Customer experience can make a huge difference in the success of a company, but it often gets overlooked. This week, we are joined by Aransas Savas and Dave Norton of Stone Mantel, a business that helps create better experiences for customers and helps clients create more value. Our guests discuss how they onboard new customers and uncover what their customers are needing in order for them to innovate and create new products. They share how they’ve helped past clients, and what businesses could do today to get them started with future customer expectations. Tune in to learn more about customer experience and how to create a strategy for your business. 

IN THIS EPISODE:

• [5:18] Aransas shares her background before starting her current company. 
• [6:28] Dave shares his background and what led him to start Stone Mantel. 
• [8:17] What type of strategies does Stone Mantel help with?
• [9:31] How do they onboard new clients? 
• [13:08] Are their clients mainly online or do they work with offline companies as well? 
• [16:12] Dave provides an example of work they’ve done to help a company innovate. 
• [18:55] How should companies look at their customer experience journey? 
• [24:38] Dave provides one tip that Business Centers could start today that would help them with future expectations. 
• [27:03] How can you provide intricate detail for customer experience? 
• [32:36] What have been the biggest challenges Dave and Aransas have run into in business? 

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Customers need to be understood holistically instead of just in a single moment. Look at their broad desires, wants and needs, don’t just solve a single problem. 
• You really have to listen to your customers' desires and personalize experiences for them. For example, a realtor should really listen to each of their clients and then give a housewarming gift specific to their interests. This will generate great word of mouth and a meaningful experience. 

LINKS MENTIONED:

Stone Mantel's Website

The Experienced Strategist Sub Stack 

Dave Norton | LinkedIn

Aransas Savas LinkedIn

Stone Mantel: Overview | LinkedIn

BIO

There are so many firsts and starting points in the history of our firm. But perhaps the most important was a conversation between Dave Norton, our founder, and Joe Pine, the guy who discovered the Experience Economy.

In 2002, Joe and Dave were partnering on a lot of experience projects. The Experience Economy—the book that launched a million experiences—was one of the hottest-selling business books in the world (and still is). But Dave was struggling with a problem. Every company wanted better customer experiences but most companies were struggling with what was the most strategic way to go about creating experiences that mattered. Should they focus on new channels, new solutions, branding, marketing, technology, physical environments, operations, innovation, design, or something else?  Or . . . all of the above.

When you produce experiences for customers, they affect every part of the company and every other strategic decision.

One afternoon, Dave called Joe and they debated the core definition of experience strategy. Dave said, “I think it’s all about Time Well Spent.” Joe said, “Let me think about that.” He thought about it for a few years and then he agreed.