Tag Archives: lean customer experience

Lean CX Infographic – Employee Engagement (and Disengagement)

October 27, 2017Lean CX Infographiccustomer experience, David McLachlan, disengaged employees, disruptor, effect of low engagement, employee engagement, engagement scores, Lean, lean book, lean customer experience, Lean CX, lean infographicDavid McLachlan

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That’s Right – 67% Of Employees Are Disengaged At Work

And that’s just in the U.S, where people get coffee breaks and are paid more than two dollars an hour. It’s even worse if we look at the broader world where those things aren’t guaranteed, factories can pay a handful of dollars with inhumane conditions and employees are not protected by basic laws.

But having 67% of your employees be disengaged is still pretty bad. After all, disengaged employees are the ones who are more likely to leave, more likely to be sick on average, and even (according to the research) more likely to steal.

But there’s more, and it is discovered and outlined in the book, “The Lean CX Score” by David McLachlan. In the Lean CX Score, David outlines the benefits of designing your work, and your products, properly. And they all point to improved engagement and improved profit as a result.

For a start, disengaged team members or employees are six times more likely to leave their job than their engaged counterparts. That’s a 600% difference. Do you think it’s expensive to acquire customers? Well it’s extremely expensive to find and hire good staff. Between the downtime caused with a lost employee, to the cost of advertising, vetting resumes, interviewing, and training, it is much easier to keep them engaged in the first place.

Engaged team members are also more likely to make you more money. A study by Kenexa found that businesses with highly engaged employees – those in the top quartile of engagement – achieved twice the annual net revenue on average, when compared to businesses with lower engagement scores.

It’s for these reasons that there are entire companies dedicated to the discovery of employee engagement around the world, and companies are lining up to buy their services. Engagement matters.

But You Don’t Have To Suffer Through Low Engagement

If you’d prefer to live in the higher engagement end of town, there is good news. You don’t have to suffer through low engagement scores, as a business owner, a leader managing a team, or a “leader without a title” inside a team of your own where you feel engagement could be higher.

Designing your work for happiness has been proven to have a huge effect on your employees, and it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Take just two steps in the Lean CX Score book – a Repeatable Process, and Checking In.

In 1961, a US psychologist called Mihaly Csikszentmihali interviewed 1000 peole, asking them about the circumstances that made them happy. He called this happiness a state of “Flow”, when things went well, and things just seemed to flow well – when participants felt on top of the world. Mihaly found five main things in common when it came to creating happiness. It happened when his subjects were:

Intensely focused on an activity,
Had control over the outcome,
That was neither too easy not too hard,
That had a clear objective, and;
That gave immediate feedback

The good news about this is having a Repeatable Process, whether it’s interacting with a product in a predictable way each time, or knowing the boundaries of your work so you can easily move into a flow state, has a deep impact on happiness and flow.

And Checking In, which is step five in the Lean CX Score, means we check regularly to see if we’re on track – with our customers, our users, or our team.

There are many more stories and a lot more research in the Lean CX Score book, making it a nice, easy read that will have a huge impact on your results.

I highly recommend you get yourself a copy today.

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Get "The Lean CX Score" now, and start creating disruptors in your industry that completely annihilate your competition.

Oh and good news! You'll be improving the speed, morale and engagement of your teams at the same time. Get the Lean CX Score now.

Lean CX Infographic – The Ideal Shopping Cart Experience

October 21, 2017Lean CX Infographiccreate a disruptor, customer experience, disruptor, Lean, lean book, lean customer experience, Lean CX, lean infographic, online customer experience, shopping cart statisticsDavid McLachlan

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Customers Are Leaving Your Online Shopping Cart

Recent research by the Baymard Institute found that up to 69% of customers were leaving your online shopping cart instead of buying your product or service.

They also found that 35% of those online abandonments were recoverable solely through a better checkout flow and design – in other words most businesses are making things more complicated than they should be, and customers are leaving as a result.

Needless to say, keeping even a small portion of these abandoned orders would have a significant effect on your profit as a business. But the best part about it is that it makes sense, because I know I have been guilty of leaving a complicated shopping cart, and there’s a good chance you have too.

