsui-Japanese art
• Framework to separate yourself from competition. Main Highlights

1. Flaunt: To parade without shame. Be proud of who you are and how you do it. Be unapologetic of what you do and stand for. Example, Buckleys Cough Syrup. It does not taste good and they know it so they marketed it like: "People swear by it and at it". Or this slogan, "It tastes awful and it works!"
   
2. Lopsiding- Do more of what industry does less of to set yourself apart. For example McDonalds offering fruit and salads to fight the "Fast food bad perception", everyone else is also moving to reduce unhealthy food. Except Hardees! They moved to the THICK Burger...Hot dog on bun and chips thrown it! Then promote it, "Eat like you mean it. Instead of healthier lets make it more fast food yummy so they launched "The Aporkalypse Burrito and Biscuit- Bacon-Ham- Sausage. They launched marketing slogans like, 'Save a vegetable eat a roast beef sandwich". It just tastes better!
   
3. Antagonize- Go against people who are not the right fit for you like people who text in movie theaters. The example is Alamo Draft house Theaters that has a rule that if you talk or text during a movie-we kick you out. Repel the wrong people. Who are you willing to anger to satisfy people you want?
   
4. Withholding- Remove things that others add to stand out. For example, Black Black Coffee only serves black coffee. They have motto "Death to cream". They serve Black Black coffee because when done well and brewed properly and beans roasted right then less is more, black coffee is best!
   
5. Opposing- Go against what all the others do. For example, REI revolted against the crazy Black Friday retail rush. REI did the opposite and launched a campaign, "This Black Friday REI doesn't want you to go shopping. We're closing to spend day outside. Please join us! The result, The REI Co-Op memberships increased.

• Remember FLOWSOME= Flaunting, Lopsiding, Antagonizing, Witholding. Swerving. Opposing, and Micro-Weirding
• "Don't try to stand out from the crowd, avoid crowds altogether"- David Rendall

Thank you Stan Phelps for the invite and great conference! One of the best speaking events I have ever attended! And Stan is offering free ebook downloads. Reach out to Stan to receive! Thank you!