The CX Cast

Customers interacting with your company right now are forming perceptions that will determine whether they engage with you again. But do you know how those interactions shape perceptions? You’d better, if you want your design efforts to advance your business goals.

It’s not enough to spot a market need, roll out innovations, and move product. You need to master the inner workings of the total experience — how people’s experiences ignite their perceptions and drive loyalty — or not. At Forrester’s CX SF 2019 event in San Francisco, we’ll dig into how perceptions shape successful innovation, growth, engagement, satisfaction, and retention — and what you can do about it. In this episode, we have a preliminary discussion of those themes.

Click here to register for CX SF 2019.

$500 Promo Code: CXCASTSF

October 17–18

For most organizations, there are many more potential customers than they realize in their target market whose needs are different from those of their imagined “average” customer. Firms that design for that diversity can reach more of their target market, access new ones, avoid legal troubles, and cut costs — by shifting to inclusive design, which Forrester defines as: “Designing experiences that are effective, easy, and emotionally positive for all customers in a target market by factoring in its variations in age, ability, language, culture, gender, and other traits.” In this episode, Principal Analyst Gina Bhawalkar explains how leading firms have established and benefited from inclusive design practices.

Click the titles below to read more:

* The Inclusive Design Imperative: Win And Retain More Customers

* Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design

For most organizations, there are many more potential customers than they realize in their target market whose needs are different from those of their imagined “average” customer. Firms that design for that diversity can reach more of their target market, access new ones, avoid legal troubles, and cut costs — by shifting to inclusive design, which Forrester defines as: “Designing experiences that are effective, easy, and emotionally positive for all customers in a target market by factoring in its variations in age, ability, language, culture, gender, and other traits.” In this episode, Principal Analyst Gina Bhawalkar explains how leading firms have established and benefited from inclusive design practices.

Click the titles below to read more:

* The Inclusive Design Imperative: Win And Retain More Customers

* Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design

Companies are starting to combine data science and design to create data-fueled products based on pattern-finding algorithms. But it’s not going well: Many companies are hurting their customers and therefore the business. So we researched how to do it right, and in this episode, Principal Analyst Andrew Hogan previews his findings.

Click the title below to read more:

* Data-Fueled Products: How To Thrive On The Design And Data Science Collision

Companies are starting to combine data science and design to create data-fueled products based on pattern-finding algorithms. But it’s not going well: Many companies are hurting their customers and therefore the business. So we researched how to do it right, and in this episode, Principal Analyst Andrew Hogan previews his findings.

Click the title below to read more:

* Data-Fueled Products: How To Thrive On The Design And Data Science Collision

CX pros often feel trapped by their voice-of-the-customer (VoC) vendor — even when the vendor falls short on meeting basic expectations. That’s because the complexity associated with switching vendors makes customer experience (CX) pros struggle to accept that a change is essential to achieving their CX transformation goals. To help CX pros be more confident in identifying technology and services partners that can meet their ever-changing needs, Senior Analyst Faith Adams offers guidance on when a change is necessary and how to transition.

Click the title below to read more:

* How To Transition Your Voice-Of-The-Customer Vendor

CX pros often feel trapped by their voice-of-the-customer (VoC) vendor — even when the vendor falls short on meeting basic expectations. That’s because the complexity associated with switching vendors makes customer experience (CX) pros struggle to accept that a change is essential to achieving their CX transformation goals. To help CX pros be more confident in identifying technology and services partners that can meet their ever-changing needs, Senior Analyst Faith Adams offers guidance on when a change is necessary and how to transition.

Click the title below to read more:

* How To Transition Your Voice-Of-The-Customer Vendor

A wave of so-called digitally native direct-to-consumer (DTC) startups, like Casper and Dollar Shave Club, have burst on the scene, gaining market share and media attention. Long-standing brands are scrambling to respond with their own direct strategies. But without understanding why consumers are trying these new brands and how their expectations are evolving, traditional organizations’ efforts are doomed. That same warning applies to companies whose primary “customers” are other organizations — commonly referred to as business-to-business (B2B) companies. That’s because you’re never really selling to a business; you’re selling to people who happen to work at a business. And people don’t leave their expectations behind when they come in to work.

In this episode, we explore how B2B brands can — and must — design experiences to meet people’s shifting expectations of convenience, quality, and trust.

Click the titles below for more on this topic:

* B2B Is Also B2P (Business To Person) — An episode on Forrester’s What It Means podcast

* Changing Expectations Fuel Direct-To-Consumer Disruption

A wave of so-called digitally native direct-to-consumer (DTC) startups, like Casper and Dollar Shave Club, have burst on the scene, gaining market share and media attention. Long-standing brands are scrambling to respond with their own direct strategies. But without understanding why consumers are trying these new brands and how their expectations are evolving, traditional organizations’ efforts are doomed. That same warning applies to companies whose primary “customers” are other organizations — commonly referred to as business-to-business (B2B) companies. That’s because you’re never really selling to a business; you’re selling to people who happen to work at a business. And people don’t leave their expectations behind when they come in to work.

In this episode, we explore how B2B brands can — and must — design experiences to meet people’s shifting expectations of convenience, quality, and trust.

Click the titles below for more on this topic:

* B2B Is Also B2P (Business To Person) — An episode on Forrester’s What It Means podcast

* Changing Expectations Fuel Direct-To-Consumer Disruption

This is the second half of our conversation with Jeff Gothelf, co-author of both Lean UX and Sense & Respond, in which we discuss: what it means for organizations to gather and respond to feedback in realtime, why that even matters, how employees will have to work differently to support that model, and how it all fails if managers don’t take key steps to enable their employees to work differently.

To read more on this topic, click the titles below:

* Sense & Respond

* How To Increase Your Firm’s Appetite For Customer Understanding

* Modernize Your Customer Research

* High-Impact Research: The Ingredients For An Effective UX And Design Research Practice

* How To Drive Action With Your Voice Of The Customer Program