Crafting the Customer Experience for

People Not Like You

Changing Customer Expectations

• The “Impossible Triangle” is history

• Low cost • High Quality • Fast • An “experience”

Customers Have Changed

We Want: • Personalized experience • To feel valued • Relationship

Understanding Someone Different from You Means Understanding

Their Life

Their priorities Their values

The experiences that define them

Try This Exercise!

• When asked to name how Kennedy died…

• Matures & Boomers – Gunshot in Dallas

• Gen X – Plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard

• Gen Y – “Kennedy who?”

Who is Ron Howard?

• Matures

• Boomers

• Gen X & Gen Y

Matures, Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y

Key emotional drivers and icons

Matures (age 69 and older)

• Iconic entertainer: Frank Sinatra • HHI: $40,400 • Defining Idea: Duty • Style: Team player • Work is: an inevitable obligation • Education is: a dream • Reward because: you’ve earned it • Home stuff: Timex, milk and cookies • Money: put it away, pay cash • Family: traditional nuclear • Technology: slide rules and rotary phones

Boomers (age 50-68)

• Iconic entertainer: Mick Jagger • HHI: $59,800 • Defining Idea: Individuality • Style: Self-absorbed • Work is: an exciting adventure • Education is: a birthright • Reward because: you deserve it • Home stuff: Casio, milk and Oreos • Money: buy now, pay later • Family: disintegrating • Technology: calculators, touchtone phones

Generation X (age 37-49)

• Iconic entertainer: Madonna • HHI: $49,500 • Defining Idea: Diversity • Style: entrepreneur • Work is: a difficult challenge • Education is: a way to get there • Reward because: you need it • Home stuff: Swatch, milk and Snackwells • Money: cautious conservative: save, save • Family: latchkey kids • Technology: spreadsheets and cell phones

Generation Y (age 18-36) • Iconic entertainer: Lady Gaga • HHI: control $160 B in spending • Defining Idea: Authenticity • Style: Worldly • Work is: a chance to do some good • Education is: an incredible expense • Reward because you can share it • Home stuff: use phones to tell time, iPads,

Xbox, PS3, Wii, organic • Money: earn to spend • Family: merged families • Technology: all access,

text messaging

No More “Joe Consumer”

"The concept of an 'average American' is gone, probably forever. The ‘average American’ has been replaced by a complex, multidimensional society that defies simplistic labeling.”

– Demographics expert Peter Francese

Source: New U.S. Census to Reveal Major Shift: No More Joe Consumer. AdAge, October 12, 2009.

Connecting with Those “Not Like You”

1. People Need What They Need

2. Relieve Pain

3. 6 Ways to Deepen Customer Experiences

People Need What They Need

Not Just What, But How

• Public storage payment options

Not Just What, But How

Relieve Pain

Different Customers Care About Different Things

• Women want security & great personal service

Men Hate Ironing

• Omni Hotels learned that men hate ironing

• Their “Select Guest” program now offers free ironing of two garments

Texas Medical Association

Your Turn

Think of a Customer “Pain Point” & How You Might Relieve It

How Do You Know What People Not Like You Want?

Ask Them Get Employee Feedback

Hire Diversity

Ask Them!

• Formal methods, such as surveys, reveal insights – Omni Hotels, Safelight Auto Glass

• Informal conversation with customers

• Soliciting feedback from

front-line employees

Informal: Just Talk to People

Church at the Gym

Employee Feedback

• Front desk clerk at boutique hotel

Hire Diversity

• Bilingual or multi-lingual associates to serve diverse customers

• State Farm agency hired

Gen Y agent

• Agent works leads through social media and texting, not phone calls

8 Ways to Deepen the Customer Experience

#1: Ask Stakeholders What They Want

• Surveys are good, but conversations are better

#2: Cultivate Your “Pilot Fish”

#3: Use Consumer Insights

Consumer Insights: Women

• The truth can never hurt you

• No pressure – ever

• Value expansive choices, seeing all options

Consumer Insights: Men • Want choices simplified

• The “magic number” is 3

Hispanics/Latinos

• Good customer service is more important than speed or efficiency

• It trumps mistakes

• Appreciate being given all the time needed to ask questions

African-Americans

• Show people of color in ads, on your website or any marketing materials – Diversity of skin tone is important

• Don’t try to connect on a superficial level

#4: Ensure You Can Walk the Walk

#5: Pay Attention to Trends…

• Social is everything

New Products Meet Demand for Connectivity

#6: Be Fearless • It may feel weird and unconventional to you, but

if it’s what the customer wants, then it’s the right thing to do

• “Tweet Seats” at the symphony

Strategy #7: Be the Good Guys

• Demonstrate & market social consciousness – Green efforts – Community involvement

#8: Helping Beats Selling

“We don’t need information. We need advice.”

Relevance + Experience + Relationship = Feeling the Love

My New Book Can Help!

#5 on the list of Bestselling Business Books of 2013

©2014 McDonald Marketing 7820 Enchanted Hills Blvd. Ste. A-199

Rio Rancho, NM 87144 214-880-1717, Fax 214-880-7596 kelly@mcdonaldmarketing.com

All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced

In any form without permission by the author.

For more information about consumer trends, contact

Kelly McDonald at 214-880-1717 or kelly@mcdonaldmarketing.com