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#59 Radically Human: How Mazda is Redefining Customer Experience
00:42:41
Mazda is redefining customer experience by putting humans at the center of everything it does. On this episode, Brad Audet, CMO of Mazda Americas, shares insights on how emotional connections and personalized experiences can drive brand loyalty and business success. Plus, he explores the importance of human connection in business and how it can transform customer experiences.
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- [00:00]
A
People have this way of wanting to define listening through their ears only. You have to listen visually and you also have to listen to behaviors. We very much believe that one size fits one. Our purpose is enriching the lives of motion of those we serve.
- [00:22]
B
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Experts of Experience. I'm your host, Lauren Wood. Today I'm excited to be joined by Brad Audette, the CMO of Mazda Americas. Today we are going to dive into how he leads the brand's evolution through personalized customer experiences, strategic partnerships, and innovative marketing campaigns that drive emotional connections between Mazda and its customers. Brad, so wonderful to have you.
- [00:50]
A
Thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to this discussion.
- [00:54]
B
So how is customer experience competitive differentiator for you?
- [00:59]
A
Well, I think in the automotive industry in particular, you're seeing a convergence of commonality across a number of the different manufacturers. I mean, everybody is building great cars, high quality cars, cars that are well crafted cars that have great powertrains and great safety. And I think having distinctive customer experience is really important. And it needs to be born out of what's important to your customers, but also who you are as a brand and a business. So at Mazda here in the US we put a lot of emphasis around how we create more customer delight. And we focus on a thing called omatonashi, which is a Japanese term that speaks to, in some ways, kind of like radical hospitality, if you will, in the most simple sense. Right. We very much believe that one size fits one. You may have heard that in the past from a guy named Will Gudera who wrote a book about hospitality and the restaurant that he ran. But we think that it's very important that we anticipate and work selflessly for those we serve. If you look at our purpose, our purpose is enriching the lives, emotion of those we serve. So we very much look at our engagement with our customers and all of our stakeholders for that matter, in terms of how we serve them.
- [02:17]
B
And I've heard you say that human connection is essential today. Can you elaborate on that a little bit and how you're incorporating the concept of human connection into the work you're doing at Mazda?
- [02:28]
A
Well, I think we're at a period of time right now in our society where people need to be connected to each other emotionally, intellectually. There's a lot of narrative out there, a lot of rhetoric, a lot of conversation that divides us. And the reality is there's a lot of things that actually bind us together more so than divide us. And I think you need to celebrate the greatness of humans and human potential. And that's what we're trying to do at Mazda. And I think coming out of the pandemic, people are yearning for psychological safety, for environmental safety, for financial safety. And that idea of safety can best be addressed through the caring of another individual to the person in need. And so we feel that, you know, celebrating humanity right now at a time when we're at a bit of an inflection point is very important.
- [03:27]
B
And how do we bring that into business? Because it's so. I agree with everything that you're saying. And then when we talk about how do we tie that to the businesses that we are running and really incorporated into it. Tell me a little bit about how you're doing that at Mazda and just in the work you're doing as a cmo.
- [03:48]
A
Well, so one of our key values as a company is radically human, and that really speaks to putting people at the center of everything we do. And that philosophy was born out of the rebuilding of Hiroshima. And I think this. This idea is about, you know, curating an experience that heightens people and uplifts people. And so that's a very important piece of everything that we do from Mazda. We talk about the cars that we build have a sense of Jim Bai Tai, which is the closeness between man and machine and. Or horse and rider. And I think that's. That's a really unique attribute that makes Mazda different. It's part of our DNA. It's part of our heritage. Now, to get to your specific question, our philosophy is very much around humanized growth. So if you put, you know, by putting people at the center of everything you do, the solutions that you design need to work for the betterment of everybody and reducing some type of friction or pushing people forward in their lives. And in fact, if you look at the new brand platform that we recently launched, Move and Be Moved, it's very much about taking people to better places, right? About pushing them forward in their lives, helping them to enable, to make the progress that they need to have in their lives, to have a life well lived. And I think that's where Mazda can be a really great companion, because we authentically believe that by making your day a little bit brighter and put a smile on your face, that you then can make somebody else's day a little bit brighter. And collectively, we live in a more peaceful society.
