Going beyond what is seen for us “meaning making machines”

This post aims to make sense of what a brand, service, customer, employee, user (blah blah blah) experience is all about. . .

One commonality among all human beings is that we share a finite resource — time. Within units of time are specific moments which can be seconds, minutes, hours, or days. Therefore, we all have a finite collection of moments, and our lives are marked with “just chasing after the wind” as King Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes remarks.

However, one person’s “chasing after the wind” experience might look different than another‘s experience. In a rational world, humans would derive the same value from the same experience; however, we are almost anything but rational humans. We are “meaning making machines” constantly deriving meaning from small decisions like brewing coffee to big decisions like choosing where to work (or maybe how to brew your coffee is more important than where you work? IDK.). Even for the same individual, the same experiences might be more worthwhile one time than another time.

So. . .how do we evaluate our experiences? And why are some more important than others? It all comes down to value and context:

Value — Were the inputs (time, money, etc.) worth the outputs (collection of moments of being, using a product service, etc.)?

Context — Was the output valuable to this specific individual at this moment? What kind of expectations did the customer have going into this experience?

Now, experience is quite a buzzword in the business world (customer experience, brand experience, product experience, employee experience, service experience), yet at the end of the day, aren’t we all just trying to design a life that is meaningful to us, making decisions about how we spend our time, money, careers, etc. in a way that adds value to our lives? With this, the most ‘successful’ experiences involving a business sit within life experiences. To give a few examples, taking a social entrepreneurship class at the University of Illinois propelled me to create a national education nonprofit; visiting the local coffee shop to be greeted by the same barista is a bright spot in my busy work week; I treat myself to an intense SoulCycle class with friends to create a healthy, memorable friend date; I decided to go with Lemonade as my rent insurance provider because I could instantaneously get a quote within 5 minutes during the exhausting season of moving.

Words to describe this plethora of experiences might be convenient, fun, and memorable; however, what the providing company must put together to make these memories come to life is anything but. When thinking about crafting valuable experience exchanges, companies must consider what’s up and below the iceberg for both the company as well as human beings:

Above // What is Seen:

1. Brand Image, Logo

2. Moments of the experience that surprise and delight. According to the Nielsen Norman group, usually, the impressions at the peak and end experience become memories. In my example with Soul Cycle, this could be the moment the instructor started playing my favorite song in class and leaving the studio smelling fresh because of the premium body wash in the showers.

3. Behavior & ethics of front line employees

4. A few clicks to purchase

5. Giving human beings what they want at a price point that makes sense

Below // What is Unseen:

1. Emotions, memories evoked from Brand Image, Logo

2. Understanding what those moments are that have the most impact on the customer

3. Training front line employees with appropriate values & giving them the freedom to treat customers in relevant ways. For example, Ritz Carlton gives employees up to $2K to make customers happy per incident — a double whammy experience of customer experience and employee experience. More on that later.

4. Eliminating all the other features, discounts, and other options that a company wants to offer before checkout, and the company politics behind that process of elimination. . .

5. Does any human being actually know what they want?! When the iPhone was pronounced, nobody thought the average consumer would pay $600 for a phone.

It’s so easy to think the fancy soaps, the esteemed professors, or the simple checkout are what makes or breaks an experience, and they may be for a short period of time, but a company is more likely to achieve longevity when all stakeholders consider what’s below the surface for the customers it aims to serve and whether employees are truly mission-aligned (employee experience). After all, we are all simply “meaning making machines” trying to align our work and purchasing decisions with our personal values.