7 steps to become a design led organization

7 steps to become a design led organization

Gaining business advantage with design culture.



- Rick, UXaudit.io
15th March 2018

Let's start with a few simple questions. What is user experience? Why is customer experience necessary? why do companies like Facebook, Apple Microsoft, Google, Amazon focus more on user experience? How does these help the companies have an advantage from their competitors?

There are companies like Apple, Starbucks, Walt Disney Sony and many more that have grown in market by giving a great user experience to their customers and we all are well aware of their market and brand value. Giving a better consumer experience not only helps in increasing number of consumer but also lets that company understand the consumer mind set and their thoughts about a particular brand or product by their reviews, time spent, number of visits and various other analysis that companies do to attract the customers.
good user experience
Companies such as Apple, Tesla, Airbnb and Nest, that have worked at their core to implement design thinking to their strategies have outperformed other companies in past decade and have shown 219% of overall growth.

So, what you can do to become a design led organization? Here is what you should start focusing on:
  1. Redefine the purpose of your business

    It has been truly said, "The purpose of your business should be to create customers who create another customer" and that's the true business.

    "A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is the part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so".

    In today's world of extreme time shortage and rushing life-style, we just think that contacting to our customers is enough. But that's NOT true. Actually, 'connecting' with our customers is more important than 'contacting' with our customers. And customer experience is the real feedback for any company because the real brand of a product is not its company rather it's the customers.

  2. Align your UX strategy with the 6E principle

    User Experience should be all about user and companies should consider the 6 E's Principle as shown below:

    6E Principle

  3. Build an emotional connection with customers

    Design led organization - Zappos
    Source: mullen.com

    The most memorable customer experiences are the ones that create an emotional connection with customers. A great example comes from Zappos, the popular online shoe store. A customer was late returning a pair of shoes due to a death in the family, so the Zappos' customer service team went out of their way to take care of the return shipping and arranged a courier to pick up the shoes at no cost. They also sent the customer a bouquet and a note offering their condolences. That's service with a human touch.

  4. Get real (time) about feedback

    Real time design feedback
    Source: businesswire.com

    The best way to capture customer feedback is right after you deliver it. Consider post-interaction surveys that can be delivered in real-time through programmed tools such as email or phone calls. Starbucks, for example, often sends an email survey to their customers immediately after a store visit. The survey asks customer service questions specifically for the Starbucks location they had just made a purchase. In the survey, they ask the customer to rank the friendliness of the baristas and speed of the service. AT&T uses SMS or text messaging to send a customer service survey to gather feedback from their customers after visiting their stores.

  5. Focus furiously on individual customer needs

    Design led organization - Supervalu
    Source: neighbourhoodretailer.com

    A great customer service strategy always starts with understanding what your customer needs. And if you really want to know what they need, just ask them. Take Feargal Quinn, the founder and president of Irish food distributor SuperValu. He personally invites twelve customers to join him in a roundtable discussion twice a month. He asks them about service levels, pricing, product quality, and even about upcoming advertising promotions. Quinn uses the feedback to evaluate store managers and to improve the company's strategic planning, and so far, it's really working.

  6. Prove that you really, really appreciate your customers



    People want to feel that the companies they interact with appreciate their business. TD Bank created one of the most memorable customer appreciation campaigns. What was so memorable about it, you ask? They gave away cold, hard, cash. Nothing says thank you like giving away money. But it's not always about money. In their latest campaign, TD created "TD Thank You Account" where they surprised millions of their North American customers at ATMs, in branches and on the phone with personalized messages of thanks and touching gifts. A woman from Drayton Valley, Alberta, who was diagnosed with cancer, received a special vacation getaway to Jasper with her family. When AT&T reached two million fans on Facebook, they thanked their fans by making over 2,000 personalized "thank you" videos. Instead of using boring generic social media updates, you can get creative with showing appreciation to your customers.

  7. Encourage engagement

    Design led organization - Microsoft
    Source: conversocial.com

    The quickest path to a better customer experience is engagement, engagement, engagement. You need to create customer interactions that produce engagement. Example Microsoft. Microsoft has a strong presence on Twitter, with a dedicated Twitter account to numerous themes including security, development, events, careers and customer service. By covering all areas, Microsoft customers can interact and engage with every aspect of the brand. The various Twitter channels all serve a different purpose but what underlines them all is engagement. Other ways you can encourage engagement is by simply asking questions to start conversations, take quick polls, ask for feedback, and comment on other blogs, chats, and forums. Or, you can curate content from your followers. Share user generated content such as photos or videos of your products through contests or other incentives. Respond to your comments in a timely manner on social media. When you respond quickly, customers are more likely to feel that your business values their feedback and will remember your response.

With this I hope you would have got an overview of usability testing and all the peculiarities involved. I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Thanks for your time and feel free to add your comments below and let me know your thoughts about this article.


Author: Rick from UXuadit.io

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