Episode 173 - Humanity-Centered Experiences with Natalie Beckerman
I’m off again. This weekend I’ll be heading to London for the Customer Alpha event, where I’ll be delivering the keynote for the conference. “Customer Alpha is a leading customer experience event bringing together a cross-industry community of professionals who never stop striving to better understand and deliver for customers.” How cool is that! I’m excited to be there, and talking about my concept of The UN-WOW. The basic idea is that rather than just focusing on those WOW moments, we need to focus on how to deliver value and connection in those basic day-to-day interactions where people don’t want to be WOW’ed.
A lot of focus on the WOW is around the idea that things only qualify as experiences when they hit that WOW level. So if you are an experience designer, odds are you are going to shoot for that WOW. But that can be a big hill to climb, and it misses the other types of opportunities that exist which don’t involve those dramatically staged moments. Also, staged can feel inauthentic and not organic. To be staged can also feel performative. Performance can also involve a script. The words being spoken are yours, but ones written for you by someone else.
Thus, the UN-WOW is in part a call for the small moments that create connection and a sense of authenticity.
Today’s guest on Experience by Design also has thoughts on the role of making connections in human moments as part of customer experience. Natalie Beckerman, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer at iQor, has experience across many different industries, organizations, and continents. Regardless of where she has been, she has seen the same problems which involve the pursuit of efficiency at the cost of humanity. Part of this lies in not using technology in a way that enhances experiences.
Seeing this problem led her to write her new best selling book, “When did You Stop Caring: The Call to Reignite Humanity in a World Obsessed with Efficiency.” In her book, she calls for companies to do better for customers and workers by focusing on what matters: people. Using examples from her career and research, she lays out why it makes sense to start caring not only because it is the right thing to do, but because businesses that care do better.
We talk about her career and her book. We also talk about her work with Customer Contact Week, which hosts events around the world. This includes CCW UK which takes place May 11-13, or next week!
Natalie shares her athletic past, including playing on the US National Field Hockey Team and being an All-American at Northwestern University. Along with her Masters degree in Sports Psychology, Natalie links how optimizing performance should be not just about the outcome, but also the impacts that processes, systems, and cultures have on the people who are part of it.
We also celebrate her induction into the Rancocas Valley Regional High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
Learn more:
Natalie Beckerman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliedbeckerman1/
“When did You Stop Caring”: https://www.amazon.com/When-Did-You-Stop-Caring/dp/1969508442
iQor: https://www.iqor.com/
Customer Contact Week: https://www.customercontactweek.com/
