Customer Experience Library - Tip #12 Watch & Listen

“You can observe a lot just by watching.”

 -Yogi Berra

This a tip gained from the field of usability testing. Primarily this concept is used in software design, but I love to extend it to all businesses, products, services, and yes -  digital experiences.

Take a step back and schedule time to watch. And listen.

If you’re in retail. Sit as a customer in your store and mindfully observe all 5 senses. What do you hear, see, smell, etc. Watch customer come in (or not). What’s the first thing they say, notice, comment on?  Odds are this is how they are going to remember your experience.  After enough observations, an hour, a day, a month (a statically significant sample), you’ll begin to get a feel for what customers feel when they interact with your business.

If you're designing an digital experience, watch over the shoulder of someone using your product for the first time.  Where do they stop - or pause - or hesitate? If you can, ask them to stream of consciousness narrate their experience to get a full view of exactly what they are thinking and feeling. Make sure to hit record!  For best practices, give them a set of simple tasks to accomplish on your app/site, then sit back and observe silently.

If you listen close enough, the customers will usually tell you with their words or more likely with their body language and actions which part of the experience they enjoy, and where they lose interest. 

Watch for them leaning in, smiling, engaging, laughing.

Listen to them complaining, yawn, acting confused…

“Confuse the customer, Lose the customer.”

 -Kevin O’Brien

This is a practice in empathy.

It is time consuming and semi-subjective and touchie-feelie. But I've seen it pay unbelievably large dividends when defining ways to delight your customers at the critical touch points of their journey. 

#designthinking

#empathy

#design

#customerexperience