- [05:33]
B
Overall, I think it's such an important thing for businesses to think about. We are humans serving other humans. And at the end of the day, if we can connect to that innate human need. That is where we create authentically providing value. And we all, as consumers want to receive actual value and not just be sold something. And I think that Mazda does such an amazing job of really hitting on that human note. And as you're saying this, I'm like thinking about the ads that I've seen from Mazda that always just feel so uplifting. Can you tell me a little bit about your process of really approaching marketing from that human driven lens?
- [06:21]
A
Yeah, well, I think the best marketing is all anchored in a customer insight. I think for a period of time over the, maybe the last decade as a marketing community, we became very focused and relying on performance marketing. Right. And driving conversion with people. We all lost the essence of storytelling and celebrating the true greatness of humans. And I think the pendulum is starting to swing to the other side now and maybe finding more balance that you can't have great performance marketing without a great brand story. And I think with what we've done recently, we just went back to who we are as a company and our truths and celebrated those truths because we know that there's a yearning in society right now amongst a core group of customers that share common values with us. So, you know, in the new work and in the new platform, we're just, we're celebrating those shared values that we have as a community.
- [07:16]
B
And so it's bringing that into thinking about the customer. How do we deliver on those values of the customer, those current needs that they have in this day and age, and really be there with them in that, in the marketing that you're providing, in the initiatives that you're putting out there.
- [07:34]
A
I think, you know, if you're a brand whose core value is, you know, one of their core values is being radically human. That means that you need to be a very intentional listener and a very active listener. I think there's a difference between hearing and listening. Right.
- [07:49]
B
So one, you know, we all hear.
- [07:51]
A
Things, but listening is about processing, right. And so how we process that and then how we create responses to what we're hearing people talk about is, you know, I'm not, I can't even imagine how we ran marketing departments in the absence of social listening 20 years ago. Right. We relied on a lot of really intense, you know, research and studies. And now every day I can pull up a dashboard, I can go into various various community groups and see exactly what people are thinking about Mazda, what are they thinking about society, what are they thinking about the environments, what are their pain points, and then be Responsive to them in a, in a real time way. So I think, you know, the one other kind of business philosophy or approach that we've taken that was really born in the pandemic that is serving us very well post pandemic is creating a more agile business construct and being responsive to the significant disruption that's happening in the marketplace right now. It's likely to continue through the end of the decade. Right. So this idea of, you know, of a more, you know, just being able to react to the stimulus that we see in the market and adjust our business plans accordingly has served us very well. And I think that's been a primary driver of, of our growth over the course of the last several years. I mean, this year is going to shape up to be our best retail sales year in the 52 years we've been in business.
- [09:24]
B
Wow.
- [09:24]
A
Four years we've been in business in the, in the U.S. so I think, you know, there were a lot of positive lessons learned for us as a business going through the pandemic. But I could say the focus on people, people serving people, has been one of the key principles of that.
- [09:42]
B
Wow, that's really impressive. Congratulations.
- [09:44]
A
Thank you. Thank you. It's definitely a team effort, that's for sure. Right.
- [09:49]
B
Yeah. I want to double click on something that you said about the difference between hearing and listening, because I think that there is such an important distinction in that. And I often work with teams, enterprise customer success teams that are really working one on one. And it is different to listen in a one to one conversation than it is to listen to the masses in the way that you're mentioning and that social listening and to really understand what is happening for our customers and those people. Can you tell me a little bit about that listening versus just the hearing?
- [10:27]
A
Yeah, Well, I think a couple things, right, People have this way of wanting to define listening through their ears only. You have to listen visually and you also have to listen to behaviors and you have to triangulate all of those things. And I think what we try to do is try to find common themes or clusters of unique behaviors, attitudes, reactions to people and then figure out, okay, which of those do we need to try to resolve or react to and which of those don't we need to resolve or react to? So I think it allows you to understand the essence of the individual because in social listening, or in referrals and commentaries, and all the places where people have the opportunity to write reviews or whatever, they're telling you how they think. Right. And I also manage our customer Experience center, which is our call center, and our roadside assistance and things like that. So we're able to really understand how customers are feeling through the sentiment of the conversations. Right. We also do a number of MPS studies to look at our total satisfaction. And for me, what we really focus on is maybe not what people are saying, but how they're feeling. Because as Maya Angelou has said a million times. Right. They're not gonna remember what you said. They're not gonna remember what they did. They're gonna remember how you made them feel. And I think for us being a radically human company, how we make people feel is really important.
