The Kung Fu Panda movies are so successful because of their inspiring message: you’ll succeed if you are true to yourself. My absolute favorite of the series is Kung Fu Panda 3. To summarize, the story starts with Po, the Jack Black panda, teaching the Furious Five Kung Fu. He fails miserably. Even Master Shifu admits it. But Master Shifu tells him “If you only do what you can, you will never be more than you are now.” This becomes a key theme during the movie.

Po then goes to the panda village with his real panda dad to learn Chi so he can defeat the otherworldly ox, Kai. He learns Chi inadvertently while motivating a village of pandas to be kung fu masters in their own way. And by doing so, he defeats Kai. But the challenge to win this way is knowing what it means to be completely yourself and do things in your own way.

“I’ve been asking myself that question. Am I the son of a panda? The son of a goose? A student? A teacher? I’m all of those things. [Po’s chi forms the shape of a dragon around him] I am the Dragon Warrior! Get it? You see the giant dragon?” – Po

Once you learn what it means to be yourself and embrace who you are, including your strengths and weaknesses, you become like Po: Complete as-is. And with that, you become unstoppable.

In many ways, by embracing who you are, including your strengths and weaknesses, as an individual or a company or an organization, you demonstrate compassion.

Compassion goes beyond love to embrace acceptance. Rather than judging and punishing character traits that are perceived to be a weakness, you see their beauty and how they can be leveraged as a strength. There are no real positives or negatives in a compassionate environment. You consider the qualities and unique skillsets of each team member and how they will best contribute to solve a problem. A compassionate work environment will also encourage employees to care for their colleagues and ensure that everyone trusts that they all have everyone’s best interest in mind. By developing curiosity and respect, a team will develop the care and trust that will shift the employee experience to create not just a team, but a community.

This doesn’t imply that compassion doesn’t include boundaries. It most definitely does – and it needs to! Accepting someone’s good and bad qualities doesn’t mean that you need to accept their bad behavior through actions and words. How can you separate good from bad behavior at work? Ask yourself:

• Does this person’s actions support community building or does it isolate or segregate others?
• Is there an intention present to bring unity to the group or to invite division?

If this person’s actions don’t support community building, it’s not compassionate behavior. If his or her actions bring people together, then they can be considered compassionate.

What can compassion at work look like?

A few years back, I worked at a healthcare marketing and advertising agency. My employer’s client developed an innovative and effective treatment for a rare kidney disease, helping patients live longer, higher-quality lives. The end-state for most kidney diseases starts with dialysis, and if that isn’t successful, transplants. And if the transplants aren’t effective, then death. That means that their specialists, nephrologists, manage patients who often have a deadly prognosis that ends in renal failure. We’re talking about 1 in 7 adults or about 37 million people who have such conditions. But this treatment would give a smaller population of that group, about 60,000, hope. Note that there typically isn’t a lot of breakthrough medical research in nephrology because of the kidney’s anatomical complexity, how few have kidney disease, not a lot of research happening, and other factors. Although 1 in 7 having a kidney disease is significant compared to heart disease causing 1 in 4 deaths, it seems less significant. Or is it?

For this project, I needed to create personas for the nephrologists who would be prescribing this treatment. I researched who they are, what motivates them, and why this treatment would matter to them. What I learned about their story stayed with me because they were like Po. Over time, nephrologists lost their way and their profession start to fade away with few entering it. To save their profession, rather than aspire to be someone they weren’t, they learned more about who they were, embraced that, and became more of themselves to attract more physicians into the field. In the end, they beat their Kai, which was watching the slow death of nephrology as a profession.

Nephrologists, like many other medical disciplines, were retiring at higher rates than physicians were becoming nephrologists. There were already fewer in the field, and these specialists were having difficulties serving their patients. Most days, a nephrologist is traveling between multiple dialysis centers, offices, and hospitals. To “help” the nephrologists, physicians from other disciplines would step in to treat their kidney patients. But often their diagnoses weren’t completely accurate, the treatments weren’t always done properly, and in the end, they weren’t supporting the patient. The quality of kidney care was declining. And needless to say, that was problematic.

Add to that how nephrology is a difficult specialization. The kidney is one of the most complex organs to understand so there is a lot to master in order to be a nephrologist, including the various aspects of patient care. It takes grit, commitment, and patience to succeed. There’s not a lot of fame in nephrology since there aren’t many new developments in kidney treatment to save lives and few opportunities for developing innovative, new procedures. (Remember, kidney patients often have a tragic end-state that often is death.) We remember the legacies and innovations of brain surgeons and cardiologists—rarely nephrologists. To sum it up, the field is filled with overachievers passionate about kidney care without the resources available to support their success.

With this declining population and seemingly hopeless situation, the nephrologists knew that they needed to do something to increase the number of students specializing in nephrology. They couldn’t stand by and continue silently watching the quality of patient care decline, never mind watching fewer entering the field to provide that care. The nephrologists of the American Society of Nephrologists (ASN) gathered and created a plan to save the profession. The first step was to conduct a study. They used a survey to discover the perspective of medical students to help them define the problem and then used that research to identify solutions that would attract and retain nephrologists. Essentially, they decided to study themselves as they would a patient: gather information and facts, determine the problem, and find a solution.

