Michael Harris Of Alvaria: 5 Things a Business Should Do to Create a Wow! Customer Experience

An Interview With Orlando Zayas

Solve real business problems. Innovation is great, but innovation without a need is a recipe for failure. Think about Google Glass (wearable smart glasses). That was product innovation without a market need, ultimately failing and costing Google over $800 million in development losses.

As part of our series about the five things a business should do to create a Wow! customer experience, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Harris.

Michael Harris is the Chief Product Officer and CMO at Alvaria, Inc. He has responsibility for global Product Strategy, Product Management, Technology and Marketing activities. Michael has over 25 years’ experience in the technology space with 15 years in senior executive roles at small and large companies, including FileNet, Yahoo, Idealab, J2, and Guidance Software.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I started my career as a software programmer in banking in the early 1980s. I was among the first to build business apps on personal computers in a local area network. This propelled me into the computer storage industry as an early innovator, which led to senior product marketing roles at fast-growth tech companies, all of which got acquired by larger competitors. All that experience provided a strong industry knowledge base that helped me grow into C-level leadership roles.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

I launched one of the first “gigabyte” capacity tape backup systems in the world in 1987. But it was not really ready for prime-time and my company shipped it before enough rigorous QA was done in order to be first to market. It had a very high price tag of $8,000. We thought we made an enormous mistake when so many of the initial product shipments failed at customer sites. Yet, despite the product failures and high price tag, sales went through the roof, beating our revenue plan by double in just six months. The funny part was our customers wouldn’t return failed products for a refund; instead they would buy another one to be used as a spare tape drive when the first one failed. We kept ahead of the product issues with excellent customer service. The lesson learned was that customers are willing to deal with lots of product problems, and pay a premium for it, if it solves a real business problem and the service is great. In our case, we had the only product that had enough capacity to backup a large LAN server, so even though it failed 50% of the time, customers wouldn’t part with the mediocre product as long as it ultimately did the job. This helped me throughout my career by focusing on the core product capabilities that really matter to customers, including the services, and to avoid excess “chrome on the bumper”.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

So many people helped me in my career. One stands out: The CTO of FileNET. He really challenged me when I first joined that company in product management. This was a relatively conservative company, with leadership that was skeptical of change. They referred to me back then as the “energizer bunny”…I could absorb data and make quick decisions, which made them uncomfortable because I acted with speed and urgency, sometimes without all the process steps they had developed over the 15 years of their existence. The CTO however, let me fly. I had some very early success with strategic product changes that led to new products and winning new customers. The CTO rewarded me with my first senior exec level job, and had to fight for me to get it, as I became the youngest, and fastest rising SVP in the company. This set me up for future senior exec roles that may never have come my way without his trust in me.

Thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main focus of our interview. This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business?

As I noted earlier, you can have a mediocre product, but you must have at least very good customer service to keep customers happy and to grow your business. People will deal with product issues, but they will leave you if you don’t listen and offer solutions to their problems and work with them in creative ways to help them succeed. I always say that great customer experience is a vital part of the “whole product.” Especially in B2B markets, where the software or hardware is just one part of the total solution.

We have all had times either in a store, or online, when we’ve had a very poor experience as a customer or user. If the importance of a good customer experience is so intuitive, and apparent, where is the disconnect? How is it that so many companies do not make this a priority?

Too many companies are lazy with respect to the “whole product.” They focus too much on the software or hardware features, without understanding how it’s used by typical users. The best, most successful companies know this and start from the customer experience out, instead of from the product engineering out. Apple won the smart phone battle because they knew providing a true web browser experience in the users’ hands (CX) was more important than creating a better tactile keyboard on the mobile device (hardware).

Do you think that more competition helps force companies to improve the customer experience they offer? Are there other external pressures that can force a company to improve the customer experience?