- [11:58]
B
Oh, my God. It's so. It's so essential. And I think so often we focus on the words and less of the feelings, when in reality, listening is about not just the words. It's about, especially in a human to human conversation. It's about the tone of voice, it's about the body language. It's different online, but there's still things that we can pick up on. What is. How is someone saying something? It is not just this is good or this is bad, it's how. What emotion is being evoked, what words are they using to describe that so that we can really understand where these people are coming from and how we can be there with them in that experience so that they feel like there's others with them. And that, like, human connection as we're talking about.
- [12:47]
A
Yeah. I think effective listening does create a connection completely. And I don't think people kind of always appreciate that aspect of it because I think effective listening, if you've ever taken any courses on how to do it and the impact of it, there is an energy exchange between the receiver and the giver in those kinds of environments. Right. And that's where the real profound insight comes from. And we're doing it at a larger mass scale. But you, you know, there's enough, there's enough machine learning tools and things like that of that nature that can read conversations in the marketplace and tell you what your net sentiment is and how people are feeling about you and the kinds of feelings that you're having. Right. And a lot of the research and insight gathering we do with prospective customers and our owners isn't about just who they are and what they like, but what stimulates them to feel certain things. Right. And I think that's really important because I think the most powerful brands own feeling spaces, not necessarily attributes.
- [13:53]
B
Yeah. It's like the concept of mirroring. Do you know, in sales, people always talk about mirroring to when you listen to someone say back to them what they were saying, show them that you understand. And that concept of showing someone that you get them, they have to get that you get them. Then you build a connection. Now a connection is being made. They're like, oh, you understand me? I feel comfortable with you. I feel like you are really hearing the problems or the issues or the feelings that I am experiencing. And now I like you more because we are here together. And it's so interesting to think about that at the brand level.
- [14:33]
A
Yeah. When you think about that from a customer experience, design standpoint too. Right. Is like affirmation is an important piece of closing the circle. Sometimes people just want to be heard. And being heard, it gives them acceptance, gives them gratification that allows them to move on from the discomfort of whatever problem that there may they may be hearing. And I think, you know, in the business it's always like, well, we want to give you something, we want to do something for you where at some point in time people just want kindness and empathy and they want to be heard and understood that they have a legitimate problem. Right. And so in our situation, we're spending a lot of time with all of our various stakeholders that interface with customers and talking about the importance of tonality. And tonality can change how people receive what it is you're saying. I think that also extends into what we're doing from a comms design standpoint. If you look at the at the new workaround, move and be moved. Right. It has a very approachable and inclusive tonality to it, which is uplifting for people. Right. We have a saying here within Mazda, maybe consider it our brand mindset that is reflective of our belief system around Oma Tanashi, which is your happiness is my happiness. So I work for you selflessly. And when you put that at the center of everything you do, you make much better decisions that both people benefit from.
- [16:04]
B
I couldn't agree with you more. I want to talk a little bit about sustainability because I know you are a part of a CMO group working on sustainable development goals. Tell us a little bit about that and how you're bringing the concept of sustainability into your work.
- [16:21]
A
Well, I had the good fortune of working with this group called IRG Institute for Real Growth. And their focus is really how you drive human humanized growth. And they've worked with a number of CMOs, they've worked with the ANA, they worked with Google and WPP and a number of other companies that really helping to educate the value of humanized growth. And the idea there is really that all stakeholders in the value chain can benefit from growth, and it shouldn't just be shareholder value. So how are you creating stakeholder value? Right. So whether it's your distribution partners, your employees, the communities that you serve. So that has been a really invigorating cohort for me to work with because there's global CMOs from around the world. And I think everybody's trying to wrestle and tackle with how do you effectively deliver on the UN SDGs? How do you create a sustainable environment for the future that benefits society? And we all have a role to play in that, whether it's as individuals or as corporate executives or as companies. And so there's been a lot of really profound work done in that area. And I was very gratefully asked to participate in the UN's Global Compact. They have a CMO advisory board that shapes how marketing can Help best deliver SDGs and heighten the importance of sustainability and the things that we do from a marketing standpoint. And so it's been really interesting for me because it ties into our exact strategy with driving radically human values. Oma Tanashi our Challenger spirit about persistence and this idea of continuous improvement and making things better for everybody. So I think increasingly companies are seeing the value of more humanized growth. Obviously, we're at a time from a societal standpoint where there's an incredible amount of tension. You know, there's a lot of separation and division. And in these types of times, I think we need all be more human than less. Right? And I know that might sound simple to say, but when you think about how you appreciate people, it becomes very simple.
