citizen Evangelist

One of the common themes at South by Southwest’s Interactive 2008 what authenticity. This term was used in the context of the user experience, messaging, and design. When I would look around the room after this word was used, it was obvious that the message resonated because there were so many smiles and nodding heads. When I look around at the products and services that are most readily available, I get an entirely different feeling. That caused me to take a step back and question whether people are using this term with the same meaning, or if I was in fact missing something.

What does it mean to be authentic?

Merriam Webster Online defines authentic as “actually and exactly what is claimed” and “implies being fully trustworthy as according with fact.”

Wikipedia gives supporting context where it states that authenticity “refers to the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity, devotion, and intentions.”

Ironically, both of these definitions come back to to perception and a foundation of trust. When you take a moment to evaluate your product or service can you honestly say the following

My product or service:

• is advertised/promoted in a way that describes realistically achievable results?
• provides a ’solution’ for the target user?
  • delivers results in line with how the user wants to accomplish their goals
  • helps the user accomplish their goals better/faster/cheaper
• is easy to buy?
  • the customer’s perceived value exceeds the cost
  • is available when/where/how the customer wants to buy it
  • the buying process isn’t scary or cumbersome
• is easy to use & own?
  • customer support is accessible and helpful
  • the user interface is friendly and doesn’t require the user to ‘think’ about how to accomplish their goals
  • the solution helps the user accomplish their own goals or aspirations by owning or using the product or service

I’ve always believed that perception drives reality. The challenge in this context has absolutely nothing to do with your perception however. The principle issue is the perception of your customers and prospects.

Do your customer’s perceptions align with your business needs?

Each and every day in each and every interaction with your customers you have an opportunity to make certain that their perception of your company and your products or services are authentic. Are you doing what you need to in order to achieve your goals? I’m certain that there are millions of opportunities that can dramatically affect the operations of your business.

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My family lost its matriarch last week.  As a result, our family was drawn together to celebrate her life.  This celebration gave me the rare opportunity to learn a bit more about my grandfather, the husband of my departed grandmother.  They had been married 65 years and together, they had taken the family’s sustenance farm and turned it into a highly profitable corporation, retired, and later launched an adult retirement community providing an incredible amount of revenue toward their life and the life of the family.

I had always admired what he was able to do and aspired to have the same level of success.  He shared with me a simple, obvious, and powerful truth during our time together.

You will fail if you’re in business to make money.

When your objective is to make money, you will do stupid things.  You will cut corners.  You will not take important risks.  You will achieve mediocrity and fail.

Alternatively, if you’re in business to do something like make a better product or be the best provider of service, he said:  You will be surprised at how much money will find its way to you.

So… what’s your purpose for being?  Want to make some money?  Or do you want to make something special?  You better pick right.  Only one correct answer here.

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Merriam Webster defines innovation as:

Function: noun
Pronunciation: \ˌi-nə-vā-shən\
1. the introduction of something new

Wikipedia adds some additional thoughts in this matter:

the change must increase value, customer value, or producer value. Innovations are intended to make someone better off, and the succession of many innovations grows the whole economy.

There is an important distinction between invention and innovation that often goes unnoticed:

An invention is an object, process, or technique which displays an element of novelty.

Inventions are first ever creations. Innovation is the tireless pursuit of creating value. Innovation isn’t isolated to products. In fact, innovation can occur in every business process, in every customer interaction, and in every activity that takes place within and around your business. It isn’t about being first. It isn’t even about being ideal. It is only about improving what you have and what your are doing to increase value for you, your customers, your products & services, and your business. Innovation is about staying viable in the market and refusing to succumb to the commodification of your business.

Let’s face it: the competition is out there. They are going to be working hard to increase their revenues. They are going to work hard at taking revenue from you. Can you afford to be the low cost leader when competing in a global marketplace where there are companies with employees and operation costs that are a fraction of yours? Or are you ready to take on a new way of thinking, a corporate directive that focuses not on driving down costs but instead on driving up value?

Just In Time Innovation is a simple concept: when the opportunity presents itself, make improvements. In practice, things get pretty complicated. This requires a whole new way of organizing yourself and a significant new importance placed on truly understanding your customer. The customer is your boss. The customer pays your salary and gives you your job. The customer is who determines if you’ve succeeded in providing value in excess of your costs. When you are successful your customers will buy your product and tell their friends.

There are many recent signals that a handful of companies are embracing this belief and are getting organized to innovate in new and exciting ways. Ben McConnel notes the launch of Starbuck’s My Starbucks Idea. Last year, Dell launched a similar initiative with IdeaStorm. And earlier this week I referenced a slightly different approach by Nokia and the use of Beta Labs.

Customers buy because the are seeking something. When a customer buys from you, is there any additional you could you could do for that customer? How do you know? Do you ask them? If a customer is asked “How else can we help you?” is that information collected? Is it available throughout your organization? Can your organization take that information and innovate?

If you don’t have a strategy and don’t have the tools, what are you doing to ensure your company is going to survive?

Disclosure: I am founder and Chief Evangelist of Whisper Labs. We offer a hosted web application that makes it easy to collect and manage customer ideas. Your customers know what they want. Some times, they even know what you can do differently in order to provide what they need. The best thing you can do is ask them: “What else can we do to delight you?”

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I am so sick of companies and marketeers focused on achieving customer satisfaction!

This is absolutely the wrong focus: this is the pursuit of mediocrity.

mediocrity - WordNet®
noun
1. ordinariness as a consequence of being average and not outstanding [syn: averageness]
2. a person of second-rate ability or value; “a team of aging second-raters”; “shone among the mediocrities who surrounded him” [syn: second-rater]

In today’s market, satisfaction does not guarantee a returning customer, it does not offer you assurance of word of mouth, and it doesn’t prevent that customer from telling others about poor experiences associated with your company or product.

Satisfaction is directly tied to the difference between expectations and experience. I can be satisfied with poor service when that is what I expect (and believe me, I expect poor service these days).

I can be unsatisfied when I have high expectations which are net me.  Rarely does this modify my behavior.  Instead, I typically adjust my expectations.

As a producer of goods or services, there are two dimensions that I can use to change customer satisfaction:

a) I can work hard to lower the expectations of my customers
b) I can work hard to improve the experiences of my customers

Further, when its time to report on these results… how should I determine how I’m doing? The most common practice is to average the results. It is very easy to miss out on important details using this method. For example:

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As usual, Seth Godin posts another great one. I highly encourage you to check out Before you buy your next ad… I won’t post the obvious spoiler here, but the point is incredibly valid.

On this topic, I would highly recommend picking Noise by Bart Kosko. The essence of the story is this: one person’s signal is another person’s noise. Let me see if I can make this a bit more clear. A pregnant woman is at the doctor’s office and the doctor needs to listen to the heartbeat of the mother. In this context, the baby’s heartbeat becomes noise that interferes with the doctor’s ability to determine the health of the mother. Inversely, if the doctor needs to listen to the heartbeat of the in utero child, then the mother’s heartbeat becomes noise.

If we aren’t ready to handle all of the information at our fingertips or don’t have the ability to filter out the information that is distracting (or noise) to the task at hand, it becomes very difficult to make use of any of the information. Thankfully, our brains are so well conditioned that we naturally filter out information that appears to be interference to our objective.

When we speak to customers and really listen to what they are saying, how they are speaking to us, and when they are speaking to us… how much are we really hearing? How much do we actually miss?

Make it a point to check yourself.

After all, the things you could miss could cost you that customer!

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