The Copernican Shift

Part 2 of our look back at the mid-century modern TWA Hotel at JFK airport. If you ever find yourself at JFK with time to spare, it's absolutely worth a visit. It's an immersive experience that takes you back to the glory days of air travel. They've spared no expense in recreating exquisite details from the 1960s, right down to the penny tiles and 5-cent payphones. It's a lesson for all of us — when it comes to customer experience, the little things matter.

Our story today begins with an airport fiasco, and ends with (part 1) of an immersive experience at the new TWA Hotel at JFK. It's all about the importance of empowering your employees to delight your customers, and paying attention to those little details that add up to an amazing customer experience. Make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full, upright position. Today is all about airline and airport experiences.

Overchoice (a term originally coined by Alvin Toffler) describes the scenario where people have a difficult time making a decision when faced with too many options. I recently experienced this phenomenon firsthand when buying a new couch that offered, essentially, an infinite number of choices. In today's episode we'll talk about choice constriction, online/offline experience synchronization, and the benefits of faux fur. It's a Lovesac fest.

The average B2B buyer receives more than 100 email a day. They switch between tasks 300 times a day, and use 56 different apps or websites. Let's face it, we're overwhelmed with content. Economist and social scientist Herbert Simon put it best when he said, "a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention." Wise words for all of us content marketers. So how do we rise above the noise?

In a word: Context.

Today is "Pretend to be a Time Traveler" day. So, we're going to do just that. What would a time traveler from, say, 125 years ago, think of some of our customer experiences? What would surprise them? What would delight them? And what could we do differently to recapture some of the personal, one-to-one connections that modern customer experiences too often lack? It's a look back...or forward...or sideways, to a time when customer connections meant everything.