The CX Leader Podcast: "CX for Start-ups, Part 1": Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

The CX Leader Podcast: "CX for Start-ups, Part 1": this wav audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Steve:
Starting a company can be exciting and scary at the same time. So amongst all the chaos of getting a new venture off the ground, how do you start to get to know your customers?

Jen:
A lot of times these founders lived and breathe the space that they're looking to disrupt. They've seen that need for change, but they've got to get close to whether it's early customers or potential customers and really understand, is my idea going to help them? And is it not just a good idea, but a commercializable idea. So can this be a real business?

Steve:
If you're a new business owner, then you might want to listen carefully. CX for start-ups on this episode of The CX Leader Podcast.

Announcer:
The CX Leader Podcast with Steve Walker is produced by Walker, an experience management firm that helps our clients accelerate their XM success. You can find out more at walkerinfo.com.

Steve:
Hello, everyone. I'm Steve Walker, host of The CX Leader Podcast and thank you for listening. It's never been a better time to be a CX leader and this podcast explores all the topics and themes to help leaders like you leverage all the benefits of your customer experience and help your customers and prospects want to do more business with you. New business owners have a lot to think about when trying to get their company off the ground, and hopefully one of the many things in their mental to-do list is customer experience. We've always maintained that a strong CX program and customer centric culture is vital in today's business environment, and that's just as true for new companies, maybe even more so. But how do you get started? What insights should you gather first? And what about scalability? Well, today's guest is going to help us explore this topic more. I'm really excited to bring back and welcome back to the podcast, my friend and former colleague Jen Batley, founder and executive consultant for Batley Advisory, an advisory to early stage startups and scale ups. Jen, welcome back to The CX Leader Podcast.

Jen:
It's great to be here again, Steve.

Steve:
Yeah. How you been?

Jen:
I've been really good. Really good.

Steve:
Well, for those who don't know you as well as I do, which is very well, just give us a little brief history on kind of your journey and maybe finish up by telling us a little bit more about Batley advisory.

Jen:
Yeah. So as you know, I spent about 20 years working with you and the team at Walker, so really immersed in the world of customer experience, but at the time really focused on larger organizations, so often really big global enterprises that were working through complex customer experience, strategy and action rollouts.

Steve:
You actually left us to go to the corporate side for a while, right?

Jen:
I did. I did. I left and went to the corporate side again in a really big organization. And then I shifted down to smaller sized companies. And for a couple of years I ran a digital marketing analytics company, and then I moved back into the world of consulting and advisory. And now I've really shifted my focus to the world of start-ups and scale-ups. So it's a really exciting space to be in. There's never a dull moment and for me, lots of variety. So I'm working with a company whose mission it is to democratize 3D content creation for VR and the Metaverse, one whose software is helping writers turn first drafts into bestsellers. Another one focused on AI governance. And I'm just starting to talk with the company who's disrupting in the construction industry. So these founders and new businesses are touching all kinds of different industries and have all kinds of different customers in the mix.

Steve:
Well, you know, when we've kind of reconnected here a few weeks ago and found out a little bit more about what you were doing, I was really excited to do this because obviously there's a huge amount of entrepreneurial and startup energy going on in our economy. A lot of it brought about, frankly, by not just the changes in technology, but really the changes that have been brought about to the world through COVID and, you know, some of the other stuff going on. So I think this is going to be a really great episode. And I think, you know, many of us have multiple careers these days. So even if you've worked corporately or on the consulting side and you know, just for the benefit of my listeners, Jen Batley really is one of the best CX professionals I've ever had the pleasure to work with. And that goes back like a lot longer than even Jen worked for us, but she's the real deal. And so I think, you know, just what you're doing in the in the startup and scale up phase will really be interesting to our listeners. So. Well, let's talk about that because I think usually a company startup is probably driven not as much through a need in the market, although inherently it has to, right? So they have to see some sort of gap in the marketplace. So how do you start to kind of plug that thinking into what might be kind of a technology or a just an idea that somebody has? What should you be trying to find out or what should be trying to build in there early on?

Jen:
Yeah, you're you're right, Steve. Early on, you know, these companies, they don't have a huge amount of customers. They're not mature in that way. So they're not thinking about customer experience the way that more established companies are. They're not designing listening systems. They're not designing incentives around it. They just don't have the volume to support that kind of activity or the resources. What they're doing a lot of the time is coming in and disrupting a space that has established players in it with a brand new idea. Often that's driven by technology. So where they're really focused or where they need to be focused is on finding product market fit. So really asking the questions, what's the problem that we're solving? Who's our best fit customer and how big is this opportunity really? So they're in there, they're looking for signals. A lot of times these founders are coming out of those industries. So they've lived and breathed the space that they're looking to disrupt. They've seen that need for change, but they've got to get close to whether it's early customers or potential customers and really understand, is my idea going to help them? And is it not just a good idea, but a commercializable idea? So can this be a real business?