- [18:45]
B
Say goodbye to chatbots and say hello to the first AI agent. Agent for service Agent makes self service an actual joy for your customers with its conversational language anytime on any channel. To learn more, visit salesforce.com agentforce it's interesting, you know, as we enter this new age of AI and we're focused more and more on how computers are or AI agents are able to do things for us, I think it's such an important narrative to really bring back this importance of humans and the fact that we are humans using technology, that we are humans doing business and to not get lost in the like. Yes, it's amazing what AI can do for us, but for us, for us, the humans. And I just see, you know, the narrative is so. It's so new and this technology is so new and how we utilize it is still yet to be seen. Exactly how does the dust settle with the connection between humans and AI. But I just, I think it's so important for us to keep having this conversation about humans being here because just as you said, like, I mean, from a. We are divided and we have a environment that we are also dividing ourselves from. And coming back to the real, you know, why are we here in the first place is it's always been important and it's more important now than ever, I think.
- [20:17]
A
You know, I don't believe that AI can replace a human touch. Right. There are nuances like we just talked about with active listening, the importance of understanding moods and stuff. And I'm sure some, you know, data scientists or technologists will tell me that that capability is here right now and can be done. But, you know, human to human connection I don't think can be replaced by technology. In fact, the way that we at Mazda think about it is very much, you know, technology is like the helping hand, right? It's not a replacement humans. And I think we look at how do we use technology to help enhance human capability. Because we want humans to be at the center of everything, right? We want them to have control and technology can help in assisting that control, but it can't replace control. Right. I would say, you know, we're a car company that would most likely always have a steering wheel in our car. Right? Because I think our customers like the responsiveness and the control and the exhilaration that comes from driving. Right. And they have a lot of love for driving. And you can't necessarily get that through a very technology driven kind of experience. I think the other thing I've been thinking about just in this space, you know, since we're kind of ripping on AI, is we talked earlier in the discussion about the importance of psychological safety, emotional safety. Well, what is truth and where does truth fit in that spectrum of safety? And how do you know that the information that's being curated for you in these new environments is actually the most true to you or for you? And I think that there's, you know, there's going to be some skepticism there. And I think what's unknown right now is how brands play in that space and how you can offer the brands authentic truth and this environment that's being aggregated in that you don't have a lot of control over.
- [22:18]
B
How are you using AI in your customer experience?
- [22:21]
A
Well, we use it across the board on a number of different ways. Whether it's, you know, looking at sentiment and how customers are behaving, how we're aggregating data We've got a couple products that we use with our teams, like where we have kind of an audience brain and a brand brain that allows us to kind of use like a chat GTP like environment to do queries on different aspects of the brain, run hypothesis against audiences and brands, things of that nature. Clearly all of our, all of our connections, planning that we do through media and creative development and optimization is all AI driven. So it's pretty pervasive all the way around. I don't think that we are at a point right now where we're saying, hey, let's develop our own AI agent to help facilitate the shopping experience because we believe in the human to human connection and dealers are super important to us in our value equation. So, you know, I think in the future state, we're going to have to figure out where and how we adopt these technologies to best serve the customer. But right now, you know, we've gone through over the last five years a really dramatic physical plant improvement with all of our dealers. We have like 380 dealers of our 550 that have built all new facilities that are very welcoming, very warm, encourage a very high level of customer engagement, delight in the experience that they have. So you know, with our retail partners, we've invested a lot in that and we want to continue to get the value out of those experiences and don't want to replace that with, you know, artificial intelligence.
- [24:06]
B
I can imagine with your dealer relationships you have less control over the customer experience. So how are you really keeping those human centric values alive in the dealer to customer relationship?
