For centuries, scholars, philosophers, poets and adventurers alike have quested after it. Movies have been made about it, both serious and not so serious and some point in their life every person asks the question … What is the meaning of life?
To be clear, my discovery started with answering the question, “Are we asking the right question?”
While I am far from being done answering this question, the ambiguity is gone and my path of discovery is clear. As is often the case, this revelation has given me fresh eyes and renewed vigor on old problems in regards to my unending quest to improve the customer experience; to enable more meaning in the life of the customer.
Life of Meaning and the Customer Experience
It really boils down to who you want as the centre of your universe – you or your customer?
The reality is that for the vast majority of businesses, the centre is the brand; the corporation. Everything is built around it, supports it and enables it. But this geocentric corporate thinking limits our ability to connect with others and may actually limit growth in the new social business paradigm; an evolution being forced from without and within the enterprise.
O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t.
—William Shakespeare, The Tempest Act V, Scene I, ll. 203—6
It has become a critical time to invest in the customer experience. Moreover, it may be time to rethink the nature of the customer experience we do deliver. While we are aware of the value of being customer-centric, the vast majority of brands limit the customer experience to how the customer can more easily and quickly buy our products and services. This is important of course, but its short sighted as the most powerful customer experience we can deliver is one that aligns to the values of the customer and enables their life.
But can a customer experience help them to experience a more fulfilling life of meaning? Value alignment is relatively easy, but meaning? I believe it can be done and that the financial benefits of doing so can be extraordinary. It boils down to enablement and relevance.
Enabling a Life of Meaning
The biggest mistake we make in business is to think we are actually important in the lives of our customers. So what if instead we focused our customer experience on making the customer more important in the lives of the people they care about or care about them? Integrating customer enablement into your CX means a re-positioning of your brand to one of enablement rather than leadership. A CX that supports a life of meaning helps the customer:
– Express their personal brand within their social community “This is who I am”
– Connect to meaningful communities of interest
– Involve the brand in their life beyond the product/service
– Improve their quality of life
Relevancy Fuels Meaning
Corporate hubris – this is the failing most of us make. Our perception of ourselves as brands is that we are relevant and continue to strive to be even more relevant. However well intentioned this may be, the customer perception is often quite different or seen as shallow.
True relevancy goes well past a surface need that may drive a transaction; the thing we all focus on. The real gold mine lies in much deeper connection within the life of the customer and understanding how our brand fits in with every other brand within the customer life. The recipe for creating deep relevancy is part knowing our place (and being content with it) and part knowing the timing of when we are important.
What is Your Life of Meaning?
Without the ability to see into the future, it’s a difficult leap to accepting such a radical change in thinking about how we interact and engage customers. Do we risk more by embracing new, more social ways of thinking or by holding onto old ways?
Maybe it starts with understanding our own life of meaning and how the brands we choose to deal with currently add meaning to us? The answer is usually there waiting for us if we are brave enough to ask the right question.
Thanks for reading.
Jeff – Sensei