Steve:
Yeah, I've just taken a little few notes here because I think you've put a really good framework on this, and it's kind of one of my go-to default things that most successful businesses already have some sort of customer centricity or they wouldn't be in business, right? And yet I don't know if you've got the stats, but there's still a high percentage of startups that don't make it or don't make it very far. But the ones that do obviously have to create some sort of customer value, some sort of value that customers are willing to pay for. So what are some of the things that trip up these young companies that they don't get right? And it's probably going to go back somewhat to your framework you just laid out here, I assume, but maybe we put a little more color on that.

Jen:
Yeah, and there's a couple of things I might come back to, but if we think about kind of where the where do these really early stage companies kind of fall down? There's a few things that come up. And one of the big ones is they get not just excited about their idea, which they need to be. You need to have that passion, but they get overly attached to that first concept for their product. And this can show up in a couple of ways. Sometimes it means they're not engaging with their customers at all. They've decided they've got an idea, they've decided it's a winner, and they spend a lot of time and money and sometimes not their own money, investor money, and put a lot of effort into bringing a product to market that doesn't actually have a buyer. And that kind of kicks the problem down the road. But they end up with a product that they're trying to bring to market that nobody really wants. The other way it can show up is they they discount that customer input. So they kind of have and it's not in an arrogant way, but a bit of a we know better at it…

Steve:
They don't get it.

Jen:
… yeah, so they're not they're just, they're not listening to what their early users are telling them. They're just too attached to their original plan. And a lot of times that plan is actually a more advanced version of their product. It's maybe more complex, it's got more of the features, and that comes from these founders who live in that world. And they're you know, they've spent so much time immersed in their idea and figuring out the solution that they're much further down the path than their customers are. And their customers just aren't ready for it and they won't pay for it, at least not today. So there's a bit of a tension there between this idea of innovation and pushing the envelope and disrupting and kind of the business reality of commercialization and what can I actually sell. So when you're early on, that simplicity is is hard to beat, I would say the other, the other thing that can trip up an early stage company when they're thinking about their customers and this is maybe sort of the other going a little too far to listen to customers is being careful that you're not being overly influenced by one or two voices that aren't actually your ideal customer profile. So the squeakiest wheel isn't always the one that needs the grease. Sometimes that's just noise. So really being able to filter out the noise from the true signals about is this product or idea that I've got actually going to solve a need for a group of customers and a group of customers who is big enough and willing to pay enough that this can become a viable business.

Steve:
Well, you just got my mind going so crazy. A few things. You know, I think your early thought there about how, you know, overly attached people can become to the idea is a great way not only for your your organization to come in and provide guidance, but it's again, it's another statement for the importance of gathering real marketplace feedback in some sort of organized fashion. And then the other thing, it kind of strikes me as this whole concept of Agile, where you're early on get people involved in the process and you're willing to modify it. So is any of that kind of register?

Jen:
It does. And a lot of these early stage companies, they're actually pretty good at Agile.

Steve:
Yeah.

Jen:
And because their teams are small, they know they're learning, they're…

Steve:
Came from that world.

Jen:
Yeah. Yeah. So that's that's not a problem or a real challenge for them. It's again, it's really parsing out the true signals. And when do you pivot? What is the input that you actually react to? And they are we talked about they don't have big teams, they don't have big resources and really they're too early to launch structured customer listening. They really need to be going deep with customers and engaging those early users, even test users and in deep conversations and get the richness of the information that they're looking for so that you can kind of peel back the layers on what what do you really need? How could you use this and what do you like? What don't you like? And I think about there's a framework, the Jobs to be done framework, which is a really great approach to these conversations. What are you actually trying to accomplish and how could this new product or service make that easier, faster, cheaper, whatever the pain they've got help figure out how you're going to get them to that outcome. So that will feed in to sort of your product roadmap potentially or how you service and what you actually end up building. The other part of that is who are you building for and having those really deep conversations. Let's you understand kind of another layer to you might think you know who your target group is or who your target customer is. What else can you learn about them? What are the nuances of that group? What wraps around their core needs? What's most critical to them? Where do they spend their time? Where can you find more of them? Can they connect you to other users and really flesh out that picture of who who ultimately is going to be that first strong base of users and advocates who can get your product and your company rolling and then you can expand from there.

Jen:
And maybe the last thing I would say is when you think about how they're listening to their customers and gathering that input and bringing it into the business, they they often are disruptors. They're bringing these new ideas to life. Those new ideas need the oxygen of that customer perspective. And that's not just that closeness to early users. It's also talking to customers who who leave you or early users who seem really excited and then they taper off and really understanding why are you leaving? What what was missing? Did they find something that was better? What made that more attractive to them? And again, is there something different about that group of customers that leave that's leaving that you're actually okay with? Because, again, part of that early product market fit is figuring out who your right customer is and it's not going to be everyone. So you have to… You have to really get comfortable with this idea that we're not for everyone and some people aren't going to to like us.

