Published by Econsultancy in association with Offerpop

The Ultimate Customer Experience was Created 1,000 Years Ago.

By Mark W. SchaeferExecutive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions and College Educator

Masters of CX

As far as scholars can tell, the values of the modern marketplace emerged for the first time in Europe around the year 1,000 AD...

The Ultimate Customer Experience / Mark W. Schaefer

They solved a problem. Villages were competing with other villages for commerce. Unlicensed hucksters went from town to town and the whole thing was rather inefficient until a few rules were applied to the whole mess, usually by the local church leaders.

I have a theory that the foundations of the ultimate customer experience were created in these medieval marketplaces. Sound strange? Let’s see if you agree.

Here’s what you’d notice in one of these newly-organized markets:

It was highly personal and interactive. You stood face to face with your seller, looked them in the eye, and bought with a firm handshake. You purchased goods from people you knew and trusted. The market was transparent. The goods came from a farm or workshop right to the market. It’s likely that you would have bought goods from the same family for generations because the human connection was the primary source of trust.

There was immediacy. If somebody felt wronged or cheated, you knew it right away. Feedback on quality, service, and pricing was constant and immediate. This real-time feedback loop allowed for constant adjustments to products, service and quality.

Success depended on word of mouth recommendations. There was no advertising, mass media, or PR spin back then. If you wronged a buyer, word would spread throughout your marketplace like a plague. Well … perhaps that is a poor analogy, but you know what I mean. So you needed to treat people right, and maybe even do a little extra for your power buyers.

The most successful shopkeepers knew that word of mouth reputation was essential to sustaining your business and that partnering with influencers could help spread the word about their business. In fact, back then it might have been the only wayto spread the word. Today, we know that the combination of offline and online word of mouth can increasemarketing effectiveness up to 54%, and that a 10% increase in word of mouth can then result in a sales lift of up to 1.5% (Econsultancy Word of mouth: Focus on the Steak, Not the Sizzle: ecly.co/1shzCme).

There was a primal need to connect. On a recent vacation, I had the chance to visit some small villages in Italy. At the center of each of these ancient towns was a public square that had been the center of commerce for centuries.

As the sun went down it was fun to catch a glimpse of the medieval way of life as shoppers gathered to compare their purchases, haggle over a price, or simply catch up on the news. People seemed to love the social aspects of the marketplace and most of all, talking about their new finds. This aspect of retail has a significant relation to the current way of life, with regards to social media. 63% of companies have adjusted or modified their products, services or market strategies as a result of the comments or feedback from social media followers.

Perhaps you are starting to sense where I am going with this?

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Connecting the medieval dots.

The values and expectations of these medieval markets have been shared between buyers and sellers ever since and they are no less important today.

We simply interrupted the natural course of business for about 100 years with the introduction of mass media. We learned that we can sell very efficiently by broadcasting ads through radio, TV and the internet — and we still can — but we also created a divide between ourselves and our customers. The human side of business that people craved was disengaged when we turned to mass advertising.

Business leaders often marvel at how the digital world has “changed everything.” The irony is that it really has changed nothing! It has only re-exposed us to those core marketplace values that emerged in 1,000 AD.

• People still want to know the humans behind your brand. Customers build emotional connections with products like they build relationships with their friends. Come out from behind the logo. Show the customers who you are.

• The idea of immediacy takes on new meaning when a disgruntled customer can broadcast to 6,000 Twitter followers instead of just their immediate neighbors. We must be listening. We must be responding … all in real-time just as our forefathers did. The chart to the right shows the amount of retailers who realize how vital it is to ‘respond in a timely fashion to consumers’ social queries and comments’.

• Like our ancestors, we build our businesses on our word of mouth reputation and the reputation of our key partners. Today, new tools can help us find and nurture these important advocates almost as easily as we could a thousand years ago.

83+85+59Respond in a timely fashion to consumers’

social queries and comments

Leaders Mainstream Followers

83% 85%

59%

• And of course the social web is … social! People may avoid topics like politics or religion but they will talk endlessly about what they are buying, eating, viewing and listening to. There is still a commercial communion that takes place that started in those town squares so many centuries ago.

The social web is simply bringing us back to our ancestral marketplace roots where personal connection and word of mouth validation are the most important marketing considerations.

// Source: Social Media Statistics, Econsultancy (2014): ecly.co/1oFZOP2

There is another powerful analogy to the medieval marketplace that is relevant to our discussion of customer experience. These ancient truths are probably hidden from view under layers of rubble we have built up over the years we have relied on advertising for our customer connection.

Many of our organizations and marketing institutions have been created from the more recent legacy of broadcasting and advertising. We hire agencies who know how to advertise, but not necessarily build long-term relationships. We form our strategies based on coupons and quarterly sales goals instead of the natural pull of customer needs. We are more comfortable shouting our messages instead of having a dialogue that results in insight, connection and perhaps even loyalty.

To meet these historic customer expectations and connect in the human way that has always been at the heart of commerce, we need to let these barriers crumble to expose the foundational rock.

