You're Invited
Want to see my new keynote? It's all about how to use the human touch to out-perform your competition in the age of AI and automation. It might be my best work, ever.
I'm doing the whole talk for you. No cost. Live on Zoom. Please be there!
Human.Kind: How to Keep it Real and Win in the Age of AI
Wednesday, October 22
4pm ET
The Bottom Line is the video series marketing leaders have been craving: honest, unfiltered conversations with top CMOs (and me) about what's actually happening in marketing right now.
Jay's Faves
I've had a LOT of iphones and a LOT of iphone cases over the years.
I finally found a favorite.
The Magbak case does all the things: magnetic, has a finger loop, has a kickstand, and offers screen and sides protection without being bulky in my pocket. Loving it!
Book Report
My brilliant pal Neen James has a fantastic new book dropping next week. Pre-orders are rolling right now on Amazon.
In Exceptional Experiences: Five Luxury Levers to Elevate Every Aspect of Your Business, she highlights five ways to turn everyday touchpoints into emotionally resonant moments that move client relationships from transactional to transformational.
It's REALLY GOOD, and if you deal with customers, it's a must-read.
Are You Willing to Work for Your Customers?
As we all get smothered by a waterfall of automation and AI, I hear from a lot of businesses something like: "this new software makes it so easy!"
Easy for whom?
For the business? Sure.
But is it easier for customers? And don't you want to make it easy for THEM?
I delivered a webinar today for a corporate client, and I talked about how human-written, bespoke, empathetic emails to customers and prospects are better than scripted emails written by AI.
"But those take so long to write" was the objection.
Fair. But might that extra time be worth the investment?
Most businesses understand that an increasing share of customers consider the quality of the experience when making purchases. Right?
But still, soooo many businesses are removing the human touch and then don't understand when customers are "meh" about the whole thing.
AI should stand for "Average Information" not "Artificial Intelligence." And why would you expect customers to be awed by average?
It's Not Simple to Stand Out with CX
Every great customer experience case study is rooted in the same element (which we almost never talk about).....EFFORT.
Chewy.com sending oil paintings and hand-written condolences notes to customers who have lost pets. Is that easy? Not at all. Is it impactful? Massively.
DoubleTree Hotels installing cookie ovens in every location, to produce piping hot, chocolate chip treats for every guest at check-in. Easy? Nope. Impactful? Yep.
The magician Teller (the silent one, although he talks freely off-stage) once said:
"Sometimes, magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect"
He spent more than 20 years working on a single trick before debuting it in front on an audience. That's effort.
I think there's a significant business lesson there, too.
Sometimes, great customer experiences come from a business working harder and spending more time on something than their competitors might reasonably expect.
I wish we could have it both ways. I wish we could work less AND truly delight customers simultaneously.
But, I'm not sure that equation adds up.
If you want to lead your category in the customer experience you deliver, I suggest you might simply have to outwork your competition.
And that's where AI comes in.
The real question - as I've said here before - is not whether AI will create efficiencies. It will.
The real question you need to be asking yourself is what will you do with the 25% excess capacity AI eventually provides you and your team?
You could just pocket the difference.
But I submit to you that the true leaders of the near future will be the businesses that take their newfound 25% and re-invest it into the hard work necessary to truly exceed customer expectations.
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