In a world where we are bombarded with information all day long, and from every direction, attention has become an increasingly valuable commodity. In recent years, the average human attention span has reportedly shrunk to just 8.25 seconds – shorter than that of a goldfish.
This shocking statistic has far-reaching implications, especially in the field of customer experience, where organisations compete to regain the customer’s attention after an experience has taken place and the customer has – we hope – got what they came for.
It’s no wonder that traditionally it has been the ‘outliers’ – people who have had either a very good or very bad experience – who have most readily given feedback.
“The more an interaction deviates from our expectations – either above or below – the more memorable it becomes.”
- Ben Motteram
The problem of attention-span deficit doesn’t end there, because when you’ve finally got all that rich feedback you were seeking, you have a new problem. How do you gain the attention of others in your organisation, so that feedback can be digested and understood? Short attention spans are as much of a problem within an organisation, as they are outside it. The customer experience professionals we work with talk of C-level executives who want ten-page reports shrunk down to just one page.
Firstly, keep your feedback surveys short and sweet. Stick to the point – or to two or three points at most. Don’t think that because you have miraculously gained a customer’s precious attention for longer than 8 seconds, you must now dump every question you ever had on to them – this will annoy them, and ultimately drive them away. As the award-winning author and journalist Celeste Headlee said in her TED Talk on the art of conversation: “Don’t multitask,” and, “Stay out of the weeds.”
Make the survey easy to complete. Better still, don’t make it feel like a survey at all – make it feel like a conversation, the type of conversation Celeste Headlee would like you to have –the type that leaves the customer feeling satisfied that they have been listened to.
In short, when surveying customers, stick as closely to you can to the great advice of one Franklin D. Roosevelt, who famously said:
“Be sincere. Be brief. Be seated.”
This leads us to the next question. When your survey has closed and you’ve collected all your data, how do you engage your colleagues with the findings?
Sharing the actual voice of the customer has definitely helped us to socialise the feedback we collect for our clients – voices carry emotion; as humans we are hardwired to respond to the emotions of others. For several years we have been delivering animated videos rich with emotion that inspire and engage. Our clients love our videos and share them widely – but what about the stats? The scores; the hard, quantitative data? The ten pages of graphs and numbers that the c-level executives want shrunk down to one.
At BigEars we are constantly looking for ways to make both the qualitative and the quantitative data pop. Yes, that’s right – pop! With that in mind, this year we are launching a new product designed to put all aspects of the customer experience front and centre. No more ten-page reports – and no one-page reports either. Faces, voices, stories – curated and analysed, and delivered direct to the people in your organisation who need to see and hear them.
It's called Customer News, and it’s coming this April.
Find out more by clicking here: https://www.bigears.com/customer-news
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