How you and I can make things better

A few days ago, I told you of three recent experiences I had with mediocre companies cosplaying as good ones.

The way I evaluate and scrutinize every touchpoint is part of my personality. For years, this has seemed like a bug and not a feature. (my daughter called me pretentious because I couldn’t let go of the fact that a coffee shop spelled it “cappucino” on the menu. But come on.)

One of my first real jobs was as a full-time secret shopper. At 18 years-old I was given a list of hundreds of names, addresses, and account numbers for cable customers (this would never fly in current times), and for 7-8 hours a day, my job was to call the cable company, pose as one of the customers, tell them I wanted to cancel my service, and then evaluate how they treated me and how hard they tried to save my business.

The calls were recorded on cassette tapes, all of which were turned in to the cable company for training.

Over time, I started getting in-person assignments as well, sent to retail establishments to sneak pictures (on a disposable camera) and make detailed notes on cleanliness, service, bathrooms, etc.

This helped me excel at all future jobs...particularly Starbucks, who, in the late 1990s/early 2000s, truly had stunning training.

They sent me to coffee college and taught me to have a hyper-critical eye about everything from how many seconds passed between someone walking through the front door and getting greeted to how the smell of my perfume disrupted the smell of fresh beans for customers. (I still get sad when I walk into Starbucks now and see how far they've fallen).

Lastly, the last year has also taught me that I am not interested in managing a team. Soloprenuership is what works for me.

So...in the words of Gary Vee, this is my right hook:

There are three ways I will work with people now:

1. Strategy Sessions:

   • 30-minute quick-fix call where you can come with one very specific challenge and get unstuck, or
   • 90-minute deep dive where we will do a full customer journey review together and spot the highest priority friction points.

2. Customer Experience Transformation-- a comprehensive audit of every touchpoint where I:

   • Experience your entire customer journey firsthand

   • Document every friction point and missed opportunity
   • Identify where reality doesn't match your promises
   • Create clear, actionable fixes prioritized by impact
   • Stay involved to ensure changes actually work by providing implementation support
   • Limited to three clients at a time (currently have one slot available)

3. Experience Design Sprint:

   For companies who understand that transformation happens fast when the right people are in the right room.

   • Two-day intensive workshop to solve your biggest CX challenges
   • Cross-functional team alignment on customer experience gaps
   • Customized exercises based on Google Ventures methodology
   • Clear action plans with owners and timelines
   • Limited to 3 engagements per year (in person only)

Treating customers with respect and humanity should be table stakes, but in case you're more of a "show me the data" person:

$4.7 trillion dollars of sales are lost annually from fractured customer experiences

We don’t need a “human in the loop”, we need “humanity in the loop”.

That's it. End of spiel.

Those of you who've been receiving my newsletter for some time know that I don't send sales emails, but this new direction requires I level-set, so rest assured that it's a one-off.*

Thanks for tuning in,

April

PS: About Community

For those who are interested in community, I have to share this: I've created a gorgeous little product that I won't be offering publicly on my website (because it'll confuse people), but I honestly think it's the best thing I've ever made:

I've fully revamped my CommunityOS course to include:

• A comprehensive step-by-step community design roadmap
• 24(ish) brand new bite-size video lessons on everything from engagement to gamification
• A template library
• A vault of useful tools and resources

Again, you won't find access to it anywhere but this email, but if you are still looking to launch or scale a community, I promise you that it's all you'll ever need.

Get it here

*That's a lie. I'm going to do this once a year.