Fast and Easy, or Long and Complicated, Which Would You Prefer?

If you had a choice between your checkout experience being fast and easy, or long and complicated, which would you choose? It might seem like a silly question – even an obvious one – when we put it like that, but the truth is most companies are answering “Long and Complicated” without even knowing it.

They’re answering “Long and Complicated” because they haven’t put in the work or thinking necessary to reduce the complexity in their shopping cart and make it as simple as it needs to be. And they haven’t put in the thinking because they don’t have a simple step-by-step framework like the Lean CX Score that is proven to make it simple and improve their profit as a result.

Reduce The Steps, Reduce The Checkout Fields

The latest research by the Baymard Institute found that the average online shopping cart had more than 14 form fields for a customer to fill out. But the shocking thing is they also found that the ideal customer flow included just seven form fields – around half of what most companies had.

Companies were making it more complicated than it needed to be, which prompted a reduction of 35% of customers in buying their product or service.

Amazon Did It In One Step

Of course you know the story by now – there’e a good chance you have used Amazon.com’s online shopping cart and in many cases, such as with their prime service or Kindle store, you can buy what you want in just one click. If customers leave too often with 14 fields, and a checkout can be done in 7, then Amazon have taken it to the next level and reduced the steps to one.

Do you think that had an effect on their profit? Of course.

Doing things in “One Step” is also one of the recommendations in “The Lean CX Score”, by David McLachlan. In that book there are many more real life examples of companies getting things to a customer in “One Step” instead of many, and gaining stellar results.

There are also five scenarios similar to the “too many fields” dilemma, where customers are prompted to leave a company. Outlined in the “The Lean CX Score”, they are scenarios where a customer leaves because their experience is harder than it needed to be. Apart from extra steps, it might mean extra hand-offs, having to redo things over and over, and having to wait too long to get what they wanted.

If you haven’t read The Lean CX Score yet, I highly recommend you get a copy today.

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Lean CX: (un)Complicate

October 21, 2017Lean CXcreate a disruptor, customer experience, disruptor, Lean, lean book, lean customer experience, Lean CX, Lean CX Score, simplify, uncomplicateDavid McLachlan

(un)Complicate – Don’t Be Fooled By Complicated Things

Have you ever had someone explain something to you, but the way they explained it was just too complicated? And no matter how they tried, it just got more confusing, not less.

Here’s some good news – it’s not your fault that it seemed complicated. It’s not uncommon for some people to try and confuse things to make you comply, or to try and make you feel less because you don’t understand. But the real reason something might seem complicated is that if someone doesn’t understand a topic well enough, then they cannot explain it simply.

Einstein Agrees

Einstein wrote: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” In other words, complicated things, products and complicated explanations are not the result of people being smarter than you – they are actually the result of people not understanding it well enough to make it as simple as it should be. Complicated things are the result of lazy thinking – things that haven’t been thought through well enough to be explained in simple terms.

And the same goes for your business, your products, and your team.

Uncomplicate

The Simple Truth About Complicated Things

It might seem like a paradox then, that in making things simple it actually takes more work, more thinking, and more intelligence initially. You have to do the thinking on where to reduce steps, where to perform steps more concisely, or how to get the outcome more quickly and efficiently.

And that is the kind of thinking that most people either don’t know how to do, or worse, can’t be bothered doing. After all, how many times have you been forced to do something at work in a more complicated way than it should be, or forced to jump through more hoops in getting a product from a company than you needed to? And it wasn’t because it had to be done that way – many times it was simply because it had always been done that way, and the complicated way became the default over time.

The good news is that The Lean CX Score offers you a repeatable framework for making things simple – the opposite of complicated – (un)Complicated. You can improve your work, your business and your products, and improve the opportunity for customers to buy from you as a result, using a simple, step-by-step method.

(un)Complicating Things Also Improves Sales Significantly

Every time a process is more complicated than it should be, and your customer is forced to go through it, you are increasing the chance that they will leave you.

“Breakpoints” are those places in your customer experience where a customer will leave, never to return. The Lean CX Score outlines five of the most common customer breakpoints, and how to solve them. Here are some examples:

By having too many steps in the customer experience – every extra step is another “breakpoint”, that could be a prompt for a customer to leave.