An archeological dig for the ultimate customer experience.

It only takes an hour to know whether a company will be successful in the long-term with a new social media initiative.

It’s not a question of strategy.

It doesn’t matter how big the budget is.

It doesn’t depend on the newly-hired Community Manager.

The only thing that matters is if the organization is willing to expose that foundational rock and has the corporate culture able to sustain a new, honest, human customer connection.

Do they have a Medieval Mindset?

Here are some signs that your organization might not be ready for digital customer success...

Budget and resources “We already have a full plate. We don’t have time for something new.”“We’ll let the intern do it.”“This will have to wait until next year’s budgeting cycle.”

Measurement “I don’t care what is happening on Facebook. Until you can demonstrate an ROI for this, the project is on hold.”“Social media is fine if you can fit this into our existing measurement dashboard.”“We need to make social media a profit center that pulls its own weight.”

IT politics “Shouldn’t the IT department own social media strategy?”“If the company doesn’t own the channel and the technology, we don’t need to be there.”“The IT department budget is fixed on project work like infrastructure.”

Legal and regulatory“Federal guidelines prohibit us from having a social media presence.”“The Legal Department will have to approve everything we publish each day.”“The legal risk of responding to consumers is far too great. Say nothing.”

Cultural risk “Facebook is for kids. This is not something for our company.”“I tried Twitter and I hated it. Nobody on the board uses it either so our company doesn’t need it.”“Our company is very successful with what we have been doing for years. If it isn’t broken, why fix it?”

The Cultural Imperative.

Do any of these sound familiar to you?

Adopting the Medieval Mindset. These cultural impediments are difficult – but not impossible to change. There is no such thing as a “grassroots” cultural revolution. The Medieval Mindset needed to succeed has to come from the people at the top – those who control the strategy, resources, and budget ultimately impact the culture too.

Active leadership is required. This doesn’t mean that your CEO has to blog or your CMO is responding to problems on Twitter. But it does mean that these leaders deeply understand the opportunities and implications of the digital customer experience and are active in knocking down the organizational impediments to success.

I’m reminded of a case study. A multi-billion-dollar company wanted to engage with social, but they had tried, and failed to get anything going for three years, despite spending an enormous amount of money on the effort.

The company was run by lawyers and their conservative approach to business served them well for many years, but it created an environment where it took three weeks to respond to a customer question on Facebook. Not exactly a medieval way of doing business, right?

It took a heart-to-heart talk behind closed doors for them to realize they were the ones to blame for an unresponsive culture pervading the entire organization. They were determined to succeed, they were driven to adapt to this new environment. The change has been slow but steady ever since that realization. The company is on their way to digging their way out of the layers of cultural build-up that kept them from connecting to customers in a human way.

However, there is a small social-savvy breed of Fortune 500 CEOs emerging.

For example, Sony has embraced a number of different social media channels in an effort to continue to improve and enhance its product offering through engagement with its customers. Some channels - and brands - are proving more successful than others, with its PlayStation presence on both Facebook and Twitter attracting the most attention. The company’s thoughtful take on how to use the visual power of Pinterest is also starting to pay off.

8.3% of Fortune 500 CEOs now have Twitter accounts, compared to 5.6% last year, and among all CEOs on Twitter, only 69% are active, tweeting within the last 100 days. 68% of Fortune 500 CEOs still have no presence on any of the major social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Instagram.

The Ultimate Customer Experience / Conclusion

// Mark W. Schaefer

Get started now.As you create marketing plans for your own business — or if your current efforts are stagnating — maybe it’s time to step back and look at your own cultural layers dividing you and your customers.

For most companies, the key to the ultimate customer experience isn’t going to be found in the latest social media platform, analytics program, or smartphone apps. It will be found deep beneath the layers of stuff we have built up between ourselves and our customers.

The key to succeeding in this complex digital world ironically comes from the beating medieval heart that has been the core of the customer experience for a thousand years … the heart that knows, connects, cares, and listens to our customers as if they were our village neighbors.

The Masters of CX series features true marketing thinkers and industry heavyweights, covering the issues surrounding your customer experience approach and strategy.

These unique reports will be published between October and December 2014, along with two dedicated webinar sessions where you can gain first-hand insight from the authors on the key issues raised.

We’re delighted to be working with some of the most influential authors within digital marketing.

Reports in the series include:

Winning Hearts in Real-time by Jay Baer

Influence the Influencers - The Magic of Co-Created Content by Lee Odden

Beyond the Sale: An Owned Media Approach to Customer Experience by Brian Clark

Empower your Employees to Power your Customer Experience by Ted Rubin

Customer Loyalty Lessons from Medieval Times by Mark Schaefer

Why Brands are Stuck on Like and Failing at Love by Mitch Joel

Find out more about the authors and reports athello.econsultancy.com/masters-of-cx and join the discussion using #MastersofCX

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Published by Econsultancy in association with OfferpopAbout the Masters of CX