I am a big fan of Marmite. And for those of you who are scratching your head as to what this stuff is, Marmite is a British condiment that you typically spread on toast or have in hot water as a sort of tea. It is an acquired taste that is salty and a bit bitter. It is made from malt extract which is essentially a byproduct of the beer brewing process, and to put it simply, you either love it or hate it. There are not many middle-of-the-roaders on this.

Now, even though I am a professed, die-hard lover of Marmite, I must confess one major drawback to this lovely nectar and that drawback is the jar. It is decidedly unfriendly.

Once you get to the bottom of it, you simply cannot get the last bits of the delectable substance due to the shape. No implement fits, and thus, some product is wasted. I hate that. It may seem miserly of me, but I do not like waste.

Now, how difficult would it be to provide this in a jar with straight sides so you can get at it easily and get every last bit? Wouldn’t that be more user-friendly, and isn’t user-friendliness important? I mean, would you want your employees to be snarky and discourteous? Of course not, you want them to be nice. Shouldn’t we expect the same from products and the packaging they come in?  I say yes. We should want products to be friendly just like we want people to be friendly.

Take a look around your business. Are your products friendly? Are they easy on the eyes and as effortless to use as possible? If not, what needs to change?

This is yet another thing to think about in the customer experience, one that gets missed many times. We often only look at the human or process elements of the experience while the product dimension is overlooked. How customers experience the product is at least as important as how they experience your people so don’t overlook this. Design a jar that works. Design a package that is easy to open. Everything, from the jar to the parking lot to your website to every touch your team members make with a customer, matters in the experience. Make every one of those things fantastic. That is what builds trust, delight, long-term loyalty, and ultimately, more financial success.

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