By having too many hand-offs in the customer experience – every extra hand-off is a breakpoint that is an opportunity for a customer to leave.

By making a customer redo things more than once – every extra time they have to redo it is a breakpoint that will frustrate a customer to the point of leaving, and;

By making customers wait too long for something – every minute longer is another reason for a customer to break up with you and leave.

(un)Complicating Things Also Reduces Costs Significantly

Let’s think about simplicity from a cost perspective. By reducing steps in your customer experience you are reducing the work to be done to get the customer what they wanted. By reducing the work to be done you are reducing the cost of the work. By reducing the cost of the work you are improving the profit of your business.

It’s the same principle whether you’re thinking about your supply chain in business, or your value chain in delivering goods and services, or the processes you go through to get the outcomes you want. Every time you reduce steps, reduce hand-offs, reduce waiting and any other Lean CX Waste, you are giving yourself the opportunity to get ahead.

You Don’t Have To Start From Scratch

If you’re ready to (un)complicate your business and your products, and put in the initial thinking required to make things more simple, the good news is that you don’t have to start from scratch.

The Lean CX Score provides you with the exact, step-by-step framework you need to (un)complicate and start seeing the success you deserve. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you get a copy.

#5 Lean CX Comic – Make It Simple (Or They Will Leave You)

October 21, 2017Lean CX Comicbusiness improvement, create a disruptor, customer experience, disruptor, entrepreneur, lean comic, lean customer experience, Lean CX, Lean CX ScoreDavid McLachlan

#5 Lean CX Comic – Make It Simple (Or They Will Leave You)

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News Flash: People Aren’t Buying Your Complicated Products

It’s official. People prefer doing things that are easy. You’ve been in that situation, haven’t you? Something has been too hard, taken too long, been passed along too may times, so you left.

If it’s hard to use, fewer people will use it. Sure, there might be a small percentage who put in the time and work through it – maybe they really like you or your company, or maybe there is another benefit like status or money involved. But keep it complicated for too long, and they won’t stick around forever.

What Does “A Complicated Product” mean?

Saying something is complicated is all very well, but what does it actually mean?

In the book “The Lean CX Score“, David McLachlan outlines five scenarios for complicated products, called the Lean CX Wastes.

Lean Customer Experience means exactly that – the customer experience is streamlined and not full of wasteful things or experiences. Things such as having to redo something over and over, having to perform too many steps to get what a customer wanted, or being handed off between too many people or departments. If you’ve ever had to do any of those you will know what I mean – the experience can be frustrating and every wasteful step you are forced to perform grates on your patience just a little bit more, until finally you leave.

It Works Everywhere

Recent research into online shopping carts by the Baymard Institute found that the average online shopping cart experience had 14 fields, when they really only needed 7 for an ideal checkout flow. They also found that 35% of abandoned online orders were recoverable solely through a better checkout flow and design. The research is there, and it happens everywhere. Online checkouts are one thing we can simplify, but what about the work your teammates or employees do when delivering a product or service?

All the way through the value chain your business is making things more complicated than they have to be, which increases cost, increases the likelihood a customer will leave and reduces your profit as a result.

After all, in chasing the latest gimmick or management fad it is tempting to forget about the lifeblood of any business – your customers – and the money they bring by buying your product or service.

Reducing complexity in your product prompts more people to buy, and reducing complexity in the value chain that delivers your product lowers the cost of delivering it.

The Lean CX Score Is The Step-By-Step Framework For Making Things Simple

If complex products or services are the enemy of good customer experience, then it makes sense to use the Lean CX Score framework as a step-by-step guide to making things simple.

One of the Lean CX steps is called “One Step Flow”, where a customer can get what they want in one step, instead of many different steps over many different people.

You will absolutely love the Lean CX book, because it gives many different real-life examples of One Step Flow – from signing up to watch Game of Thrones in one step, getting the best Energy deal in one step, a hospital getting cancer scans and diagnoses in one step, posting a job ad in one step, and much, much more.

That is just one part of the Lean CX Score – imagine what you could do with the rest of it too?