Yes, definitely. Competition is the only way keep companies improving their products and CX. That’s why monopolies are bad for the industry. The pressure of another, better alternative to a vendor’s product is what drives innovation and a focus on making the customer experience awesome.

Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?

When I was SVP, Products at Overture (later acquired by Yahoo), we had the world’s first paid search engine that helped small businesses grow by allowing them to reach new customers across the globe. The software was a vital part of the solution, but we took so much learning from our early customers to make the whole CX amazing. Our early advertisers could not believe they could pay for a page-one search listing for pennies per click, instead of the very expensive and untargeted display ads the rest of the industry provided at the time. Our CX included new forms of matching that permitted customers to start with exactly matching keywords to search terms, then adapting to synonyms and misspellings to reach a broader set of potential customers. We even helped them write their search ads that would help improve click-through rates. That wowed so many customers in those early days, we became one of the fastest growing companies of all time.

Did that Wow! experience have any long term ripple effects? Can you share the story?

Yes. The ripple effect was creating a powerful, growth company that thrived during the dot-com bubble and ultimately got acquired by Yahoo for almost $2B after just five years of existence!

Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience. Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Focus on the “whole product.” Not just the software or hardware. Users will become active promoters when they feel the product or service is more than the device, interface or app. Customers feel the “wow” if using your product reduces friction and conveys a sense that you really know them.
2. Solve real business problems. Innovation is great, but innovation without a need is a recipe for failure. Think about Google Glass (wearable smart glasses). That was product innovation without a market need, ultimately failing and costing Google over $800 million in development losses.
3. Be nimble. Adapt and change with new customer feedback. Put yourself in the customers’ shoes when creating the workflow and customer interactions. My first backup product in the mid 1980s was an “all or nothing” image copy of a disk drive to tape. Customers complained that they needed a way to restore just a few files or directories, and only need the whole image restored with a disk crash. That feedback let us to create a “file by file” backup mode that became the most popular feature of the product!
4. Sometimes, less is more. Don’t overwhelm users with too many choices, but offer options up as part of the total experience. Great products that are too complicated just frustrate users and make them seek alternative solutions.
5. The employees who interface with customers are part of the “whole product” too. Make sure the people are motivated and understand the mission before they are ready to engage end customers. One bad employee-to-customer interaction can lose a customer forever, no matter how good the core product is.

Are there a few things that can be done so that when a customer or client has a Wow! experience, they inspire others to reach out to you as well?

Customers want to share their experiences, good and bad, with people they know. If the airline canceled your flight, you might find yourself complaining about that company to family and friends. If that same airline upgraded your flight to first class and got you home ahead of schedule, you’ll talk about that too. Making it easy for customers to share their feedback with others can be a powerful way to gain new business because the best referrals are from happy customers that actively promote your product or service.

My particular expertise is in retail, so I’d like to ask a question about that. Amazon is going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise retail companies and eCommerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such strong competition?

Amazon is dominant because they made buying nearly frictionless. It’s just too easy to open the app, search for a product and click “buy it now.” This is the clearest example of getting the “whole product” right to win…in Amazon’s case, perfecting online distribution and delivery. I can’t imagine being a retailer today without a relationship with Amazon and their direct, international competitors. Smaller retailers who want to grow beyond local markets have to play Amazon’s game, or die. It’s just too expensive to compete directly for buyers when so many of them live in the Amazon app. However, if I were a larger retailer, I would focus on direct channels with equal or better personalized service than Amazon. Focusing on superior customer experience may be the only way to combat Amazon and other dominant global retailers.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

So many important movements….global peace, homelessness, climate change — but starting one? Staying on-topic, how about getting the masses to reduce their dependence on mass retailers… I’d call it the “small brands” movement. There are so many great brands that are not monopolies or conglomerates, yet they are losing share to the mass retailers who can knock them off with ease due to their massive reach. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get people to recognize the threat and proactively choose to buy direct from more small brands? Just a thought.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

@mwh360 on Twitter

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!