As a general rule, simply better beats deliberately different. And this insight should have a profound impact on the direction and focus of CX initiatives. Here’s why.

In every category of product or service there are generic sources of value that appeal to the most customers, most of the time. In online shopping for example, everyone benefits from a simple transaction, prompt reliable delivery, and easy returns.

To dominate your market, you want to out-perform rivals on these generic factors because it makes you most attractive, to the most people, in the most buying situations. 

And yet, performance on these fundamental sources of value varies substantially between competitors, however much we consider them “table stakes”. 

You will no doubt have experienced this in your personal life — occasionally wondering why routine, high frequency or important tasks as a customer are often so painful or clunky. I can tell you why. 

Rather than aspiring to be better, most brands aspire to be different in some way. They try to cook up a USP, or get entranced by new fads, technologies or side-shows that they think will make them stand out. 

This causes them to systematically ignore the generic sources of value, even though they have the greatest impact on how appealing the experience is to current and prospective customers. 

To cut to the chase: if your CX program isn’t designed to maximize performance on these generic sources of value, there’s a huge opportunity that’s staring you in the face.

This topic has so far been one of the three most popular parts of The Leader’s Guide to Customer Experience e-learning course, and I’m delighted that the feedback so far has been excellent. Link is in the comments! 

Ps. There’s a book on this called Simply Better by Patrick Barwise — highly recommended also. It’s one of the further reading recommendations in the course.

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