Ultimate Customer Experience Guide

1. Masters of CX
The Ultimate
Customer
Experience was
Created 1,000
Years Ago.
By Mark W. Schaefer
Executive Director of
Schaefer Marketing Solutions
and College Educator
Published by Econsultancy in association with Offerpop

2. The Ultimate Customer Experience / Mark W. Schaefer
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...
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.

3. 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.
1
2
3
4
Perhaps you are starting to sense where I am going with this?

4. 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.
• 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.
83+83% 85+85%
59 59%
Respond in a timely fashion to consumers’
social queries and comments
Leaders Mainstream Followers
// Source: Social Media Statistics,
Econsultancy (2014): ecly.co/1oFZOP2

5. An archeological dig for
the ultimate customer
experience.
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.

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. 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.
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.
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.

9. The Ultimate Customer Experience / Conclusion
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.
// Mark W. Schaefer

10. About the Masters of CX Published by Econsultancy in association with Offerpop
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 at
hello.econsultancy.com/masters-of-cx and
join the discussion using #MastersofCX
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