The Value Problem: Too Many Experiences, Not Enough Time
Chapter Five: Principle 4—Value is in Time Spent
Dear Friends,
One of the first things I said in this chapter was that value is not in conveniences. And this post helps you understand why. We live in a world where many companies do a very good job of producing simple, memorable experiences. The customer has them in abundance. And you know what happens when you have anything in abundance, the value for that solution goes down. Conveniences are easily commoditized. But time is precious. Let’s look at how that dynamic plays out.
The Value Problem: Too Many Experiences, Not Enough Time
In addition to the three value propositions for time that I shared—time well saved, time well spent, and time well invested—there is a fourth type: time wasted. When consumers say that an experience was a waste of time, they are being very clear that time is money. Right?! In essence, they are saying, that the company is cheating them out of their valuable time. That’s why it’s the resolution of the problem that is more important than the empathy of the service rep. And, that’s why the fulfillment of the job to be done is more important than the environment in which the experience is performed.
If the customer cannot get the job done, the problem resolved, or the question answered then he or she feels robbed by the company—robbed of time. Sure he or she can go to another company and get satisfaction. But the time is lost and cannot be recovered.
Let’s remind ourselves of the customer’s current predicament. Every day there are more choices and more solutions. And since most companies today have a basic understanding of their customers and what makes for good experiences, people have a variety of options that are really good.
In fact, companies are always getting better at creating individual experiences for their customers. They measure their experience. They improve the experience. They train and innovate for better experiences. Thus, the customer has many good choices, but each choice is discrete. Each moment with a brand is fully shaped by the brand to create a positive outcome—but it’s the customer who orchestrates the activities. And there are a lot of activities to orchestrate. A growing list.
Now, let’s play the scenario to the end. If every company learns how to create better experiences, then more experiences are produced. Customers have an abundance of choices. What is the net effect on the value of any given experience to the customer or the company? The answer is, the value goes down.
The reality for most companies today is that they know how to create very good experiences. They produce those experiences, and just for the shear fact that there is so much volume of great experiences, the value of the experience goes done. For the customer, the effect is the opposite. They have limited time and lots of great activities to choose from, so they spend as little time as possible on most great things and focus their attention on things that really matter to them.
What’s a customer to do? The answer is obvious: spend as little time as possible doing time transactions and as much time focused on happenings as possible. (See last post for these definitions.)
The next question companies should be asking themselves is what percentage of the time that their customers spend with them is meaningful. To help you think about meaningful experiences and time, let’s think about the customer’s day-to-day interactions.
People have lots of reminders, calendar events, transactions and other time transactions going on. The flow is constant. Their email is full of it. Their social media is hard to keep up with. Now, these time transactions can be meaningful. They can make the customer feel empowered. The tools they use automate things and make their experience so the minimal amount of time is spent on the most mundane parts. By minimizing the amount of time spent on the mundane and maximizing the amount of time the customer spends on things they value, the company is creating value for the customer—and, and we will see, some meaning as well.
But a time transaction does not have the same value or meaning as a happening. How much more value is relative but for the sake of this example, let’s decide that it take 25 time transaction to create the same amount of value for the customer as 1 happening. Just for arguments sake.
That means that a company who creates payment tools will need 25 well designed, positive time transactions to equal one happening created by a parent and child who go on a nice walk in the park. The walk in the park = 25 well designed, positive payment experiences. Again, this is just for argument’s sake. Or something like this:
Now, let’s look at happenings. Happenings definitely have value. Happenings come in different forms. People can only incorporate a certain number of happenings into their daily schedule. They have to orchestrate their happenings. If you have kids who need to be to soccer practice after dinner, you know what I’m talking about.
One would think that happenings can and would hold their value. After all, they are ‘worth’ more than time transactions. We value the little things, events, birthdays, some work meetings, and we value routines. But the reality is that because there is so much experience product out there, the value of any one activity becomes less.
If all companies do is create more experiences, the total value of the time their customers spend with them will go down. Just because there are so many experiences being produced.
Reflection Makes Activities More Meaningful
Experience strategists should be focused on how to increase the value of time transactions, happenings, and defining moments. To increase the value of time for a customer, you must make the experience more meaningful. And the best way to make the experience more meaningful is to get the customer to reflect on their experiences.
At Stone Mantel, we have interviewed hundreds of people on this topic. We surveyed tens of thousands of people. And what we’ve found over and over again is that customers appreciate and value time reflecting on their lives, their life systems, and their experiences. Reflection is more than memory making. In fact, people struggle to remember things. They really do. (We will dive deeper into this topic soon.) So, for a company to think that all they need to do is make the experience memorable is silly.
Reflection is the key ingredient that increases the value of time. People always reflect during defining moments. They sometimes reflect because of happenings. And, we found in our research that they are willing to reflect on time transactions, like payments, memes, prompts, and alerts. In fact, most of the people we talked to welcomed invitations from brands they trust to reflect on their experience. And a little reflection goes a long way.
Like any other element in an experience, encouraging people to reflect can be overdone. There is no need to prompt reflection after every interaction. That will cheapen the experience and anger the customer. But the occasional prompt to reflect is powerful and lifts all boats.
Reflection has another benefit to the individual. It encourages him or her to revisit the life system that supports that aspect of the individual’s life. Let’s remind ourselves of what a life system is. People today use technology, processes, routines, and orchestrated activities to create systems to keep important aspects of their lives in balance. We have life systems for finances, physical well-being, relationships, and on and on. Reflection causes the individual to step back and take a look at how a time transaction, happening, or defining moment fits into the life system. It’s powerful. It’s an entry point for access to a new customer’s life system.
And it raises the value of all of the moments associated with the brand.
To be continued …