In the initial survey conducted in the summer of 2011 with 90% of the respondents from university-based programs, the American Society of Nephrology found:

• 31% of the respondents indicated that nephrology was the most difficult physiology course taught in medical school
• 26% had considered nephrology as a career choice
• 25% would have considered nephrology if the field had higher income or the subject were taught well during medical school and residency training.

And top reasons for medical students not choosing nephrology in the study:

• A belief that patients with end-stage renal disease were too complicated
• Lack of a mentor or role models
• Insufficient procedures in nephrology
• Perceived difficulty of the subject matter

In another study completed at the University of Colorado in 2020 with a sample set of 25 students, there were similar findings:

• Nephrology teaching in medical school was described as not clinically relevant and too complicated
• Several felt as though they were not smart enough to be a nephrologist
• Few had a role model to look up to
• Residents used the word “stigmatized” to describe the field
• Ultimately, the low prestige of the field decreased their interest in it

The diagram below was reproduced from the University of Colorado study. It summarizes the challenges and could also represent what was found during the 2011 study.

Participants in the University of Colorado study gave suggestions to increase interest in nephrology, such as:

• Greater outpatient nephrology exposure earlier in the education experience
• Increased interactions with nephrologists, and
• Research and advancements in the field.

Given that the 2011 and 2020 studies have similar findings, it may seem like there wasn’t much progress in them accepting who they were overall. However, comparing a 2014 study that found that 72% of respondents who said they would recommend the field to others with a similar 2019 study, the number who “would recommend the field” rose to 80%.

To take this one step further, in 2014, perceptions of inadequate job opportunities were high—35% for United States medical school graduates (USMG) and 56% for international medical graduates (IMG), while in 2019 “inadequate job opportunities” fell to 12% USMG and 20% IMG. Although slow, there was general progress.

How did the nephrologists achieve this? The 2011 research helped them identify four areas to address immediately:

• Increase nephrology faculty interaction with medical students
• Increase clinical exposure to nephrology and clinical relevance of renal pathophysiology materials
• Uses novel educational modalities
• Increase exposure to the breadth of nephrology practice

To address these areas quickly, they focused on modernizing nephrology medical education by including in the curriculum:

• Small group learning
• Moderated physiology lectures
• Flipped classrooms (where students absorb the material asynchronously before apply it practically in the classroom/lab)
• Clearer Application of pathophysiology to patient
• Activity-based learning with clinical case scenarios
• Online lectures
• Exposure to multiple aspects of the field, such as clinical care, research, education, and leadership and to nephrologists in general
• Highlight research and advancements
• Gamification to make nephrology more relevant and enjoyable (e.g., the Nephrology World Cup)

These educational innovations made sweeping changes. By 2021, the best rate of filled Match positions was achieved since 2014. Graduating fellows’ perceptions of job opportunities improved, with them recommending the field to others. When it came to research and innovative developments, the past decade yielded molecular discoveries and new treatment breakthroughs in proteins, antibodies, and inhibitors. And the ASN Kidney Health Initiative and the Innovation Accelerator (KidneyX) public-private funding partnership charted paths to rapid change in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney diseases. The Advancing American Kidney Health Executive Order focused attention on patients with kidney diseases.

As a next step to make the field more attractive, the ASN Workforce and Training Committee summit re-envisioned the workforce, addressing right-sizing fellowship positions, diversity, recruiting incompletely tapped pools (e.g., osteopaths), alternative work structures (e.g., job sharing), and the nephrology sub specialization as a whole.

“Medical specialists of the kidney clearly will be needed long into the future. The question is no longer, “Will there be a workforce?” There will be one. The question is, “How will the future nephrology workforce discover, innovate, and deliver high value care?””

One could assume that the ASN had this perspective only of themselves, but it went beyond that. In one blog post, a medical student listed reasons why she wanted to become a nephrologist, which listed reasons like how it was:

• Intellectually stimulating
• Had meaningful doctor-patient connection
• Had dedicated teachers and mentors
• Included business savvy nephrologists
• And it was a rewarding career

Talk about a change in the perception and brand!

By listening to each other and prospective nephrologists (medical students), ASN discovered that nephrology devolved into a profession that no one wanted to enter mainly because they weren’t being true to themselves. Nephrology became known only as the study of kidney health. And that’s pretty dry and complicated. They needed to include a key element in education that was missing: what it meant to be a nephrologist by helping patients and providing them better care. Physicians often enter their fields with the intention to improve patient lives and help them be happier and healthier. With the state of nephrology at that time, that was happening infrequently, if at all. They weren’t teaching medical students what it meant to be a nephrologist – the patient responsibilities, the responsibilities to colleagues, the contribution to research, the importance of proper kidney diagnoses and treatments. The physicians weren’t actively researching cures or discovering new treatments or developing partnerships to innovate and find new treatments. Without research to discover new cures, they weren’t helping patients improve their lives. The status quo treatments of dialysis and transplants were only helping them stay alive, not help them have a better life. That’s not exactly inspiring. They had to change and re-embrace their passion for patient care.