If you want to improve your business, team, or job prospects, I highly recommend you read it today.

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Lean CX Infographics

October 17, 2017Lean CX Infographicbusiness, create a disruptor, customer experience, David McLachlan, disruptor, entrepreneur, Lean, lean book, lean customer experience, Lean CX, lean infographicDavid McLachlan

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Lean CX Comics

October 17, 2017Lean CX Comicbusiness, comic, create a disruptor, customer experience, cx, David McLachlan, disruptor, entrepreneur, Lean, lean book, lean comic, lean customer experience, Lean CXDavid McLachlan

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Lean CX Infographic – Online Shopping Cart Abandonment at 69%

October 8, 2017Lean CX Infographicbe like amazon, create a disruptor, customer experience, disruptor, disruptor not disrupted, infographic, lean customer experience, Lean CX, lean cx book, shopping cart abandonmentDavid McLachlan

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69% Of Customers Are Leaving You At The Most Important Time

Online business is booming. Everywhere you look around the world there are businesses ranging from small startups, to huge corporations, to single parents selling home-made items out of their garage, and they’re all moving their sales channels online.

If you are in one of those businesses, this infographic should terrify you. The Baymard Institute found that 69% of customers were abandoning their online shopping carts instead of purchasing the product or service, leaving at the most critical moment for a business in the customer journey – the moment where they actually fork over their cold hard cash.

Businesses Need Money, And Customers Have Money

It seems simple, doesn’t it? Customers pay you money for a product or service, and you use that money to operate your business and (hopefully) turn a profit. The more customers you have, the more money they pay you. The best businesses in the world finds ways to serve millions of people and make billions of dollars in return.

Customers can be business to business (B2B), or business to customer (B2C), or any other type you could think of, but the point is that so many businesses forget about that crucial element – where the money comes from – that lifeblood of any business endeavour. And the key that unlocks that door is Customer Experience, and more specifically Lean CX, but I can’t tell you about that just yet.

This Knowledge Can Make You A Disruptor

So how can this knowledge help you, then?

We know that 69% of customers abandon their online shopping carts, but what can you do with that?

They say “Knowledge is power”, but let’s be honest – you and I already know that knowledge alone is not enough. Having knowledge is definitely a start though – after all, most people you know or work with don’t know this information and in the land of the blind, the one eyed person is king.

No, knowing this is not enough, unless you have a repeatable framework – a lens to look through – that can give you the right action to take. That framework is the Lean CX Score.

The Lean CX Score is a set of six repeatable steps – six questions you can ask that apply to any business endeavour, any product or service and any task your team provides. Step two of the Lean CX Score just happens to be a little thing called “One Step Flow”.

One Step Flow – The Key To Reducing 69% Online Shopping Cart Abandonment

When you have this framework – this repeatable framework you can apply to anything – then suddenly the Baymard Institute research becomes clear. Suddenly you are a genius, instead of another disrupted company.

One Step Flow asks us “Can I get what I want in One Step?”

That means no logging in, no filling out details, no getting your credit cards, no forgetting your password, no checking your balance, and no additional steps that would cause a customer to abandon. Can you think of someone else who created a one-step customer experience?

Amazon.

Their online checkout features a little thing called “One Click Buy”, where a customer is already logged in, usually via an app, and only has to click the buy button and the rest is taken care of. No address details, no payments details, it’s already done.

Now – knowing that 69% of customers abandon their online shopping cart, Amazon effectively got rid of their shopping cart by using the Lean CX Score step of “One Step Flow”. What could that mean for their sales? Is it possible they could increase by 10%? Maybe 30%? What about the full 69%, as word of mouth gets around that they are easy to buy from, and costs are lowered because their process is so streamlined?

Amazon’s stock price has certainly seen some benefit of increased profit over the years (in other words, their stock price is going up, up and up).

Can You Imagine The Possibilities?

With the right step by step, repeatable framework, you can do the same thing as Amazon and completely disrupt the industry that you’re in. Part of disrupting your industry is the secret of One Step Flow, but there are five other steps in the Lean CX Score.

Imagine what you could do with all six? Maybe it’s about time you got the book.

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