- [24:19]
A
Well, I think first and foremost we have an extraordinary partnership with our dealerships and we have a lot of shared values and they come along in the journey with us. Right. We're co partners and the success of our business and I think we probably are very unique in that regard in a lot of ways. In the US automotive market phase, our dealer satisfaction and their optimism towards Mazda is the highest it's ever been in the 54 years we've been in the US and we're right in the top of the list across all of the various manufacturers. So I think the thing with our dealers is to understand that they're independent businessmen and women and they have a business to run and they have a formula and a philosophy and way of doing it. And I think what we've tried to do is talk about values and behaviors and beliefs and allow them to bring those to life in their unique culture with their, with their employees so that there's a consistency of Application and a desire of what the ideal state is from a customer experience standpoint. But we're not going to be prescriptive in it. And I think the idea is, you know, if you're going to be radically human, you have to have enough breathing room within the construct for the human to be their best. And that means you can't be super prescriptive. Right. So I think, you know, if we look at our situation, our dealer relationships are significant and important to our success. And, you know, we do do a lot of things. We communicate very regularly with our dealers at all levels, and we keep them well informed and we ask them their points of view. We don't always agree on everything. We don't always adopt, we say, but we listen to them and we act on it when we can. And I think that's benefited our business pretty dramatically.
- [26:13]
B
What kind of training do you provide or how do you really ensure that that relationship is consistently strong and that the dealers are supporting your customers in the way that you envision?
- [26:25]
A
Well, I mean, we have a number of different evaluations and scorecards where we look at business health across a number of dimensions. And specifically the customer experience, that's one of the areas team overseas and we do a number of different surveys and diagnostics to understand how are. How is the dealer behavior resonating with customers, are they satisfied with it? And then we have a number of different trainings and educators that go in and help the dealers to understand where their areas of deficiency are. Right. And it's an ongoing thing because you can imagine in any business you have turnover and you have to teach people new things. I think that's an area where technology and virtual learning and self learning can be an important piece of equation. But we've been doing some work over the course of the last six or nine months with a small group of dealers around our belief system of Oma Tanashi. And how do you interject these ideas of being selfless and being empathetic and walking in the customer's shoes and suspending your agenda and anticipating your needs and understanding you before I interact with you so I can offer you a bespoke experience, and how do I treat you as an individual? And, you know, this idea that everybody gets the same experience isn't really part of our belief construct because we believe one size fits one. So how do we tailor our offering based on what we know about you? And I think dealers have had a particular way of working for a long time and they've been very successful in that regard. But they also see the threats of technology, other intermediaries coming into our space, and what they do have and what they can offer uniquely is who they are as people and their physical presence in both their store and then what they represent in their community. So there's been a, I think, a high degree of willingness and acceptance to go on this journey with us to find a unique place for Mazda to exist in the US marketplace.
- [28:34]
B
I want to talk a little bit more about that personalization, that one to one experience, because we don't hear about that every day. How do you approach that in general and then especially in that dealer relationship?
- [28:48]
A
Well, I mean, I think number one is you have to acknowledge that everybody is different. Everybody is, and everybody's motivated by something different. Right. And so again, this gets back to what are the clues or signals that I'm able to get about you that I can then tailor a specific situation to a specific experience, to the communication side. We've all been talking about personalization and using data signals to tailor content, tailor experiences to our customers. I think from a mindset standpoint, in, you know, in an environment where you have, you know, 30,000 employees interfacing with customers on a regular basis, you have to be able to come kind of come up with some principles that you can believe in, and then you allow the dealers to manifest those into their own processes or tactics. And so the idea, I think first is just getting people to recognize that every person is an individual and get away from this kind of, you know, everybody's a commodity, everybody is the same, everybody's generic, right? And then you start to approach things a little bit differently and, you know, a simple, a couple simple clarifying questions at the beginning of a first time engagement with somebody can really provide a lot of texture that you can build on in a conversation that allows you to direct them, you know, And I think those are the kinds of things that we're focusing on right now. And I think, I think that's a really important piece, like for me to listen to you. I got to be able to prompt you with something to get some information that I can act on.
- [30:29]
B
What are some of the questions that you would recommend people ask?