By listening to prospective nephrologists, the established nephrologists realized that they needed to share their passion with the students for not just nephrology, but for the patients, so they would get excited about improving their lives too. The re-introduction of medical research provided students hope that they, too, will have opportunities to help patients live better lives beyond facing dialysis, transplant, or renal failure. The field took its first step in its own evolution to be an exciting career by improving patient care!

The nephrologists learned to be authentic to their values and to embrace their passions. As we know, compassion starts with individuals accepting and being grateful for their strengths and weaknesses as well as the strengths and weaknesses of others, like colleagues and patients. With more active nephrologists trained to embrace their passions for patient care driving education, training, research, and innovation, the field is destined for improvements. It will be interesting to see the results in coming years. There should be not just be a consistent experience, but it is a compassionate experience building in nephrology.

As we learned in Kung-Fu Panda, being a dragon warrior doesn’t mean that you have a special skill or do something unique. Dragon warriors are a more authentic version of themselves, embracing their strengths and weaknesses. And it’s the same for an organization, especially the nephrologists and the ASN. By re-focusing their attention back to their unified passion and motivation, improving patient care and quality of life for kidney patients, they revitalized their profession to improve treatments and spark innovation. And that passion for their patients helped them attract more nephrologists and rebuild the profession. They transformed nephrology into a “dragon warrior” organization to defeat their Kai, the death of their profession, and found new life. Hopefully, we’ll hear about other kidney treatment innovations soon and know that having a kidney disease won’t result in dialysis, transplants, or renal failure, but something else that include a long, happy, healthy life.

Additional reference:

https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/why-arent-more-residents-choosing-nephrology/

It has been a while since I posted because I have been busy making videos and creating workbooks for the Revenue or Relationships website to support my book.

And speaking of the book…I’m revising some of it to make a second edition. If anything, I’m rearranging it to make it shorter and a little easier to read. My work on the workbooks sparked this project. I started creating a workbook for the 3rd section and it was too long – even for me! So I decided to take a step back and revisit the chapter. I think I’ll be doing this for all chapters moving forward.

I’m moving the current start of the operations chapter to be somewhere else (location TBD) and start with this.

Hope you enjoy!

Getting a package delivered through the mail is always an exciting moment, whether you are receiving a surprise gift or an order that you placed. The anticipation to receive it builds as you track the package’s progress from its origination point to your door. Seeing its progress and eventual delivery can add sparkle to your day.

But what happens if something goes wrong with this experience? The shipping experience doesn’t include only the company giving the package to a shipping company and the customer receiving the package. It includes customers anticipating reception by watching the package travel across the country through a status app and culminates with the customer gathering the package, opening the box, unwrapping the item, setting up the product, and then, finally, the customer having the product experience. If something goes wrong anywhere along this process, a customer could possibly change his or her perception about the company he or she purchased from or the product purchased. The shipping experience is less dramatic than purchasing from a store and taking a product home with the various wrappings and bags. However, companies should give it more emphasis because it is the only a physical touchpoint the customer has with the online store and the product. It may be obvious, but we sometimes forget that there is no physical store experience with an online store; the shipping experience becomes that only direct, tangible touchpoint, so how the item is received makes a difference. It matters. The experience opening the package with the box and wrapping papers and the return experience all matter. This experience should include some of the in-store excitement of going to a fun location, purchasing something new, and bringing it home in a fancy bag and wrappings.

However, there are times that logistical problems happen outside of anyone’s control during the shipping experience. Sometimes the company caused the mishap, or sometimes it happened during transit by the shipping company, but such unfortunate events can damage the product experience and the perception a customer has of the main company. Or can they? Could the company intervene to make the mishap not so bad and find a way for the situation to work in the customer’s favor?

Here are three stories about shipping experiences and what happened to make them too cold, too hot, and just right.

“Too cold”

Kenneth Cole had a great sale, so I ordered some new shoes and masks. I was pretty excited about my order because I haven’t ordered from them in a while and needed something new. Needless to say, I was disappointed when my order arrived in an open box. A box flap was not taped shut. Luckily, everything arrived in pretty great shape. Only the box with masks was smooshed and the other shoe box was slightly damaged.

I figured Kenneth Cole may want to know about what happened to update their shipping process for future sales and customers. Because I work in customer experience, I figure companies always want insight into what the customer’s experience is. However, I learned quickly that’s not always the case for all companies.

I went to their site’s Live Chat and told a representative about what happened with my package experience. I also explained that I didn’t want any compensation for this report, I only wanted to let them know what happened for future customers to avoid such an experience. I figured all they needed to do was a final check on shipped packages to be sure that they were sealed. After I shared my experience, the response by the agent was simply, “Thank you.” That was it. That was the end of the conversation.

I was perplexed. I mean, if a customer just told your company that there was the possibility that a shipment may not arrive complete to a customer because the box was open, wouldn’t that cause you concern? Why would you not want to know this and take action, so it doesn’t happen again? Items could have been lost along the way and damaged. I pinged her again and checked to see if she wanted other information to follow up on the order and its packaging. She said no, it was UPS’s problem (they were the delivery service). And that was that.

