Why Experience is the Key to Unlocking Digital

Everyone loves throwing around the word “experience.”

Buyer, employee, customer, insert-anything-here experience …

Is it a platitude?

How do you actually make sure you put experience at the forefront of what you do?

Bob Berry, Principal User Experience Researcher at AnswerLab, takes a broad perspective on what experience actually means.

For Bob, experience is the whole context of an individual’s life and what they actually care about — and how we interact with this holistic view of the user.

In today’s episode, Bob covers:

• Why the internet is transforming our lives again
• How companies big and small are innovating through this crisis
• The biggest mistake to avoid in uncertain times

The internet is changing everything…again.

By now, I’m sure you’re aware digital transformation is no longer an option in the new post-COVID-19 world, right?

The pandemic has shaken the foundations of how we interact with the world. And it’s not going to go back to normal.

Because companies have seized upon the — and I hate to use this word — opportunity the crisis has provided. They’ve offered innovative solutions to operate in a socially-distanced world.

Now, most of us have become accustomed to these innovations — almost all of which are digital solutions.

In short, the internet is revolutionizing the world. For the second time.

“The internet, the web — these experiences have transformed our lives before and they’re in the process of doing it again.”

BOB BERRY at AnswerLab

And the backbone of this change is — you guessed it — experience.

Experience encompasses the whole life of the user, employee, prospect … whomever.

It covers what they want to accomplish in their personal and professional lives, what their day-to-day looks like, what they care about and how they are struggling.

Every one of these things are changing rapidly in this environment.

So, it’s vital we keep these in mind in order to make the virtual experience demanded by social distancing into a meaningful experience.

And companies big and small know this.

Challenging times demand innovation

When it comes to the behemoth brands out there that already have massive digital presences online — your Amazons, Facebooks, FedExes and Googles — all of these companies are doubling down.

These companies are figuring out new ways to innovate through this crisis by increasing investment in digital — a space in which they are already powerhouses. And new interfaces and solutions are being rapidly rolled out.

Multibillion-dollar, multinational companies are doing what they need to do to stay ahead of the crisis.

But at the opposite end of the spectrum, small businesses, with nowhere near the same kind of money to throw at the problem, are also rising to the challenge of our times. They’re innovating as rapidly as the big guys.

Take online delivery and curbside pickup for small, family-owned restaurants, for example …

It doesn’t take billions to innovate through a crisis; it takes creativity and understanding how to provide a great experience.

“At both ends of the spectrum companies are getting really creative and figuring out how to make this new world work for them.”

BOB BERRY at AnswerLab

Bob has a great example of the melding of creativity and experience. He points to a construction company who have now completely moved online.

A construction company.

They let you send them a video of your space and they’ll come back with videos on materials and designs and guide you through the whole process.

Now that’s offering an experience.

The biggest mistake to watch out for

If you look at the companies who are thriving in this crisis, it’s the ones who are trying new things or repurposing their existing tools and materials.

It’s the companies willing to face the fact this a very new, rapidly changing time.

So, the biggest mistake you can make in this environment is digging in to the way you’ve always done things.

“Don’t assume that what you’ve known in the past is still true. Avoid believing that you still have the answer.”

BOB BERRY at AnswerLab

A lot of what you know about your customers and their behaviors isn’t relevant anymore. You may think you know what they’re interested in and who they are …

And you could be right about some of this. Some of the ways you’ve marketed may still apply.

But you don’t know this for sure. You need to reconfirm and, in some cases, completely reinvent.

Don’t rely on knowledge that might be in the middle of becoming obsolete.

Now is the time to innovate.

This blogpost includes highlights of our podcast interview with Bob Berry, Principal User Experience Researcher at AnswerLab.

Subscribe to hear this episode and many more like it. For the entire interview, you can listen to The B2B Revenue Executive Experience. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, we suggest this link.