One of the things I like most about Loyalty Day is the variety of speakers we’re able to hear from. So I was very excited to hear from Jeanne Bliss – author, leader, founder of Customer Bliss (what a great name!) and known, fondly, as the ‘godmother of customer experience’.
Leanne is from the US, and Loyalty Day clashed with Thanksgiving but, fortunately for us, she was willing to record her thoughts in a chat with our own Richard Spencer in advance.
Jeanne, like Hayley Ward from M&S at the start of the day, brought a different viewpoint from having worked with many of the world’s largest companies. And there were a couple of nuggets that jumped out to me.
Firstly, I love the idea of a ‘goal map’. It’s a complete shift in focus – away from us thinking purely about what we want or what the processes should be to focussing on what customers goals are. If we start with a real understanding of a customer’s goals then we can operationalise this.
I think this is extremely important in our sector. Just think about the language that is often used:
We want to bring in new donors.
We want to convert them to regular giving.
We want to encourage them to leave a gift in a will.
We want to develop supporter journeys that achieve this.
But that’s not want supporters want. They want to protect children, feed the hungry, help find a cure for cancer… And they want to feel valued and respected, they want to learn from the experience and they want to feel that they make a difference. It’s this 180 degree shift in perspective that will help us create entirely new experiences for supporters.
I’ll be using ‘goal maps’ as part of my supporter journey mapping from now on.
The second nugget I took was the insight into how the process of giving will impact on how donors feel about the charity and about themselves. Jeanne talked about how companies should make it easy to buy from them (and for us that we should make the process of giving easy) because, “the mechanics of giving very much impact on the reward of giving”. In other words, if we make it hard to give, not only do we lose people who will give up, even those that do give won’t feel as good about it and will therefore be less likely to come back again.
It’s so important to understand the impact that every aspect of the supporter experience has on how supporters feel. And Jeanne gave us a great reminder of this.
Watch Richard and Jeanne’s chat here.
Did you attend Loyalty Day? If so, we’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback – please drop us a line. We’re already planning Loyalty Day 2021 – so put Thursday 18th November 2021 in your diary now.
And if there’s anything you heard that you’re wondering how you can use it in your charity then just drop us a note – we’d be delighted to talk it through.
Roger: 07929 208 848
Richard: 07703 483 220