How to build an Ecosystem of human experiences

It is often described as the most ungrateful work in business. It does not receive much credit and you cannot use it for show-off in marketing. But once you’ve got it right something exceptional is happening. Customers are suddenly willing to pay for your services and employees get more productive and engaged. You receive great reviews and it definitely shows on the bottom line. I am talking about the complex world of your brand experience.

Let me give you some real-life examples

Think about when you had an aha-moment at work; Maybe it was when you went in to some tool and really felt it was talking to you in that moment, as the stressed exhausted manager and mum you are. Right there in that moment when you pressed the button to move forward in your process the tool suggested you to use it in another way next time, in a smooth Barry White voice (read out loud in your head) Because the tool have learned your behaviour, through machine learning, you felt the connection with the tool. Maybe you thought; It really understands me on a deeper level,  and almost fell in love with that tool right there at your desk on Monday 14:35pm. Until handsome Mark went by and other thoughts came to mind.

Or when you made that online purchase to buy this weeks groceries delivered straight to your door. Because this week you have raced back and forth like a forensic logistic manager to soccer-trainings, piano lessons,  the office, the dogs daycare and finally got to sit down in the couch at home to get your well-deserved mindfulness pause in front of your computer. At least this is what you think is a great way of being effective these days; taking care of the grocery shopping and use the time in front of your computer to relax and take 5 deep breaths or so. All the while you effectively bring home the food to your family. Win-win!

Anyways. You log on to your online grocery store and start clicking away and get that WOW-moment when you open your saved shopping basket ”Misc. weekly” and notice they have made it even more convenient and beautiful to click through the website. Because you are a person that appreciates all the beautiful things in life and almost feel let down when you are faced with ugly interfaces and physical environments. They have also updated your personalised offerings based on what you actually buy most of the time. Not as it was back in the days, when you got the coupons from your physical corner store in the mailbox and you got a discount on Pokemon balls and chips, based on the only thing you bought in that specific store last month.

Tremendously complex human experiences

These examples are all micro experiences your customers or your employees are faced with in your employee or customer experience and they are complex because you need to test on humans, in order to get it right. You’ll also have to consider peoples feelings and thoughts what they experience, why they are experiencing it, based on how digital mature and curious they are of new technology. You then need to adapt to their feelings and previous digital experiences in order to succeed. It becomes tremendously complex if we don’t use the right set of tools to divide the complex world of human experience into a beautiful pattern or process to simplify and make it understandable.

If that wasn’t enough what the Brand Experience Champion at work often face is an uphill battle to change their company’s mindset. Because it isn’t as easy to see the value of employee experience or even the customer experience as it is to see the ROI of other investments. However, the overall experience in organisations, from employee to customer is the Ecosystem of your company, which I claim is the single most important task to always work on.

Because it never ends and you can always be better at taking care of your human experience. So where should you start then, if you now feel the urge to start doing something in your company?

Here’s 5 experty tips on where to start;

1. First off, show me the Stats!

Let’s dig into some stats you can use when starting off changing your companies mindset to build your arguments.

Companies that excel at customer experience have 1.5 times more engaged employees than less customer-focused companies.

Companies with initiatives to improve their customer experience see employee engagement increase by 20 % on average.

Companies with engaged employees outperform the competition by 147 %.

Companies that lead in customer experience outperform laggards by nearly 80 %.

2. Build your case

..for the board or your dinosaur colleagues in other departments. With the stats and your own thoughts and experience in the field build relevant arguments. This will lead to your companies first human experience strategy and your first prototype of your human experience ecosystem.

3. Map your ecosystem

Map all your internal and external touch-points by asking your dearest colleagues and jot it down as a map or in any other way you like as long as everyone in your organization have fully access. Don’t forget to listen to both Ruth in the Reception and the Tech savvy IT manager Toby, to find both digital touch points and the ones you thought were long gone with the facsimile you throw out last decade.

4. Simplify your complex world

Workshop together in cross-professional teams to create 3-5 personas as a tool to better empathise with your customer and other employees. Use your personas and map out the journey they undergo in your touch points. These are simplified compressed versions of colleagues, customers or both. This is also a great exercise in bringing you together tighter as a team and gather around the single most important goal for your company; the human experience.