You need a new laptop, and here you are sitting in front of a screen looking at tons of data on laptop computers. It is mind-boggling. You are overwhelmed. Regardless, you whittle down the myriad options to a handful. Now what? You are off to a friend.

Every computer company now must hope that your friend is on their side. They must hope that the experience your friend has had has been good enough for a positive reference. 

But that computer company has spent the bulk of its marketing efforts on communicating features and benefits, numbers and figures, and RAM and ROM. And when it comes to their internal conversation, it is focused on financials, shareholders, and how to beat the competition with customer interests only getting a scant mention here and there. Essentially, all those messy human concerns are in the backseat to all the measurable stuff that is discussed ad nauseam as the key to success.

However, now, unfortunately for the computer company, that laptop sale is coming down to the messy subjective feelings of a potential customer relying on the messy subjective feelings of a friend. All of those facts, figures, and financials the computer company has spent all its time on now hinge on those human concerns they’ve only paid lip service to.

That, more or less, sums up one of the central reasons why the customer experience matters so much. People listen to people — friends and family in particular. And those people’s words can derail all of the data, good ratings from past buyers, and reviews from “experts.” And those words are rarely facts and figures; they’re typically words like “great,” “love it,” “they suck,” “hate it.” Those are human words coming from humans who have human feelings and human reactions. 

So, to all of you customer experience deniers: you can dismiss the warm-and-cuddlies all you like, but when it comes down to decision time, those warm-and-cuddlies are the real deal makers or breakers. 

So, are you going to stop crossing your fingers, or are you going to begin making humans the focus of the conversation?

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