UnSelling: The New Customer Experience

Chapter 5Pulse

The relationship between a brand and its market is complex and always changing. To succeed in the sales cloud, we need to figure out how our interactions with customers and potential customers are shaped. Understanding this relationship is the first step in UnSelling called the pulse.

In the fancy picture shown here the line represents a person experiencing a brand. This is called the pulse line. It moves up or down depending on how the individual is feeling about the brand.

The brand space is the background, made up of three possibilities: vulnerable, static, and ecstatic. The lowest, vulnerable, is where people are most open to competition. They may not have made a purchase decision yet, or they may just be unhappy with past interactions. As companies we work hard to move people out of this space.

In the middle we have current static customers. This is the space where companies have the greatest direct effect on customer experience—for good and bad. Here we see interactions such as “great customer service experience” or “frustrating return policy” as the customer and brand interact. There is never a neutral brand experience; we are always either moving up or down in relation to how we feel about the brand.

At the top we have ecstatic customers. Here we have our brand fans and ambassadors. Competitors can't touch us up here. Static customers exist, but ecstatic ...