👋, I’m Kimberly. I’ve been creating obsession-worthy brands for the past fifteen years. And now, I’m giving away my secrets every week in this newsletter.
Last month, Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky made headlines for a big change to his personal living situation.
Chesky continued:
Why am I doing this? I think the pandemic has created the biggest change to travel since the advent of commercial flying. For the first time, millions of people can now live anywhere. Remote work has untethered many people (obviously not everyone, but a large chunk) from the need to be in an office every day… More people will start living abroad, others will travel for the entire summer, and some will even give up their leases and become digital nomads. So that’s why I’m living on Airbnb. It’ll be fun, but more importantly, it will help us improve the experience for people who can now live anywhere
As Chesky goes full-on in living his customer’s lifestyle, it got me thinking…
Why don’t more companies do this kind of thing more often?
Understanding who your customer is and what he or she needs from you is so mission-critical. And walking a mile in your customers’ shoes (or sleeping in their short-term rentals!) can give you insights you might never get any other way than sharing in the same deeply personal experience.
In an ideal world, you could pull a Freaky Friday and body-swap with your customers.
Don’t have the magical fortune cookie capable of performing this kind of complete change of consciousness handy?
No worries!
There are other ways to get the same kind of experience. Here are my five favorites.
1. Connect Personally
Follow all of your brand’s socials on your personal accounts — and try to react as you really would to posts and videos as they come across your feed.
Do you find yourself stopping to read or listen to the posts because they’re interesting?
Do the posts truly seem engaging in the context of all the other content you’re consuming?
Are other people in your feeds doing more to engage you? And if yes, is there anything you can copy from how they’re engaging you?
2. Subscribe to Everything
Subscribe to every kind of message your brand creates, and send them to your personal account.
Pay attention to how they feel in the context of your real (and real crowded!) inbox.
If you’re not excited to open them, then you’ve found a big problem that needs solving…
And when you do open them, actually read them and click on the CTAs to see if the whole messaging stream makes sense and feels compelling.
3. Go Through Your Flow
Order your own products — and take note of every single part of the process.
Purchase a new customer sometimes, and as a returning one other time.
Order on your computer one month, and on your phone the next.
How does it feel to receive your package? Unbox it at home, and unbox it at the office (if you’ve gone back to one!).
4. Show Up
If your business has an IRL point of sale, go there and play customer — undercover CEO style.
When I worked for Sephora, I used to visit the store all the time and shop products personally, and I would also take note of everything happening during the experience.
How did the storage associates try to help?
What happened in the checkout line?
How did I feel leaving the store?
5. Be the Use Case
This may seem like the simplest thing to do — but it has to be said…
Use your company’s products regularly! In your real life!
Note what you like and don’t like
Think about how the product fits into your day-to-day
Ask yourself what it could do better for you personally
Whether you’re the target customer for your brand or not, I promise that taking this Freaky Friday approach to your customer experience will unearth unexpected insights.
And when you try the strategies above, I’d love to hear what you dig up!
Let me know at kimberly@brandsthatgetyou.com.
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About Me
I help early-stage founders create the kind of brands that get customers so obsessed, they’ll do your advertising for you.
Based on my experience founding my own consumer brand, I developed The Branding Sprint—a uniquely collaborative, streamlined, and agile approach to brand creation.
Click here to learn more about The Branding Sprint, or schedule a call with me.