Customer Experience Roundup – January 18, 2019

Customer experience is always changing. With the help of social media and our constant connectivity, ideas spread like wildfire. The actions—good or bad—of a company can easily be seen by the entire world, and that has a huge impact on how customers view a brand. That was a big theme this week as companies made bold moves to connect with—or distance—customers.

Gillette Commercial Encourages Men To Step Up

One of my favorite things this week was Gillette’s new commercial. It’s definitely worth a watch. Instead of selling razors, Gillette is taking a stand and encouraging men to stand up and redefine masculinity. This is an incredibly important topic in light of the #MeToo campaign and increased attention on sexual assault. Gillette realizes that it’s important to take a break from the typical commercial sales pitch to use its influence for a bigger issue. It’s not enough for companies to just sell products anymore; they need to make a stand and have a purpose. It’s a bold move, but it shows what Gillette stands for.

Documentaries Show Fyre Festival Disaster

This week I also watched a fascinating documentary on Hulu called Fyre Fraud. It tells the story of the doomed Fyre Festival. Netflix also came out with a documentary on this, called Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened. Both documentaries are basically master classes in what not to do with customer experience. Fyre Festival was billed as an upscale music festival with some of the hottest acts in 2017. Guests flew to a secluded island in the Bahamas expecting two weekends of music, luxury and partying. What they got was a literal disaster: instead of staying at a five-star resort, people slept in FEMA tents on an empty lot and ate food scraps. It was the ultimate modern-day scam. Workers on the island never received payment, and guests never got anything close to the experience they were promised. There have been numerous lawsuits around Fyre, and the founder, Billy MacFarland, is currently in jail. Both documentaries show the importance of delivering on promises to customers.

Netflix Raises Prices

Speaking of streaming media, Netflix also made headlines this week when it announced its largest price hike ever. The standard plan will increase from $11 a month to $13. Netflix says it’s in response to its growing amount of original content and increased competition from other streaming services, including Disney. There’s been some outcry from customers, but the truth is that Netflix is still an amazing value. The increased price is right in line with other streaming services. Going to just one movie in theaters would cost more than a month of unlimited streaming movies on Netflix. Not to mention that Netflix is pumping out original content, so much that it can be hard to keep up. The price hike is a minor annoyance, but I don’t think it will lead to customers running for the hills. Most customers understand the value of what they’re getting. Netflix’s price increase shows that experience really matters more than price—most customers are willing to pay a higher price for the personalized experience they receive.

These companies in the news this week show that companies need to always be paying attention to their customers to constantly deliver a customer experience that resonates with people.

Blake Morgan is a keynote speaker, futurist and author of “More Is More.” Sign up for her weekly customer experience newsletter here

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