Jeannie Walters: 0:00

You know what we don't talk about enough in customer experience? How experience can drive innovation. So let's talk about it. We got a great question.

Listener Question: 0:11

Hi, Jeannie. You talk about innovation around experience, but I'm not sure I totally get what you mean. What are some ways you've seen successful innovation around customer experience that has also led to good results?

Jeannie Walters: 0:26

All right, I love this because this is one of those areas I feel like we don't spend enough time on. Now, in our CXI Navigator framework, we talk about intentional success, cultural commitment, customer collaboration, and experiential innovation. Now, the reason I call it experiential innovation is because it's not really about products, it's really about how can you innovate around the experience that your customers are having. That's what they're looking to you to do. So as we think about that, it's a good idea to first of all understand that intentional success, cultural commitment, and customer collaboration makes all of this easier. Because of course, part of customer collaboration is gathering those insights, looking at customer behavior, and really understanding who you're serving. Now, in order to innovate, you need to take some risks. That's a cultural commitment. And of course, you want to know where you're going with all of this. So that's my little caveat to all of this, but let's talk about innovation specifically. So when we talk about experiential innovation, there are some big, huge examples that everybody knows. One is Uber. When they came on the scene, they were completely disruptive to the taxicab industry because they said, well, what if we could do this differently? You were still being picked up in a car by a driver going from point A to point B, but they made it more seamless with being able to pay through the app. You were able to uh see where your car was coming from, all sorts of innovations that by at that point the taxicab industry really wasn't partaking in. It was enough to disrupt that industry. Same thing with Netflix. Originally they were sending DVDs in the mail. And that's because they figured that was a lot easier for people, right? You would come home on a Friday, your movie for the weekend was there. That was a complete disruption to the video rental industry. So when you think about those big disruptors, most of them are experience-based. But let's bring this down a little bit because a lot of the innovations that I see in the work we do with our clients, they are more subtle, but they are still experiential. Sometimes it means simply looking at the experience that your customers have had for a long time in some cases and asking, can we do this better today? Do we have better technology, better tools, better connections, all the things that, you know, we have so much at our fingertips now? Could we improve the experience? In B2B, I see this a lot with things like, you know, if we are sending things back and forth for signatures, could we improve that experience, make it more seamless? Could we actually have a hub for clients where they can get all of their information? Now, when we are thinking about serving a lot of people and really anytime in business, any organization, we struggle with communication. We struggle with what's the best way to communicate, with how often we should communicate, when do we have to proactively reach out versus letting them discover on their own and reach out to us? These are real struggles because humans are different. Not all of us want the same kind of communication or the frequency that everybody else does. So there's an interesting example that I have been reading about, and that is Vanguard, the financial services investment organization. Now, they ranked number two in JD Power's 2025 U.S. Retirement Plan Digital Experience Study. So that's very specific, but well above industry average. And if you look into this, part of this is that the JD Power report actually found that digital experience and trust are now primary drivers of satisfaction, not just the rates of things in financial services. And in healthcare, another study said that communication and feeling understood are directly tied to patient safety and confidence, not just satisfaction scores. So I open with this so that you are aware that we can't always rely on what people are only sharing with us in feedback. And that's why I love to think about ways we can really collaborate with the customer. I'm not saying that we need to include them in every meeting or we need to invite them to these big co-creation sessions every time. I'm talking about what Vanguard did to really collaborate. They didn't rely on how did we do surveys alone. They actually looked at customer behavior as that collaboration. So on the digital experience, they analyzed things like where customers hesitated, where they abandoned tasks, where they escalated to chat or calls. And then they used behavioral nudges like reminders and prompts and simplified pathways to reduce friction and anxiety in real time. You've heard me say that one of the best things you can do for customers is reassure them. Look for points of anxiety. Look for points when they might be feeling unsure and reassure them. One of the ways we can do that is with this kind of behavioral nudge idea where we can say, hey, looks like you didn't complete this. Would you like to? It looks like the price went down. Can we give you that discount? All of those ways to be proactive. Now, Vanguard's explanation of how they did this, it really is behavioral science and technology marrying together. And that's a lot of what we're doing now. So if we are looking at innovation as a way to stay ahead of the competition, to possibly even disrupt industries, and I always like to say, if you are not the disruptor, somebody else is going to be. Somebody else right now, today, is trying to disrupt your industry. So if you are not thinking this way, someone else is. And we know that the data shows us that 32% of customers will walk away from a brand after they have had one bad experience. And this is a brand they love. That's according to PWC. And in hospitality, Deloitte reports that experience personalization and friction reduction are now stronger loyalty drivers than price alone. So we have to make sure that we are constantly looking at how are our customers actually behaving in today's world, not just what they're telling us. So this works when we have that cultural commitment, when we have that cross-functionality. But we have to make sure that we know where we're going. That's why we always start with intentional success. What are our goals here? What is the scope of what we're doing? What are the limits? Because you can spend a lot of time on blue sky thinking for innovation. And then once you start really trying to put it into place, you realize there's no way we can do this. We don't have the budget, we don't have the technology, we don't have the people, whatever. So make sure you're being kind of realistic about where you're going as well. And then when we think about the results of this type of innovation, a couple of things I want you to look for. One is when we do this well, customers do notice. They are appreciative, they feel valued, they are more likely to take that next step in the journey because you've built trust with them. So look for things that are really about moving the customer through the journey in either a faster, easier way, a higher purchase value, a higher average purchase for the customer, things like that can be really strong cases for innovation. And then look at the flip side of that. If we could innovate around the experience in a proactive way, would that mean fewer escalations? Would that mean reduced customer effort? Would that mean increased confidence in working with you? All of those things can lead to longer-term relationships, more customer referrals, all sorts of great things. Now, if we know that people will leave us for bad experiences, why are we not working harder at creating more and more fantastic experiences? Why are we not innovating around the experience that we're delivering when we know it can lead to incredible results? And I think it's because we just don't prioritize it. Start acting, start leading on that. Because all of this data tells us that if you do this well, you can not only disrupt, but you will have a winning business strategy. So think about experiential innovation in no matter what industry you are in. Because somebody right now, they are thinking about it. They are thinking about how to disrupt. So why not let that be you and do it on behalf of your customers? What a fantastic question. Now, I love these questions, especially because it allows me to share more about our CXI Navigator framework and our approach to customer experience with mindset, strategy, and discipline. And that's what my new book is about, which is coming out in April called Experience is Everything. I encourage you to pre-order and let us know if you want a custom book club, maybe, for your team, or a special keynote around that. We love having you here. Don't forget, you can always ask me a question at askjeannie.vip. Thank you for all you're doing every day. And don't forget to focus on innovation. Thanks so much. See you next time. Thanks for listening to Experience Action brought to you by Experience Investigators. If you're ready to turn insights into action, join our CXI Membership. That's our community for customer experience investigators just like you. It's where CX leaders get the tools, support, and inspiration to move from ideas to true impact. And don't miss my new book, Experience is Everything: Making Every Moment Count in the Age of Customer Expectations. It's available now for pre order. Learn more and reserve your copy at experienceinvestigators.com. Until next time, keep asking questions, keep improving, and keep leading with experience.