Have you ever had the experience of walking into your favourite coffee shop and the barista knowing what you were going to order before you even got to the counter?
How did that make you feel?
or
Have you ever ordered something online and when it arrived it had a little card or note saying “Thank you for supporting our small family business” inside the lovingly packaged order?
How did that make you feel?
or
Have you ever called the phone provider that you’ve been with for the last 10 years and spent 30 minutes repeating the same complaint to 5 different people all of whom asked you for more personal details than your GP without ever having the feeling that your issue was going to be resolved?
How did that make you feel?
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Now think about your organisation and the interactions people have with you.
When you walk into a great coffee shop there’s a vibe. It feels welcoming. The people there feel like your people - even if you’ve never been there before.
When somebody walks into your office (either as a new employee or a client) does it feel like its theirs? Does it feel like a place they belong, that they can be themselves and thrive?
or
Does it feel like its your place and everybody else has to fit in?
Could you do better?
This doesn’t mean you have to install fussball tables everywhere, its not about spending money it’s about taking time to think.
When was the last time you asked your staff how it feels to work in your organisation?
When they walk in the door are they feeling:
relaxed
motivated
stressed
underappreciated/loved?
How can you make your organisation a place where people feel they belong?
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How about your donor/customer experience?
When was the last time you made an anonymous donation/purchase from your own organisation - or asked a friend to do it for you?
How was the experience?
Did you feel like your time and money were appreciated?
Did it feel like a transaction?
Were you left cold?
Do you feel it is likely you would tell everybody you meet about the amazing experience you just had?
Would you be likely to come back again?
Are there simple things that would have made your experience:
easier (removing the amount of boxes you had to fill out on the form),
more relaxing (is your order confirmation so confusing that people think they’ve made a mistake)
more rewarding (would a handwritten post on the acknowledment be too hard to do)?
Why don’t you try and see how people respond.
At Academy Street Workshop we spend every day working with organisations of all sizes.
We help them with strategy, messaging, leadership, fundraising and more.
So many of the problems that organisations face are routed in only seeing the world from their perspective.
“We want to be able to capture as much data as possible”
“We’ve always done things a certain way”
“We’re not the type of organisation that does xxxx”
“We need more donations”
The reasoning behind these statements might be correct but whose perspective are you prioritizing?
What do you think would happen if you spent time considering every interaction people have with your organisation or you personally and asked yourself “how do I want them to feel about this?” - rather than “what do I want out of this?”
Do you want the experience to be more like your favourite coffee shop or your phone company?
Let me know what you think.
Kevin