Goosebumps on the x-factor

An experience which gives one person goosebumps will not necessarily give someone else goosebumps.

Take a look at Yuli Minguel’s performance on the x factor (UK).

Both Simon and Lewey enjoy the performance but Nicole obviously loves it!

When the judges gave their verdict on Yuli’s performance Nicole Scherzinger said, “There’s something about you, it gives me goosebumps.”

What was it about the experience that gave her goosebumps?

Has Yuli made a personal connection with Nicole? Does Yuli take Nicole’s emotions on a roller coaster ride with each sudden surge in her vocal range?

Or does the performance evoke a personal memory within Nicole and heighten her emotive awareness?

Every experience is a personal moment that we can share with others.

One thing is certain - ’emotion’ plays a key role in connecting people with other people and with brands.

So, if we evoke goosebumps in our brand communication with employees will it lead to higher levels of engagement with the brand?

I believe it will.

Watch this space as I explore this idea over the weeks and months to come…

 

Filed under: Employee Experience, goosebumps

The Employee Engagement Secret (it’s in a song!)

I couldn’t wait any longer.

It was school summer holidays and I had to do it.

I sat my son on the sofa, quickly closed the curtains, carefully took the DVD out of the case, placed it into the player, pressed play and together we watched, Bugsy Malone.

Yeah – the perfect moment (for who I’m not too sure)

The pedal cars and ice cream guns prompted many questions (as well dad knowing the words to every song – that surprised me too!)

Still, we made it to the end of the film and that’s when I found it.

I found the secret to employee engagement….

As I joyfully joined in with the finale chorus I heard the magic words;

“You give a little love and it all comes back to you. You’re gonna be remembered for the things that you say and do”

That was it!

The secret to engaging people at work was in the song;

“If you treat people well at work, they’ll be motivated to do the right thing by you and customers will remember the great brand experience you deliver.”

I’d heard these words so many times before but I was never truly listening.

I am now.

Since I found the Engagement Secret I’ve heard it again in a song by the New Radicals, “You get what you give”

The secret’s out there and if you hear it, please share it.

Filed under: Brand Experience, Employee Experience, Uncategorized, brand experience, Customer experience, employee engagement, Employee Experience

The Employee Experience Revolution

Almost everyday I read a report or story about how important it is to have an engaged workforce for an organisation to succeed.

It’s a well know fact that engaged employees are more productive and motivated to deliver a great customer experience and organisations with more engaged employees tend to be more profitable.

And let’s not forget that employees are also consumers who want to build a genuine and authentic relationship with brands they love – and leading brands work hard to create a great experience for customers so they’re engaged, loyal and hopefully advocate to friends and family.

So it seems natural for organisations to spend just as much time thinking about the experience they create for their employees as they do for their customers but I wonder how much of ‘ life at work’ is considered an opportunity to create ‘a brand experience’ and how much is pure transactional communication?

Does being ‘at work’ give us a license to do things in a very rational way without the need to pay too much attention to the experience?

Is work such a serious business that has very little room for emotional connections and memorable, sensory moments?

People are at their best when they’re motivated, inspired and engaged and I believe it’s crucial to spend time considering the experience employees have at work – the path to employee engagement starts with the employee experience.

So if the groundswell is calling for an increase in employee engagement I expect we’ll see a renewed focus on the experience people have at work.

That’s a great thing.

Filed under: Brand Experience, Employee Experience, brand experience, Customer experience, employee engagement, Employee Experience

Bake in the brand

I’m writing this post on my wordpress iphone app while travelling home on the train….and my battery has just told me it’s on its way out so I’ll be quick!

It’s so important to bake the brand into the everyday employee experience if employees are expected to bring the brand to life for customers. I know this makes sense but success is all in the execution.

The brand has to build a solid bond with the employee if the employee is to identify with the brand and feel genuine about adopting brand behaviours as their own.

I think brands need to show more care towards the experience they give their own people, as it’s their own people who will care for the brand and bring it to life…

Short and to the point…

Filed under: Employee Experience, brand experience, Customer experience, Employee Experience

A great brand experience : Pets at home

We have a new fish in the house.

Her name is Izzie.

