A TABLE AT THE BACK

In this episode we compare customer experience with customer service.

- How we define the two

- What each one entails

- Why companies who focus on CX earn more $$

- Examples of the good, the bad and the ugly CX

- How to start optimising your CX (hint: start small!)

Mentioned in this episode:

• CX Leaders Podcast

• Book: “Uplifting Service” by Ron Kaufman

• Book: “Tribes” by Seth Godin

• https://go.forrester.com/press-newsroom/how-customer-experience-impacts-company-stock-performance/

• http://customerthink.com/customer-service-vs-customer-experience-vs-customer-engagement/

• https://www.marketingmag.com.au/hubs-c/opinion-valos-nambiar-university-skill/

Eeeek! This week we took a deep dive into understanding ourselves and our attitude towards work.

Taking time out to practice self-care in an always on world is incredibly important.

But what happens if the way that you are wired as a human, your work actually becomes part of your self-care?

We also explore the meaning of the word ‘hustle’ (don’t shudder, hear us out) and where it fits into the overall picture of work.

Come along for this rollercoaster around our brains and let us know your thoughts, feelings, and vibes after the chat.

🙏🏼

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Education Series: https://www.valleyloves.com.au/the-education-series

• The Digital Picnic: https://www.thedigitalpicnic.com.au/

• Craft Coaching & Development: https://craftcoachinganddevelopment.com/

• Sister Scout Studio & Craft Coaching & Development Workshop: https://www.sisterscout.studio/sss-events/purpose-and-values-workshop/

• Clare Wood Coach: https://clarewood.com.au/

• Two Girls & A Laptop: https://www.twogirlsandalaptop.com.au/

Books:

• The Danish Way of Parenting

• Company of One - Paul Jarvis

• Building A Story Brand - Donald Miller

• Get To Aha - Andy Cunningham

Articles:

• https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/ux-writing-for-designers/

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/have-you-heard-notorious-rbg-totally-ux-writer-katherine-karaus/

Our first guest for Season 2 is Melbourne-based UX writer Patrick Stafford. Patrick is an ex-journalist-turned-UX writer, content strategist and podcaster. With almost a decade of experience with online news outlets like Smart Company, Rolling Stone and Vice, he’s been a UX writer for MYOB for over 4 years and has a freelance writing business called Stafford Content.

He also runs UX Writers Collective, which is a UX and CX writing course and produces/hosts the podcast Writers of Silicon Valley.

Here's what we covered in this episode:

- How Patrick broke into UX writing via journalism (and the many different backgrounds of UX writers!)

- What it takes to become a GREAT UX writer

- How to impress UX hiring managers 

- An indication of UX writer salaries (based on a recent survey the UX Writers' Collective ran) 

- The differences between UX writing in-house vs freelance

- What it's like interviewing some of the biggest UX writers in the world in Patrick's podcast: Writers of Silicon Valley

Our recommendations:

- Endorsal: https://endorsal.io/ (really great and easy way to collect testimonials and embed them in a cool/interesting way on your site with no IT help)

- UX writer jobs newsletter by Gordon Macrae: http://www.uxwriterjobs.com/

- Radical Candor by Kim Scott: https://www.amazon.com.au/RADICAL-CANDOR-KIM-SCOTT/dp/1250103509/ref=asc_df_1250103509/?tag=googleshopdsk-22&linkCode=df0&hvadid=341744909748&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3762038390647270709&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9072357&hvtargid=pla-432939647199&psc=1 

Aaaaand here's where you can find Patrick and his projects:

- UX writers collective: https://uxwriterscollective.com/

- Patrick’s website/s: http://www.staffordcontent.com/

http://pdstafford.com/

- Writers of Silicon Valley podcast: https://www.writersofsiliconvalley.com/

- Twitter: @pdstafford

This week we're talking all things content, comms, brand voice style guides.

We cover things like:

- Why these guides are the actual best things since sliced bread

- How to create one

- What should be included (we pull apart actual guides we created) 

- Who needs buy-in (and how to demand respect for the brand voice)!