Not only did I not feel heard by this agent, I felt like Kenneth Cole didn’t care that packages were being sent without being properly sealed, in a half-opened box. It was discouraging. Sure, I bought another pair of shoes from them which came properly sealed, but I’m now seeing them differently because they made it clear to me that they didn’t care about how their products were being delivered.

“Too hot”

I prefer to order one-liter bottles of shampoo online so that I don’t need to run to the store in person to find them. I used to order this Aveda special color shampoo and conditioner because, I know, shocker, I’m not a natural redhead or blonde and I need product to help preserve the color. One day, I opened the box for my order and there was conditioner smeared everywhere. There was a leak with the conditioner bottle. So, I took a picture and called customer service. They immediately shipped me a new bottle. The good news was that not all of the conditioner leaked from the bottle–only a small amount–so I could still keep the original bottle and use what was left.

A few days later, I got a leaky one-liter bottle and messy box again. I did some of my own investigation and told them that the top cover wasn’t screwing on the bottle properly and left a small gap for leakage. And I discovered that I had the same problem with this cover as the last screw top cover. Aveda sent a new bottle again. But at this point, I was now feeling weird because I didn’t need a third new bottle with two other pretty full bottles, one of which was free. Sure, I was thankful for it, but at this point, I wanted them to just to fix the problem for others and be aware that this was happening. I wasn’t sure a new bottle was necessary.

Of course, a leak happened again for the third time. I called and told them about the cover. They again told me that they were aware of the problem and told me from now on I should buy the product at the store. At first, I didn’t understand how they knew this and kept sending me replacements that they knew would leak. But where Aveda got it wrong is the motivation I had to order online: I ordered online because I didn’t want to deal with going to the store. But apparently, I had no other option from them because they didn’t want to keep sending me free product. The catch was that I didn’t want it either and I felt weird about it. I just wanted them to fix the cover problem for others.

Shortly after that, I decided to try a new brand that I could order online. What would have been a better response from Aveda besides free product? An automated order to send me a free conditioner with my next order after they fixed this cap problem. What Aveda did with the free bottles was just too much. I felt guilty accepting their free product as a customer, and they felt it was an endless loop of providing free product as a vendor because that was their policy. None of this worked for anyone and made everyone feel resentful because they gave too much. They shouldn’t have done it. Generosity can be great, but when it’s excessive, it simply gets weird.

“Just right”

I needed to buy some ten-pound weights to push myself to the next level in my workouts. I found some that were reasonably priced from Amazon that included shipping in the costs. I ordered the weights and they were on their way until the shipment updates stopped and the expected arrival date came and passed. They never arrived. Amazon’s system suggested that I cancel the order. I called them and they told me that the weights weren’t in shippable condition in their current packaging. The customer service representative suggested that I wait a couple of days and reorder them.

I was initially confused because these weights weren’t something that Amazon carried regularly, and I figured that the deal was gone forever. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find them at Amazon the next day. So of course, I placed my order for the set.

When I did reorder it, I got them in three days, packaged in pristine Amazon style (although the boxes inside were held together by a lot of tape. And I mean a lot.). Sure, I was bummed that I had to reorder the weights and risked not getting what I originally wanted, but in the end, I got what I wanted in great shape.

So, what made Amazon’s experience just right?

Amazon understands that all customer touchpoints are part of the customer experience—especially shipping and delivery if you manage a store that is only online and those steps are typically managed by a third party. It needs to be a seamless experience that meets customer expectations. I’m now reluctant to order from Kenneth Cole again because of how they handled (or rather, didn’t handle) the information about the open box. My expectations are now set very low. And I stopped ordering from Aveda because I don’t want to feel guilty about receiving too many free products if they screw up a mail order. But why did Amazon get it right?

Amazon was honest and straightforward about what was happening, and in the end, I got what I wanted in great shape that met expectations. This is why Amazon continues to be successful although they are a monopoly and can be brutal to their workforce. The shipping experience matters, and they truly understand that and exceed customer expectations every time, winning their hearts. They take full advantage of that physical, tangible, customer touchpoint and make it not just a success, an absolute win and home run. Amazon makes the shipping experience just as important as the ordering and product and support experiences. It’s only when the customer experiences with shipping falter that customers will change their opinion of Amazon. That’s how powerful a well-orchestrated customer experience can be; a great customer experience can help customers overlook poor business practices or challenging employee experiences. To the customer, Amazon treats them well enough because they don’t feel it. It’s only when employees are angered enough to let their frustration show to customers that this will change. I sincerely hope that it doesn’t happen and Amazon changes how it treats employees, so employee happiness continues to be demonstrated to the customer through a qualilty shipping experience so that they continue to return because Amazon has truly mastered the delivery experience and this key touchpoint.

These days on LinkedIn, I get 2-3 messages each day. I know, that makes me sound popular, but I’m not. I’m getting messages from people who overtly want to covert me into a lead, not by people who authentically want to get to know me and what I do.

