How to ThinkLikeAnApp to Reach Today’s Consumers - Neal Polachek

Today there is a concern from consumers about getting out in public and especially around groups of people. At the same time, I think it’s an opportunity for businesses to pause and think about how they are conducting business. Are there areas in their business, they can leverage technology to improve the customer experience? 

About a year and a half ago I was asked to speak on the topic of the customer journey. As I thought about the presentation, I found myself staring at my phone and the idea hit me. Our devices, often our phones, are where today’s customer journey begins and ends. That’s what triggered the idea that local businesses need to reorient their business to ThinkLikeAnApp. 

What I have set out to do with the ThinkLikeAnApp framework is to take the learnings from big businesses and empower local businesses with the core principles. I read somewhere, the findings from a 2012 survey, said that 36 percent of companies believed the customer experience was a key competitive differentiator. Today that number has grown to 89 percent. Another stat I saw recently was 86 percent of modern consumers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. 

There are three pillars to the ThinkLikeAnApp framework authenticity, transparency, and immediacy. When it comes to creating authenticity it is simply telling the story behind why you do what you do. Whatever business you are in you have to convey to your customers who you are and why they should do business with you. Your website is one of the key areas that you should be communicating this message regularly. 

In terms of transparency, it is virtually impossible in today’s world to keep things hidden from consumers. The problem is bad will come to light all by itself, so your job as the local business owner is to shine a light on the good too. That can look like sharing the progress on a job or insights from your industry that your consumers would care about knowing. People love to feel connected to the process of how a product or service is delivered. 

When you think about immediacy it is about removing friction points along the customer journey. Small businesses need to think about if they are easy for consumers to do business with them. What are you doing to speed people through your process so they get the help needed as quickly as possible? 

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