Digital Challenge
I have a new car. We sold our big 7-seater family wagon, mostly because it’s easier to predict the British weather than to get three teenagers happy to be in the same place at the same time.
When weighing up my options, I looked at EVs. I had no shortage of reservations, but I was pleasantly surprised by what I found…
Myth one: EVs are expensive. I got a 2019 e-Golf with very low mileage for under 10k. No emissions for VW to hide here. 😀
Next up: range. It claims 155 miles. I’ve read this will slowly drop over time and that cold weather can impact it – time will tell. But it’s easily enough to get me to Exeter and back. Around town, we seem to gain range. At 70mph on the motorway, though, the battery does drain a bit quicker.
Cost-wise, we were already on a green energy tariff with Octopus (and I can’t stress enough how refreshing they are – switch now, seriously). They offer a specific EV tariff at just 7p per kWh overnight.
It’s better for the battery to charge it slowly (standard plug) and keep it between 30–80%, and in the car you can set both the timing and charge level.
So every other night we top it up, it costs pennies. A “full tank” would be about £2.50 and last us well over a week.
Hopefully, this keeps us going until mushrooms power the world.
Anyway, I am as much of a car expert as he is a farmer. So I will get back to talking about something I am vastly more qualified to, a different journey.
Not miles on the road, but moments of experience.
“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get”
– Forest Gump
Businesses have customers, applications have users.
Considering the experience they have is fundamental to their success.
Marketers are in the business of empathy. We hear the business case (and we must respond to it), but ultimately we are trying to flip that script and relate the user’s needs to the organisation.
Surprise and delight your user and much of your marketing is done for you through word of mouth (if you have patience for organic growth).
Stretch the truth, oversell the promise and hash the experience and it’s a narrow one-way road to the damp carpeted hallway of a seaside B&B (still advertising colour tv with every room).
The common answer in digital is to map the journey. We have been doing this for years, and have prepared a useful guide and free template download to help you do it yourself. If you do, then don’t skip the emotion.
We explore this in our storytelling article, they are either overwhelmingly positive or negative things, but surprise is the emotion that flips the state.
Now, Forrest would probably know what chocolate he’s getting, because most boxes come with a menu. That menu qualifies the promise. But the smell of the box, the look of the photography and the feel of the packaging all stir an emotion and shape the experience.
So are you testing your customer’s promise or reality?
Are you hearing the voices internally or externally?
Is there a surprise? And which emotions are you flipping?
I encourage clients to use customer research and interviews not just in the middle of the customer journey, but right at the start of any project.
Who better to talk to ahead of a rebrand than your existing customers? Who makes a better video advocate than someone already singing your praises?
Often this is seen as the nice to have, whilst we get paid to create the outputs, AI is changing this, for us and for you.
Currently these outputs are based on confidently worded assumption rather than verified insight.
The quality of your outputs therefore, and your ability to differentiate your value, is in understanding the real value you give your customers (and then the context for the robots).
Don’t believe the hype, find out the truth.
It was reported recently that AI overviews have reduced SEO traffic by 30%. If that worries you, imagine being a giant tech company that makes its money on customers buying clicks, only to integrate an overview that stops users clicking.
And whilst that’s happening, these snippets are coming under increasing distrust with their arrogant posturing of false claims.
Without doubt, the interface of the internet is shifting.
Our content must now serve both human needs and robotic ones. I’m looking forward to my first customer journey map designed for an AI experiance.
What might their thoughts, feelings and goals be?
Do you know anyone who may be interested in this project?
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