Category: Customer Experience

“People like us do things like this.”

Social media understands this.

It also knows that people like points, likes and something that feels like popularity.

The social media companies optimized their algorithms for profit. And profit, they figured, would come from engagement. And engagement, they figured, would come from confounding our instincts and rewarding outrage.

Because outrage draws a crowd.

And crowds establish culture.

And a desire to be the leader of a crowd reinforced the cycle.

And so the social networks created a game, a game in which you ‘win’ by being notorious, outrageous or, as they coined the phrase, “authentic.” The whole world is watching, if you’re willing to put on a show.

That’s not how the world actually works. The successful people in your community or your industry (please substitute ‘happy’ for successful in that sentence) don’t act the way the influencers on Twitter, YouTube or Facebook do. That’s all invented, amplified stagecraft, it’s not the actual human condition.

Many of us have an overwhelming need to rubberneck, to slow down when we pass a crash on the highway. This is odd, as most people don’t go out of their way to visit the morgue, just for kicks. And yet…

I hope we’d agree that if people started staging car crashes on the side of the road to get attention, we’d be outraged.

That’s what happening, and the leaders of social networks pretend that they can’t do a thing about it, just as Google pretends that they can’t control the results of their search algorithm.

The shift that the leaders of the social networks need to make is simple. In the long run, it will cost them nothing. And within weeks, it will create a world that’s calmer, happier and more productive.

Amplify possibility. Dial down the spread of disinformation, trolling and division. Make it almost impossible to get famous at the expense of civilization. Embrace the fact that breaking news doesn’t have to be the rhythm of our days. Reward thoughtfulness and consistency and responsibility.

You can do this. Enough already.

First: If you come up with an innovation that creates value, that value is multiplied a million-fold because now you can share it outside your village.

Second: If you build a community, the network effect creates increasing amounts of value as more people use it.

And the pothole: As we race to create value, it’s easy to forget that it’s unevenly distributed. A safety net isn’t perfect, but it’s better than no net at all.

Rising tides lift all boats, but we’re not boats.

It’s urgent
It’s certain to work
It’s close by
Everyone else is
It might happen to you
Only someone as caring as you will choose to make a difference
Only someone as smart as you can understand something this complicated
It will raise your status with your cohort
Others are suffering
Time’s almost up
People like us do things like this
It’s the right thing to do
You are suffering
It’s a longshot worth pursuing
To create justice
It comes with a tote bag
It’s an obligation
Your parents taught you well
We’ll be proud of you
Because right here and right now, nothing would feel better than making a donation…
[more]

In the midst of all of it, some people are still able to trust. To trust in others, to trust in possibility and to trust themselves. And…
we’re surrounded by opportunity.
we often get a second chance.
there are still problems to be solved.
we learned something.
there’s another advance, right around the corner.
And always, there’s a chance to make things better.

With the new year fast approaching, the CX Stars panel is preparing to reveal its shortlist of the UK’s Top Influencers and Professionals for 2021. Customer Experience Magazine will be publishing a countdown of the Top 50 CX Influencers in January, alongside our list of the country’s Top 100 CX Professionals, and the order, including…
The post CXM’s Top CX Stars 2021: Have Your Say appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

Online retailers today are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. To start, today’s consumers are more tech-savvy and less brand loyal than previous generations. Millennials and Generation Z have serious spending power, and retailers can’t afford to ignore the needs of these empowered, demanding consumers. The most successful retailers know that delivering a great customer experience is…
The post Hey Big Spender: Using data to connect customers to brands appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

2020 was a terrible year for too many people. So much trauma, dislocation and illness. Everyone has their own stories, and everyone suffered (unevenly and unfairly) from the extraordinary shifts in our lives.

And yet, seeds were planted. Five or ten or twenty years from now, people will remember projects that were started, connections that were established, realizations that occurred. Doors were opened, babies were born and changes were made.

Few people celebrate forest fires, but we’re all eager to walk through the sylvan glades that follow.

If you were kept from planting all the seeds you hoped to in 2020, that’s okay. Because the best time to plant more seeds is always right now. Or perhaps tomorrow.

I’ve benefited from countless lucky breaks through the years of this career, and many of them are the result of the people I’ve been fortunate enough to work with, listen to and teach.

To help create an institution of scale and impact, Akimbo the platform for learning that I’ve been talking about on this blog for years is now an independent B corp. In 2020, the leadership and coaches at Akimbo have shown up in ways that no one could have expected, and the tens of thousands of alumni are grateful for all of it.

Thank you to each of them, and to you. For caring and for leading.

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The finalists for the 2021 Gulf Customer Experience Awards have been revealed, with brands including Virgin Mobile UAE, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, and HSBC among those set to compete for victory at the event in February. The annual gathering is the premier showcase for CX talent in the Middle East, and will see finalists from…
The post Gulf Customer Experience Awards 2021: Finalists Revealed appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

One of the biggest questions keeping business leaders up right now is whether they should be preparing their staff to return to the office next year or simply embrace remote work long term. But that is the wrong question to ask about the future of work. It’s not where we work that’s critical, it’s how…
The post Is Project Management Keeping Work Siloed? appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.