Sigh. I feel like they see me as a walking dollar sign.

After I get over my frustration of being objectified, I realize that these types are missing the point of what networking is, nevermind LinkedIn.

I joined LinkedIn for a number of reasons:

• To stay current with my network and informed of what they are doing
• To build relationships with other professionals and discover their contributions (and how we could collaborate)
• To learn about new methodologies, ideas, and innovations
• To share my resume so people know what I do and how I’ve contributed to companies

Notice, I never joined LinkedIn to receive advertising or hear about new products or services.

I understand that you need to network to get new business. But great networkers don’t network only to get business; they network to meet new people and see how they can help them. They offer information to help people solve a problem. Or they just have a conversation and listen to them, getting to know them as a person.

You could say that networking is synonymous with relationship building.

The motive behind someone networking is completely different than the motive of a sales person. And if someone is purely selling, you can feel the motive right away. Someone who wants to get to know you often says it through actions and words. But if you get 5+ sales emails on LinkedIn each day, I think you lose your sensibility to read between the lines to identify a motive. I mean, it’s almost inevitable. You get worn out being objectified as that walking dollar sign.

I used to network often on LinkedIn and at local Meetups and organization meetings. I stopped when I was working on my second Master’s. It was difficult to commit to attend an event when I had school work looming in the background of my mind. Usually, school won my attentions. After I graduated, I realized how much I changed as a person and how I view business. I didn’t know where I fit in anymore, nevermind how I could help clients. I started working on a book, which was just as time consuming as school, and also prevented me from attending. And considering that I’m still trying to discover where I fit into the DFW area and beyond, I’m hesitant to commit to much. It has been hard, but I’m getting there.

However, before I start to sell my services to anyone I meet, I try to make sure I have some type of relationship with them. I want to know how I could help someone else achieve their goals and see if they can help me in some way too. And if not, I figure something will work itself out in the future so we can help each other. I have a different motive.

If you reach out to anyone cold without a relationship, they probably won’t buy your products and services after the first email. Building a relationship takes time. You want to see if there is a fit between companies and personalities. But most importantly, your prospective customer needs to have the problem that you solve. And it is rare that this happens after that cold-call email. What’s more common is that you meet someone, you click, and later (3 days, 3 months, or up to 3+ years later) you discover that yes, this is the right time to work together. There’s no immediate sale.

A sale right after the first email to a new customer is like a romantic comedy. It doesn’t happen in real-life.

I did have two interactions recently where I wanted to talk to the people who Inbox’d me:

• One woman was promoting a remote worker site and she asked to meet with me to see if there were synergies. Yes, she wanted to know who I was and what I was like as a person. And she had an awesome profile picture that was engaging, energetic, and it felt like she was interested to talk – and I wanted to listen. Her product sounds fantastic and she sounds super interesting. So I look forward to that call.
• I got a great email and sales brochure from a company that works on podcasts. It told me the cost, what they do, the value they provide – everything. It clearly showed me how they could help me. And how they got my attention: it looks like you have your sh*t together. That’s their target. I’m not ready to work with them now, but when I’m ready to do a regular podcast (which will be soon, after this book), I will be.

I respond to few sales emails these days because they have become noise. It’s sad. I really do want to understand what you do. But more than that, I want to know why I should care about what you do. I want to feel the passion of what you do like you and understand the value you’ll provide me if we collaborate. Those two emails provided passion. That motivated me to take the next step.

Have I met some great people through LinkedIn? Yes. And we’ve had great conversations. One in particular was with a great guy working on AI in the midwest. We had an awesome conversation that went well over time because it was just fun. If I’m working on an AI project, I’ll call him.

I have sent legitimate networking requests to people to have a conversation and get to know them – like truly get to know them – only to be ignored because they think that I want something. I can understand that perspective, especially in a world where people are sending sales emails to people all day, using the guise that they want to get to know you, only to turn around and sell you something.

I tried to reach out to meet new people last year and one person I tried to introduce myself to told me as much: “I’m unemployed and I have no work for you.” I was ready to respond back: “Maybe I could help connect you to find work?” But I decided to keep it to myself because it seemed that she just wasn’t interested in talking to anyone new at all and I’d become a troll, and I’m not a troll. I really wanted to get to know this person and see how we could help each other. But alas! I was placed into the ad-bin bucket and I doubt I was going to come out any time soon.

If this trend of LinkedIn becoming an advertising service continues, we’re going to lose the great platform it is for networking. Maybe we need more classes to understand what networking is so we all understand how it really works?

Again (for those in the back), networking is about relationship building. That’s the motive behind it. It’s not selling. It’s not “give to get.” It’s not about people signing up for your services on the first ping. It’s not about getting appointments to later sell to someone. It’s a way to help people, provide advice, share insights, and discover new ideas. I enjoy networking to get to know other people, understand their passions, and from there, we can see how we can help each other.

This leads to my favorite, yet overused, image that I probably don’t have rights to use, but I’ll use anyway because it’s’ great:

So you have been warned: If you approach me to get my business without a relationship and I sense that your motive is purely to sell me something, I’ll send you right to this post.