- [30:33]
A
Well, that's part of the secret sauce. I'm not sure I can tell you all of that. But look, if. I think just if you go to, you know, the most common sense types of questions, I mean, if you have someone coming in for a new car, a simple question like, it's nice to see you, my name is Joe. What is your name? And why are you here today? Right. And versus, you know, just approaching it in a way of like, hey, I want to get to know you a little bit and understand you a little bit before we talk about what need I'm trying to solve for you. Right. And I think if you think about it as I'm here to help you and to help solve something for you, I'm not here to sell you a car. When you approach it from that kind of mindset, I think you yield a different result. Because part of, I think good customer experience is about establishing trust at the beginning so that every moment of truth thereafter then becomes believable and authentic to the recipient that you're working with, customer.
- [31:38]
B
You'Re working with completely. If the customer gets that you get them, they are so much more likely to be open and honest about why they're there, what they're looking for. They will drop all the breadcrumbs for you to pick up and then be able to sell them something authentically that they actually need versus leave a bad taste in their mouth.
- [31:58]
A
I think depending on what category you work in, what sector of business, I mean, some customers come into the purchase process with a defensive prosper totally. And some people come in with a more optimistic posture. And I think when you have a defensive posture, you know, the first thing you should do is what do I need to do to disarm this customer? Right. So that we can have a meaningful exchange where we both benefit. And I, I think all customers want that in the end. Right. They don't want to feel like they're being taken advantage of. They want to be. They want to feel like they're being told the truth and they want to walk away feeling rewarded.
- [32:34]
B
That is exactly it. How do you bridge the gap between the online experience and the in person experience?
- [32:41]
A
Well, again, I think it goes back to those behaviors and principles and belief systems that we create. Right. I don't know that there's truly an omnichannel experience in the way that we would describe it in its ideal state in other categories within automotive. But the way that we treat people in our own environments, how we speak to the press, how we engage our dealers, how we create expectations with our customers, are consistent both offline and online. And like I was telling mentioning to you earlier, I mean, even how we apply technology to problem solving with customers has to be through the lens of a customer centric approach where we're not replacing your role in it, but we're amplifying, we're augmenting, we're helping you, we're assisting you. That applies to our customer experience, our dealership engagement model, but it also applies to the way that we design and build cars. Like, from a safety standpoint, we want to give you the tools to be the best driver in the circumstance that you're in to prevent you from getting into an accident. Right. Versus just protecting you if you do get into an accident. Right. So that idea of creating anticipation of the human needs is a really important construct in our radically human value.
- [34:04]
B
Yep. I have two last questions for you. We ask all of our guests these. So the first one I would like to hear is, what is the recent experience that you had as a customer that left you impressed?
- [34:17]
A
That left me impressed. A recent experience that left me impressed. You know, it's funny, I was thinking about this question the other day when we were talking about doing this, and I don't know if maybe I've become too callous, but to think of something that's very remarkable, it's hard for me to think about, but I was thinking to myself recently, I was. I was over in Germany, and I flew Air France back, both from Germany to Paris and then Paris to the US and the one thing that I always think about with Air France is just the way that they deliver their meal. And their stewardship experience in the cabin is always, to me, super, super thoughtful. And while I fly other airlines a lot and you could argue that they offer similar, like, experiences, there's something that is just very disciplined and gracious and elegant in the way that Air France does it, even in a small flight from, like, Germany to Paris, and how they serve lunch and the packaging of the lunch and the design of the various lunch items. I just think they do a really extraordinary job in that regard. And I always think about, with Air France, it's like, God, I felt so good in that moment. That was a rewarding airline experience. When was the last time you heard anybody say that they had a rewarding airline experience? Right. It's probably been some time, and particularly with all of the, you know, the airline inflation that is, that is going on right now. But, you know, conversely, let me give you a different story. There's a, you know, in Southern California here, there's a number of really great luxurious hotel properties, and one that I'm very fond of. And I stopped in the other day to meet a colleague who was at a Wall Street Journal technology conference conference. And a valet parked. And I said to the valet attendant, I'm going to go in and run in and grab A coffee, A coffee with a colleague. I'm 45 minutes, I'll be out. Please don't park my car too far. So I go in, have a $12 cup of coffee, which seemed okay because I was overlooking the ocean and everything. But then on the way out, when I went to pick up my valet, the valet for 45 minutes of parking was $75. And I'm like $75. That completely changed the way I looked at that property. And I've spent a lot of time at the property and I'm just like, that is not a reasonable guest experience for, you know, a 45 minute coffee at a hotel. Right. So not at all. That was one that I wasn't very happy about.