- Why we need to change the message for different audiences / formats

Laura's articles we mentioned:

UX writing terms: https://lauraluck.com.au/2019/03/22/a-checklist-of-ux-writing-terms-for-time-poor-humans/

Tone of voice: https://lauraluck.com.au/2018/01/06/why-tone-of-voice-matters/ 

Our recommendations:

- The Elements of Fucking Style: https://www.amazon.com/Elements-cking-Style-Helpful-Parody/dp/031258377X

- One link sharing platform: https://narrowr.com/

- JP Morgan Chase using machine learning AI to write ad copy: https://qz.com/work/1682579/jpmorgan-chase-chooses-ai-copywriter-persado-to-write-ads/

Yay! We're back! We had a short hiatus, but season 2 is here with a bang.

This week we're talkin' bout Collaboration: how to work with different departments towards a goal.

In this episode, we'll cover:

How to start relationship-building (especially if you're remote!)

• What kinds of departments we should be speaking with

• How to set up regular communication

• What roadblocks you might come up against

• Why collaboration is especially important if you're working in customer comms

Links to recommendations:

• The day-to-day life of this UX writer at Capital One - https://medium.com/capitalonedesign/how-i-work-as-a-ux-writer-2b4312b01fa0

• User Guiding tool for putting together user guides within products – https://userguiding.com/ • The event Branka went to by 2aT - http://2atstartup.com.au/ 

• Girl Friday IP - https://www.girlfridayip.com/

SEASON FINALE!

Thanks so much for joining us for Season 1 of A Table At The Back. We have loved creating this so much, so if you loved hearing it... please leave us a review and rating :) 

For our last episode of Season 1, we spoke to the inimitable Ami Williamson of Damn Write.

Ami focuses on personality-driven e-commerce copy, plus she’s a wildly talented writer, strategist and extremely funny human being. We like her.

She gets her rocks off on consumer psychology and neuro-marketing and she’s got one of the best damn websites we've seen in a while… 

Here are just some of the things we covered:

Her new website rebrand (it's soooo beautiful)

Personality-driven copy doesn't mean you have to be loud and bold

How the personality of a brand impacts our purchase decisions

Ami's process to extracting your voice (mad scientist, perhaps?)

Why we can’t all sound like Go-To Skincare (wahhh!)

How CX plays a HUUUUUGE role in eCommerce (and how to improve it)

How to grow an eCommerce business by focusing on more than just getting new customers

The different types of emails you should write for your eCommerce businesses 

Why horoscopes are our guilty pleasure 

Listen to us struggle pronouncing Enneagrams 

The power of repelling customers that aren’t for you

Here are the links to our recommendations:

Ami's website: www.damnwrite.com.au 

Friction by Roger Doole: https://www.amazon.com/FRICTION-Untapped-Force-Powerful-Advantage-ebook/dp/B07HRZ7PDJ 

How UX influences sales: https://uxplanet.org/ux-is-all-about-sales-db659a1fd853 

ALPHALETE eComm growth hacking article: https://www.veeqo.com/blog/alphalete-ecommerce-teardown

Welcome to this week’s episode of A Table At The Back podcast.

To mix it up, we went a little technical-ish this time around and discussed the different types of user research we’ve done in order to help shape and inform messaging for products and services that we’ve worked on.

Research is such an important (and non-negotiable) part of creating powerful, useful, and consistent messaging that connects with your target audience, gets cut through and, ultimately, converts.

Some key resources mentioned in this episode:

* Qualie: https://qualie.com/

* Book: Steve Krug - Brain Surgery Made Easy

* Message Mining Template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MizdjUBdzIkkneiNpDtzcKHTfE0bLwwQeATfzah2Crs/edit

* Book: Finding The Right Message

* Brain Camp: https://www.kirstyfanton/waitlist

* Existing Copy vs Research Findings: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z5inv7AxCXre0_VdLj-fOd6Q_lqOgDd0ylQZi_J62DE/edit

Also mentioned in this episode:

* GigSuper: www.gigsuper.com.au

* What’s next for UX writers: https://t.co/2JyOzz0IMF?amp=1 

* The user is drunk: https://theuserisdrunk.com/

* Word nerd app: https://erudito.io/

Episode 8 - Kirsty Fanton

Kirsty Fanton brought SO MANY laughs to our Table At The Back. You can come back and sit with us any time :)

Ex-clinical psychologist and university lecturer, Kirsty is one smart (and hilarious) cookie. She's taken her superpowers into the world of copywriting and forged a unique space for herself as a launch strategist who helps her clients successfully achieve six-figure launches. Plus, she runs her own course called Brain Camp – where she teaches her skills to other marketers.

Kirsty also gives good email: we spend a bit of time talking about her very popular email about taking up space as a woman in business, stepping into our man pants and getting what we want.

In this episode, we unpack:

- Kirsty's background and the parts she loves most about her career

- The processes she uses to help her clients launch

- The difference between the launch of an online course and a superannuation app

- How to harness masculine energy to make space for ourselves in business

- The viral sensation of Faceapp (version 2.0)

- And of course a few tangents along the way ;)

Enjoy this episode of A Table At The Back!

Here’s the links to the stuff we spoke about: 

Kirsty’s website: https://www.kirstyfanton.com/  

Brain Camp Waitlist https://www.kirstyfanton.com/waitlist 

Never Regular (Branka's very own cafe!) – https://www.neverregular.com.au/ 

Russell Brand / Brene Brown podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Lfwf13k6AoDhrOuClU3Bx?si=tMKeUFuJSoG_Xmg6DXgRcg

Yo Aoife, you can totally sit with us!

This week we were honoured to chat with Aoife O'Connell of Yarnly – a chatbot developer with attitude!

This charismatic Irish ex-pat shared so much valuable content about:

- Her epic story and what led her to Yarnly

- Chatbots (what they are, how they work, why they are cool AF)

- How she maps out her chatbots and the type of talent she works with to bring them to life

- The importance of soft-skills in a digital world

- How Yarnly is using their mission and values for empowering women and parents to change the future

- The future of conversational marketing and voice user interfaces

- Her upcoming Build a Bot workshop in Australia

Here are the links to content and workshops we mentioned in the podcast episode:

- Get tickets to Aoife's upcoming Build a Bot workshop: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/2019-tickets-62295744248

- Free Customer Journey Map (MIRO) for anyone who wants to get started with CX: https://miro.com/templates/customer-journey-map/

- Invision article about product design hiring for soft skills: http://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/hiring-survey

We took another trip down memory lane this week and talked about how businesses used to use brand reps/influencer marketing to grow during the golden days of Instagram.

Most of these principles still apply today and we cover off what you can learn from how things use to be done and how you can apply those learnings today.

Four goals to consider when working with influencers:

1. Top level - there’s social proof.

• Big accounts.

• Pay for the post so you can get social proof (aka credibility) for your business.

• You’re paying for getting seen as a legit business rather than a garage project.

• This can be worth it because big names are connected to other big names and you become a trusted source.

2. There’s reach & brand awareness.

• Very similar to paying for social proof is paying for reach & brand awareness.

• Even accounts that are “only” in the tens of thousands can play a big part in helping you get reach and raise brand awareness.

• Show up in that person’s feed a few times and already your reach and brand awareness is stronger than paying for a cold advertising audience.

3. There’s content creation.

• This is a great option for time poor businesses.

• Unlike the two strategies we previously mentioned, this one doesn't need to involve accounts with big followings.

• What you're looking for here is content creation skills that are better than yours.

• The idea here is to offload the content creation work.

4. There are sales.

• Sales are a bi-product of all of the above + the quality of your product.

• Be careful tying yourself to sales as the end metric.

• You need to build trust with an influencer's audience, before they start buying from you in bulk.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Sister Scout Studio - https://www.sisterscout.studio/

• The Shed Women - https://www.instagram.com/theshed_women/

• Story Match - https://www.storymatch.com.au/

• Paperform - https://paperform.co/

• Write On - https://writeon.io