Imagine what could happen if we were all more engaged with each other and understood each other’s businesses? No, I probably don’t want your product. But if you are curious about what I’m doing and how I am contributing to the business community (because I can guarantee I am curious about your business and how you contribute), I’ll be more open to who you are and what you do. And then we can see if we can collaborate on a project, or just be experts together. And then we build a network of our own, together, on LinkedIn.

Meet my car, Putt-Putt. I love my car. I bought it in 2011 when it was 4 years old. It’s now 12 years old – halfway to being considered a classic car in Texas. Driving it gives me a lot of joy. I mean, who doesn’t love a convertible, especially a cute little red convertible with racing stripes!

I get my car fixed at a MINI dealership in Dallas. MINI Coopers are basically lite-versions of BMWs that truly require experts to fix. Sure, the repairs can be costly, but they do a great job to keep my mini-driving machine on the road.

The dealership always encourages me to fix my car, which could be seen as a blessing and a curse. When my car was between 7-10 years old, it required a number of repairs and replacement parts, becoming unsustainable to keep. I started wondering if 5+ years of car payment commitment for a new car would have been less than the repair costs each month. But what stopped me short of buying a new car was that I would miss Putt-Putt after a few days of a loaner. Of course I wondered if the dealership liked my car because it generated revenue. We are taught that car dealerships can’t be trusted because they always have a motive to make as much money as possible and don’t really care about their customers. With this stigma, why should anyone trust them? Especially me because I know so little about how cars work. I may know how IT systems work, but I can’t figure out how an engine works for the life of me! If there is a problem with my car, I usually have no idea if it is a legitimate concern–or not. And, sadly, I don’t have a lot of people to consult to help determine that.

The auto industry is typically focused on persuading customers to purchase new cars every few years and rarely encourages repairs to keep what we have. We are sold visions of new technology and improvements, not how our current car can work better for us as-is. When my car was aging, some friends and family encouraged me to buy a new car and asked if I was “afraid” of getting rid of my current car. I wasn’t. I just liked my car and wanted to keep it. But there is no narrative or story in the auto industry to support that idea or make it a “cool” behavior. Trying to keep an older car working is seen as a fools errand.

Luckily, the dealership I go to for my MINI has a different view and vision about their cars. They are helpful, understanding, and want to do the right thing for their customers. I trusted them, but the dealership stigma was always underlying each conversation I had with them. In a way, I trusted them only so much. What made it worse – I always wondered if they were right because I didn’t know about cars enough.

Recently, when my car started making a funny noise, I brought it into the shop and it was diagnosed with a couple of problems – one was that it needed a new gas pump (a problem I thought I fixed, but unfortunately didn’t.). The other was what I considered to be “car athritis” – the plastic/rubber padding between the metal joints was wearing down.

I was working with a new customer account manager. What surprised me was that we started the conversation about the repair cost with a candid conversation regarding if it was worthwhile to for me to buy a new car. The repairs were expensive, but I still considered them cheaper than a monthly car payment for 5 years, even for a used car. At that point, I didn’t have a major car repair in over 3 years, so all things considered, this wasn’t that bad. And I was afraid that I couldn’t find a new car like my car.

During the conversation he dropped what I never thought I would hear: my car was in phenomenal shape. Apparently, most people’s cars have dials that are yellowed, clogged engines, and convertibles that don’t work. He told me that my engine was clean, the body is almost brand new, the convertible works with no damage. It was a great car and I’d be crazy to replace it.

And since we are trained NOT to believe anyone who works at a dealership, I wasn’t sure if I should believe him. So I did a little online research, and he was right. Compared to other cars its age, it’s in great condition. Then I did a little more research and discovered that a car becomes a classic car in Texas when it is 25 years old. My car is halfway there. So given that it’s in great shape, I had my new long-term plan for the car – I was going to keep the car and try to make it a classic rather than buy a new one in a few years because the car was just old. Keeping my car was no longer a “fools errand.” It actually wasn’t such a bad idea.

Shortly after that repair, my car suddenly wouldn’t start. The electricity worked and went on, but the car wouldn’t turnover. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. The guys from my boxing class couldn’t figure out what was wrong. The towing guy couldn’t figure out what was wrong. But what was most disconcerting: the car dealership couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

After a week or two, they discovered the problem and fixed the car. I was worried about the cost to fix the problem, but mostly if they could fix it at all. I started looking for a new car, just in case. Needless to say, I couldn’t find a replacement. But fortune was on my side and they made sure that the car worked great – better than it ever has before. It was during this last 2 months of repairs that my stigma left and my perspective of them permanently changed. Why?