- [37:02]
B
I mean, here's, here's what I'm picking up on and what you're sharing. It's these little things. Like in the Air France example, it's how it's packaged. The things that were delivered to you for lunch, that whole experience of eating was thoughtful. In this example of the valet, it was not thoughtful. $75 for valet is obscene. You feel like someone is attacking you almost just because you happen to be here at this moment and now they're going to charge you a ton of money. And so it's those little experiences that really go a long way.
- [37:40]
A
I very much agree with everything you just said. I think it's the accumulation of little things sometimes that are more important than the big things. And as marketers and people that manage cx, we're always looking for the big things to focus on, where an accumulation of just little tokens of thoughtfulness can go a long way and how customers feel about your brand.
- [38:04]
B
And when something does go wrong, if there had been many little tiny things that were less than ideal, we start to look at all. We'd go back in time and say, oh, well, that's happened. And then that happened, and then that happened and then it becomes a bigger thing. And so it is the little things that matter. It's every step of the experience that helps people to either feel like I connect to this brand and this company, or they feel like they, they aren't actually thinking about me in my best interest.
- [38:35]
A
The little things require you to have to pay attention. And paying attention helps to create a continuous learning environment. And you can't have superior customer experience if you don't have a continuous learning environment because you have to be able to catalog all of those moments of delight that customers have and then figure out how to replicate that and anticipate that before it actually ever happens. Right. And I think that's an area of growth for, for a lot of companies and something that we're obviously spending a lot of time in.
- [39:10]
B
How do you do that? Now I'm asking you more questions, but I'm just curious to know how, how do you approach that? Because with so many little things, it can be a lot to follow and a lot to, you know, manage. So what is one strategy that you use?
- [39:23]
A
You need to create team based forums where everybody in the team has a voice about what's working or not working. And you can't do it just, it can't just be moz. It has to be inclusive of what our customers are thinking, inclusive of what our dealers are thinking and their personnel and thinking. You have to collect this information, institutionalize it, catalog it, and then prioritize how you want to act against it. Some things you can act against, some things you can't. Some things you can set principles around. Some things you just have to be able to live in the moment. And I think the most important thing is teaching the organization on how to respond in the moment so that they yield a better outcome. And that is really where we're focusing our energy around belief systems because beliefs.
- [40:13]
B
Drive behaviors and having those forums for people to bring those insights back to the organization, bring those insights back to their team so that we can discuss and iron out those kinks and learn from one another's experience. It's so essential.
- [40:30]
A
We have a number of our dealers right now that will take all of the key people that interface with customers and their dealership and meet with them daily, weekly, and talk about what did we learn? What were the moments of dissatisfaction, what were the moments of satisfaction? And do it as a collective team so that create harmony in the experience across, across the dealership. And everybody's learning from each other. Right. It creates a whole new energy and a whole new dynamic. And not only am I getting better as an individual, but the collective whole is lifting up and I'm able to contribute to that. So there's some really, you know, great things that can come out of team huddles if they're used properly.
- [41:13]
B
I love that example so much. Thank you for sharing. So now we will get to my last question, which is what is one piece of advice that every customer experience leader should hear?
- [41:24]
A
The job's never done. I mean, you got to continuously learn in this space and pay attention to how your customers attitudes and ideas are evolving. And there's no such thing as set it and forget it. In the world anymore. And everything is about iterative improvement. So I think that piece of it is really important that you have to look at the world through the lens of agility and how are you being responsive. But all of that is only important if you put the customer, if you put humans at the center of everything you do. And we talk about customer experience generally exclusively through the lens of our recipient, the customer that we're serving. And oftentimes we don't talk about the people that are interfacing with the customers and how do they feel and what are we doing them to feel empowered in the engagements that they have with customers. And so I think our fundamental belief is that we win by putting humans at the center of everything we do. That's what makes us unique and different. And I think all CX people could benefit from being a little bit more human.
- [42:33]
B
I could not agree with you more. Brad. Thank you so much for coming on the show and talking to us all about being human. We are humans serving humans, and I've absolutely loved this conversation. Thank you so much.
- [42:47]
A
Thank you. All right, Good to speak with.