Steve:
Yeah, it's again, you're just it's so thought provoking because, you know, I think a lot of us, particularly practitioners who've come up sort of from the research oriented side, we think about these things very quantitatively, you know, how can we get more quantitative data? But in the startup case, it's definitely going to be a qualitative deal early on. But but all the same and all the but all the same disciplines have to be there, right? So like, you know, sometimes we joke around like that, you know, what we do for companies doesn't make a lot of sense for entrepreneurs because it's all in their head. But the discipline to start almost start segmenting your, your, your markets by those who just like what you're talking about there, you know, it's okay to have some players in the market not like you because that's okay that that means that that's not your segment. And it's so so we're already starting to say, hey, these could be truly loyal customers. These ones probably wouldn't be good customers. And starting to put that into your business process.

Jen:
Yeah. And you're looking for those really passionate customer advocates for you early on. And really, if you're if you're building for everyone, you're kind of building for no one, right? You're never going to make everyone happy. So find that core and build for them. And I, I think about one of the companies that I'm working with, Masterpiece Studio. They're working on building an immersive 3D content creation pipeline, which means that they're taking this complex world of 3D content creation and simplifying it so that independent creators, typically individuals, these aren't the Pixar's of the world. They aren't they're not trained in these legacy tools. They can actually create three dimensional animated content inside VR. This is a space that's been emerging for a long time. We've heard the promise of VR. It's kind of been coming, coming, coming. Now we've hit this inflection point, partly fueled by the pandemic and everybody moving even more online. So we're all living in this digital world more than ever. We've also got this explosion of metaverse worlds and some of these gaming systems. Suddenly there's a need for this that's greater than it has ever been before. But we've got people coming in who maybe we need to learn deeply about what who these new users are and how are they reacting to this tool. They haven't lived in this world for a long time. So with a fresh set of eyes, what can we learn? And so for them, you know, they've got their head of growth and their creative team leads, really spending deep, in-depth time with early adopters and some of these really forward thinking creators and artists to understand what really is the value that you're getting from this now so that those features can be prioritized in the product release and building community and how they go to market. And so really doing that deep listening and getting not just the customer support team, if you have one involved, but think about who's leading your growth, who's building your product. Get those people in touch with customers early as well and get that feedback kind of infused into your organization.

Steve:
Yeah, you mentioned Masterpiece Studios. That's really exciting. I, you know, just kind of listening to you probably would go back to the early days of the iPhone when they opened up for apps where they were just, you know, just this ton of content came flooding out because, you know, all these creative people could access it. And I could see how that is really going to play a role in the next sort of the next iterations of VR.

Jen:
Every everyone's a creator now. So I know. Oh, I know. You think about gaming while I have teenagers. So I see a lot of these these gaming worlds. Right. And people are going to want to port their avatar and their cool hat or their car, whatever it is, from one world to another. And now we're starting to see people go into these worlds for work. So it's just going to become more and more a way to represent your identity online, and people are going to want the flexibility to adapt to that. And we're going to see a lot of ripples of that across a lot of industries and a lot of very different customer experiences coming up because of it.

Steve:
Well, it's just fascinating to think about. Well, Jen, this is such a great subject and I think it's so important for our leaders to know about this, even if they aren't even involved in a startup. So we're going to wrap it up for this week and pick this back up in our next episode. Jen Batley is the founder and executive consultant for Batley Advisory. Jen, thank you for being on The CX Leader Podcast and we'll talk to you again next week.

Jen:
Yeah, thanks for having me back.

Steve:
And to our listeners, be sure to listen to the next episode. We'll discuss scalability, what metrics startups should use, and of course, Jen will give us her take home value. And you don't want to miss that. If you want to talk about anything you heard on this podcast or about how Walker can help your business customer experience, feel free to email me at podcast@walkerinfo.com. Be sure to check out our website cxleaderpodcast.com to subscribe to the show, find all of our previous episodes, podcast series, contact information. You can drop me a note, let us know how we're doing. Suggest a possible topic for a future podcast. We'd love to hear from you. The CX Leader Podcast is a production of Walker. We're an experience management firm that helps companies accelerate their XM success. You can read more about us at walkerinfo.com. Thank you for listening. Remember, it's a great time to be a leader, so go forth and do it. Make your companies more customer focused. Thanks for listening and we'll see you again next time.

Sonix is the world’s most advanced automated transcription, translation, and subtitling platform. Fast, accurate, and affordable.

Automatically convert your wav files to text (txt file), Microsoft Word (docx file), and SubRip Subtitle (srt file) in minutes.

Sonix has many features that you’d love including enterprise-grade admin tools, automated transcription, powerful integrations and APIs, secure transcription and file storage, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.