• They gave me a vision for my car’s future – and my future as a customer – besides replacing it with a new car. This was the pivotal point of the switch in my attitude towards them. When I heard that my car was in such good shape that I should keep it, it got me to wonder about making it a classic car. I got a new way to see my car, besides it being old and needing work. I now see it as a gem it is; not an aging dinosaur to be retired.
• Transparency, accountability, and honesty. Multiple transparent discussions to understand what was happening with my car at any point in time made it easier for me to trust them. I knew they were looking out for the best interest. Stigmas are hard to overcome, especially with the auto industry. There is little trust and every transaction is perceived to be a way for a dealership to make money. But if you are getting value for your repairs, it’s better to go to the dealership and get the updates done right than have to get them redone later. And if they are honest with you – that helps!
• They cared. This happened with the dealership from day one buying the car. When I would be presented with bad news or notified of delays, the people I worked with were genuine. To be authentic means that they were being themselves, but to be genuine means that they are truly caring and make sure that I knew what they were feeling. Whenever I brought my car into the shop, they truly felt bad about what was happening and wanted to help me as much as possible. This is why I trust them with my car. They truly meant what they were saying.

Not only did they give me a vision for what I want to do with my car beyond buy a new one, they also gave me a vision of the type of relationship I should have with them in the future. It’s candid and it’s long-term. They helped me see my car’s value and why these repairs matter. It’s not to further their revenue and keep the stigma of car dealerships alive and well. It’s to keep a MINI Cooper that’s in good shape on the road longer and keep a happy client who will gladly refer business. That’s what’s most important.

We’ll often undervalue the notion of giving customers a vision of what their purchase will bring them. We’ll assume that once they purchase an item, they are in the replacement lifecycle. But there has to be a more meaningful solution than that. What else can a customer aspire to as a vision, a goal? Give that to your customer and you’ll get more than loyalty. You’ll get a business partner for life.

• Listening talk (short): Listening with Empathy to Connect with Customers
• Listening talk (long): Listening: Three Shifts You Can Make to Connect and Build Empathy with your Customer
• Webinar: Emotional engagement: The magic ingredient in any customer experience
• For solopreneurs and early-stage start-ups: coaching
• Gearmark Community – Experience Club

• “I want to die a natural death at the age of 102 – like the city of Detroit.”
• “You can’t buy love, but you can rent it for three minutes!”
• “Okay guys, I only have twelve bullets, so you’re all going to have to share!”

Meme from Wicker Paradise, Flickr

Does the brand personality define a company’s customer experiences or do a company’s customer experiences define and inform the brand personality? I used to wrestle with this question until I decided that this wasn’t a chicken or egg conversation. Ideally, the brand personality (as defined by the brand values) should define the customer experience. However, more often than not, the brand values aren’t considered during process or UX design and the customer experience ends up contributing to the brand personality.

When creating a customer experience, some may think they are only defining a transactional flow or journey, when in fact, they are defining what it is like to work with that company. They are contributing to the brand.

So what is a customer experience? Well, anything that the customer interacts with – a department, an employee, a process – for a company. A designed interaction online or in-person isn’t the only experience a customer has. Random conversations with employee sat a trade show could be an experience. Dropping off a package to a reception desk (or no reception desk) is an experience. Almost any interaction with a company is an experience. What tells a lot about a company is the impromptu experiences between an employee and non-employee.

It is through these experiences that someone understands what this company is and what it is about. How people learn about a company through these experiences is similar to how people learn what you are like by experiencing you, as a person.

A company’s brand isn’t really all that different than an individual’s personality

We understand someone’s personality based on their actions, word choices, and how they approach living. People don’t have logos and taglines and slick brochures to communicate who they are and what they do (ok, maybe they do have resumes). You have to experience a person in order to understand who they are, meaning you have a number of conversations and interactions. That’s why job interviews are often multi-stage and require many conversations. The individuals involved – on both sides – are wondering:

• Are the conversations consistent in tone, content, and perspective?
• How do others on the team experiencing this person? How do I experience the different people on the team?
• How can this person help this company or team? What can this person contribute and add?
• Will this person fit into the culture? This person may be nice, but is their personality and work approach too divergent to work with us?

It’s the same if you are trying to build a friendship with someone – you experience that person at coffee, lunch, during stressful times, sad time, happy times. That defines that person’s personality and identity. An ID card alone is not enough to identify a person. In fact, an ID card is an insufficient form of identification. It doesn’t tell you anything about who that person is and what he or she is like.

We also do this with a company. We have multiple conversations and interactions with many people and departments, depending on our needs. We understand who or what a company is by experiencing it, interacting with it. How you experience the entire company tells you who they are.

In the past, we experienced companies mainly through their products. The problem that the product solved helped us understand the product brand and sometimes the company. It had its own logo, colors, fonts. But we didn’t experience more than the product or the company’s sales and support teams. The distributors and retailers would buy direct from the product company. Consumers weren’t involved in the process. The retailer had the customers and customers understood who the retailer was. A company could have an external face and an internal face, become a “Jeckell and Hyde,” so to speak. And that continued for years.

But that all changed with the rise of the Web, ecommerce, and online shopping and sales.

Branding, UX, internal culture, and the Web

The Web revolutionized companies more than creating a new marketing channel and automation. It exposed how a company operates, making it transparent to its customers, partners and distributors. People could see how customer service, finance, sales, and operations work. How a company did something became just as important as what it did and what it sold. The choices a company made regarding what goes online, how to interact with outside people, and the information requested said just as much about a company as their color palette, logo and language choices. The actions and words of a company are its expressions like a person. And let’s face it, actions speak louder than words.