She’s a birthday gift to my 5yr old son – and he tells her in ‘fish’ every time he passes her tank how much he loves her (fish = silent fish mouth actions while you think of what you want to say)

It’s been a week since we had Izzie and I can’t stop sharing the experience my family and I had at our local Pets at Home store when we went to get her.

We visited the store to buy Izzie after we’d prepared our tank (fish have rights you know)

We were greeted by a very unassuming young man who asked if we needed any help.

I explained why we were in the store and before I knew it I’d been whisked away to ‘fish land’ by his passion, enthusiasm and genuine care about the relationship our family was about to have with Izzie (he knew her name because we’d spent a week working on it)

The whole experience happened so fast I felt dazed and confused yet filled with a sense of wellbeing as I keyed in my PIN to pay for £40 worth of accessories I hadn’t planned to buy (Izzie was £4.50)

It’s been a long time since I’ve bought something that has tangibly reminded me of the immense impact a great brand experience can have on someone’s life – it’s human, it’s real and it does make a difference.

I loved it.

And believe me,  it’s made me love Izzie more…

I mean, every time I pass her I also speak to her in ‘fish’ and often think about the great brand experience we had on the day we brought her home…and then I find someone to tell.

Filed under: Brand Experience, Brand advocacy, brand experience, Customer experience, Pets at home, retail experience, sales experience

South Africa Mood Map

I’ve been really busy lately so haven’t had too much time on my hands to share my thoughts but I got so excited about a tweet I came across I just had to share it…

Vodacom and e.tv have partnered to show the mood of South Africa every morning after the weather report. Thanks Monique for the tweet.

The mood of South Africa

I love this and get inspired when I come across new ways to use social media and mobiles in ways that will genuinely enhance my everyday.

I can hear the conversations…

“Ahh, check how happy people are in Kwa-Zulu Natal today – I wonder what’s going on?”

“Wow, Gauteng is sad – do you think it’s the weather?”

“Check out the Cape – they’re happy! It must be because the Springboks are playing  today! It would be great to be there and get involved – let me give Craig a quick ring to see if he’s going!”

(I wouldn’t have thought of speaking to Craig if I hadn’t seen the mood report.)

Here’s the press release if you want to read more.

I wonder whether there will be a real time twitter mashup for the UK general election, something more instantaneous than the managed polls?

If you come across any useful ways to use social media and your mobile  please let me know – cheers!

Filed under: Creative ideas

Compelling customer conversations

I recently walked into a store of one of my favourite coffee chains and noticed they were launching a new coffee.

The promotional material on the tables showed a picture of the new coffee and it looked good.

So, I thought I’d try one.

This is the conversation I had when I was served at the counter (not word for word);

ASSISTANT: Hello, what can I get for you?

ME: I’d like to try one of your new coffees please.

ASSISTANT: Sure, would you like anything else?

ME: Yes please, may I have a croissant.

ASSISTANT: Will that be all?

ME: Yes thanks.

I picked up my coffee from the end of the counter, found an empty seat in a good spot and sat down to drink it – it was good.

I started to wonder; how did this new coffee come about? Was the idea from an employee? Is it doing well and will it stay on the menu?

I then realised what a massive opportunity the brand had missed to emotionally engage me with the product, their new coffee.

Sure, the quality was good and probably I’d tell someone if I was asked but I wouldn’t go out of my way to do so.

Why not?

What was missing was an emotional engagement to the new product.

What was needed was a ‘compelling customer conversation’ through a good story.

To explain what I mean, let me replay the ‘moment of truth’ I would have  loved to experience;

BARRISTER: Hello, what can I get for you?

ME: I’d like to try one of your new coffees please.

BARRISTER: Of course – thanks for giving it a go – have you had one yet?

ME: No, not yet – what’s it like?

BARRISTER: You’ll love it – since we’ve launched it customers up and down the country have really taken to it. It was by a stroke of luck it came about – you’ll never guess how it was invented?

ME: Really? How?

The conversation continues…

If the interaction had taken a route similar to the one described above I’d have picked up my coffee and long after I’d found my seat and started to drink it, I’d still be thinking about the story and how it seemed to make the coffee taste so much richer.

The power of the story told by the Barrister, through a ‘compelling customer conversation’, would create a deeper emotional connection to the new product – I’d fall in love with it and unprompted tell anyone who’d listen about how amazing it is.

The danger in our fast-moving world is customer mediocrity and there’s no excuse.

