April 16, 2020
Court Carruthers, CEO, TricorBraun
Listen on:
Did you know only 25 percent of businesses have a well-developed strategy to improve customer experiences? Almost 40 percent of businesses cite “complexity” as the greatest barrier to improving user experiences across multichannel platforms. This high rate of companies lacking a UX strategy might surprise many. Why the delay? Are these companies overestimating the complexity of the issue?
While many consumer and B-B brands are scrambling to lock-down their UX practices in order to upgrade customer satisfaction and retention – smart ones like Grainger – are going beyond ease-of-use goals and using digital innovations and data to understand UX at a granular level. I think Grainger has built one of the top digital teams in corporate America focused on B-B innovation in mobile, UX and ecommerce. They are a great case study showing the power of investing in technology and empowering people to solve complex problems in mature categories.
“take things that worked really well on the digital side and applying them back in the traditional business”
At an entertaining Reboot Stories, at the AKTA Innovation Series, I conducted another no-holds barred interview in front of a live audience with Court Carruthers, President of Americas at Grainger. We debated how large companies can thrive simply by treating B-B customers more like consumers, ensuring users get an optimal experience at every touch point with the company.
Use What’s In Front of You
Companies churn out data at almost incomprehensible rates. More and more, that data is coming as a result of ecommerce transactions, but many companies are failing to use this information or connect it to other collected data. Carruthers says that “taking some of those things that have worked really well on the digital side and applying them back in the traditional business” has allowed Grainger to have a more analytical, data-driven approach to UX and overall business.
See the Bigger Picture
Let’s face it – the days of simple consumer-brand interactions have long since passed, with the average consumer estimated to have 56 interactions with a brand before making a final purchase. Digital interactions happen on desktop, mobile and tablet, creating the ultimate multichannel customer. Although Grainger is a B2B business, Carruthers says their consumers “expect the exact same level of transaction simplicity” as they’d receive with a B2C company. Recognizing the importance of each individual consumer interaction for these multichannel customers, Grainger continually reviews and refines its business processes to ensure streamlined customer experiences across all platforms.
Define your Core Customers
Carruthers notes that many companies make the mistake of investing in improving the UX of their digital experiences without first establishing a clear definition of their core customers’ “personas.” Instead of gaining deep knowledge of their customers’ needs and then leveraging that knowledge in designing highly personalized and contextualized UX, they end up serving “peripheral needs.” This type of strategy may work in the short term but it is not sustainable. Grainger creates highly differentiated digital experiences, vs. its competitors, with substantial investments in their UX design and in key UX practices like ethnographic research and contextual inquiry. Customer insights become integral competitive advantages.