Digital transformation exposed internal culture, making it part of a brand. Culture and brand have always gone together, but with company operations and communications becoming more visible by being digital and online, so was the internal culture and operations.

The first step for automation is often to take the existing offline processes and put them online. That’s when a company’s internal culture first becomes visible. All of the conversations and processes that happen are now visible to IT and the development team, who make them apps, exposed for the world to see; they are no longer written on a piece of paper in a binder. Not only are the consistencies and efficiencies visible – so are the inconsistencies and inefficiencies.

Years ago, a prospective client called me asking for my opinion of their site. It was a large bank that had a site which would allow you to manage transactions. The brand stood for making banking friendly, approachable, consistent and easy. They had branches worldwide, so you could complete any type of banking transaction anywhere. The branches didn’t have glass protecting the tellers – in fact, the lobbies resembled more of a lounge than a traditional bank teller booth. However, the digital experience had a 180 difference. As you would complete different types of transactions, the experience would change to be slightly different for savings or checking or reporting or account management. On top of it, the consumer banking site had a very different experience than the credit side or other departments.

I told my contact that the company felt fractured and I asked if there were completely different teams working on the different parts of the project (not just silos, like different development teams operated by different consulting firms). He was surprised that I would say that (he thought I had telepathy for a second there, because I was right), but I told him that the online experience is saying it for that company. The inconsistent experience communicated for the company. People can tell when a company is fractured for this reason.

How do you start to fix this and communicate the brand personality through the customer experience?

• Review your brand personality and values and brainstorm ways to express those values through actions in an experience. For example, dependable could be expressed by a 24 hr call centers or online chat/phone centers being available. Honesty could be expressed through call center scripts or a robust online support database. Transparency could be expressed by detailed online transactions showing notes and next steps.
• Look at how customer experiences and journeys work across the organization and stop looking at a customer experiences in a silo. See how the experiences complement and integrate the brand values. Go across all experiences and look for uniting factors. This customer relationship lifecycle chart could help you see, from a high-level, how different parts of a customer experience could connect together, be more fluid, and better represent your company. You could build synergies between different steps and journeys, creating a unified experience the flows from one step to the next.

• Build your brand through experiences – not just product and graphic identity. For example, Apple’s support line lets you schedule appointments, so you don’t waste your time. This speaks directly to ease of use and convenience, making computing accessible. Microsoft claims to be easy to use but good luck reaching a support person or getting an issue resolved. (I have experienced this too many times with them – they are understaffed and have their own madness happening in there. It’s not easy for a customer to work with them.) But then again, you have to wonder if this is operational or if this is part of  their brand? Microsoft is known for creating software for mass production. Apple is known for making computing accessible. There’s a slight difference in their motivations, and their brands, and it shines through in the experiences and actions.

In a way, the emergence of online customer experiences and journeys exposed brand personalities for what they really were – disjointed or consistent. Again, this always existed, but the Web made it more noticeable. But this raises a larger question: do companies really have process/CX/UX issues? Or do they have brand issues?

(Personally, I think more companies have brand challenges than we realize. At least, that’s my experience.)

When it comes to customer experiences, actions speak louder than words, and nothing speaks louder than how a customer experience expresses a brand’s personality.

• Married for 50 years. Learn how they did it.
• How my best friend and I weathered ups and downs for 80 years.
• I was a happy customer of this company for 20 years. Here’s how they treated me.
• We have customers for years. Let us tell you how we did it.

1. People in happy relationships usually don’t share all of the details. They usually just enjoy the relationship and living. Rather than thinking about a great relationships, they enjoy being in it. If you notice, someone who is blissfully in love doesn’t feel the need to share that information with others. It’s just part of his or her life. Someone with a great friendship will share this with others, but again, there isn’t a need to prove the connection. It’s also true regarding a client relationship. People may give advice when asked, but most don’t. They know that relationships are complicated and enjoy what they have.
2. Each relationship is unique. People in successful relationships know that they are based between the people involved, making each relationship different. The type, structure, and level of connectedness for a relationship changes for all parties involved. There are no two relationships the same. This is why it’s so hard to give advice for a relationship – each one is technically new and different. There are similarities based on personalities and traits, but none are 100% the same. So how do you tell someone what to do in a certain situation, really? One approach may work for you, but fail miserably for someone else.
3. There is no way to compare relationships. There are no baselines. There are no comparisons. Everyone who is involved in any relationship is different and each relationship is unique. With that said, how do you give advice on something that isn’t like anything else in the world?
4. It’s hard to replicate a good relationship. See #2. It’s because people are unique and value different things in other people. It’s hard to experience similar feelings and emotions with someone else. So maybe you don’t replicate it to begin with?
5. Actions are only part of the relationship equation. If doing certain tasks and deeds gave you a great relationship, I’m sure we’d all be successful. But tasks and deeds are only part of the relationship equation. Being is just as important as doing when you are in a relationship. And people who have great relationships know this. But what does that all mean? That’s the hard part.