In such rational times , brands that enable their people to have ‘compelling conversations with customers’ will not only create a rich experience for customers but will also stand out among their competition.

The next time I visit a store of the same chain, I’m going to ask about the new coffee – maybe, just maybe there’s a story waiting to be heard?

Filed under: The Customer Interface, Customer experience

Online gaming to solve organisational issues

I love Jane McGonigal’s idea of using online gaming to solve real world problems.

How amazing would it be for organisations to use online gaming for employees to solve real organisational issues?

Then, imagine if employees play online games with customers and they solve real organisational issues together!

That’s more than brand advocacy – its brand fusion!

I wonder if there are any organisations doing this already?  Not simple games but more immersive, well thought through games?

I wonder, can repurpose an existing game for the corporate market?

If you know of an organisation that is doing any of this, please let me know, I’d be really interested to talk to them.

Think about it, who doesn’t want these traits for their people?

• Collaboration skills
• Ability to stick with hard problems for longer
• Optimism
• Confidence
• Positive risk taking

I can hear the sceptics already;

“No way, are you mad? You can’t let people play video games in working hours!”

I hear what they say but…

This kind of future excites me; so I better let my kids play on the wii for a little longer and change the rules.

You know why it’s called a wii don’t you?

Because it’s only for the (wii)kends!

Filed under: Creative ideas, Brand advocacy, Employee Experience

End of traditional agency introduction

When I search for an agency to partner with I try find people who look at the world differently, have genuinely interesting ideas and give me confidence they can bring their ideas to life.

The traditional way to meet a new agency is when someone from Business Development calls me, posts a brochure or sends an html email and after regular follow ups we meet to go through their creds pitch.

If I have a genuine need for their expertise, they can clearly do what they say and the ‘chemistry’ is right, a relationship begins.

This approach worked in the past but I wonder whether it is coming to and end?

Through social media I’ve met really interesting people I would never have come across through the traditional method I’ve just described.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the way these ‘connections’ have happened; some have been through followers through Twitter or connections through LinkedIn and others through my followers and connections contacts.

These online relationships seem more genuine, probably due to the transparency and authenticity the web brings.

These days when an opportunity to create an employee experiences arises, I don’t need to send out a brief to find the right agency because I’m already in an ‘ongoing content relationship’ with people who would be best suited to support me.

This ongoing agency relationship, built around inspiring content, works on many fronts;

- The conversations are richer ( play vs work as described by Daniel Pink )

- The route to an innovative ‘big idea’ is faster.

- Time is more focused.

- And most of all, the opportunity to do things differently is endless.

I get excited to think the next employee experience I deliver might be from working with people I meet through my social networks.

(By the way my dad simply shakes his head in confusion when I enthusiastically describe this new way of working!!)

Filed under: Networking, creative agencies, Daniel Pink, Employee Experience, LinkedIn, Networking, relationships, social media, Twitter

Create employee experiences that engage

I create experiences for employees.

I help others create experiences for employees.

As an employee, I have experiences created for me.

There is enormous value in creating employee experiences to drive engagement.

Who doesn’t want to feel the brand come alive?

Who doesn’t want to feel that the organisation cares about them?

Everyone wants a deep connection with the organisation they belong to.

The question then is; why aren’t experiences always created for employees?

Surely every organisation has a genuine intention to create positive experiences for their employees and drive greater engagement to result in improved performance? Maybe there are genuine barriers such as lack of time, money or leadership buy in? Aren’t these percieved barriers?

Here are a few (low-cost) ideas I find useful to create employees experiences that engage;

1. Map the employee journey and find opportunities to design moments of brand expression that will create a buzz! Unexpected surprises are memorable and appreciated.

2. Keep emotion front of mind. With such high pressure on the time teams have to create employee experiences, the delivery of tasks often take priority and the result – missed emotional opportunities.

3. Genuinely care about the experience employees will have at the ‘ moment of truth’. Is this the brand at its best? What can I do to make the experience even better? How will employees feel at the end of the experience?

I believe every organisation has the ingredients it needs to create employee experiences that engage, regardless of the perceived lack resources available!

You just need the desire to engage employees through well thought through experiences – you can do seemingly impossible things, if you really care.

Filed under: Employee Experience, emotion, employee engagement, Employee Experience