108: Stan Phelps & Evan Carroll, Blue Goldfish

Today’s guests discuss their new book, Blue Goldfish, and how companies can bridge the gap between people and technology in a world where human-to-human interaction is disappearing from the customer experience. Solving the riddle of frictionless digital commerce  According to Gartner, 80% of B2B transactions will occur without human-to-human interaction by the year 2020. That’s a pretty big game-changer! While technology is creating some amazing opportunities to personalize the B2B experience, many companies are lagging behind in their efforts to leverage this technology to create a frictionless experience. And customers don’t care what’s going on behind the scenes to make the process impersonal and clunky.  Companies like Amazon have managed to use technology to make it easy to do business with no human interaction whatsoever. How can we bridge the gap like they do? Stan and Evan’s new book, Blue Goldfish, was written by crowdsourcing hundreds of great examples to help you understand how the best companies are staying on top of customer relationships while creating easy, innovative and memorable experiences. Our guests share a few of their favorite examples and explain the secrets behind their success. Listen in to hear what’s next for digital customer experience, some exciting news about Stan and Evan’s upcoming books, and tips for making your digital experience frictionless. About our guests Stan Phelps is the founder of 9 INCH, a consultancy that helps brands win the hearts of employees and customers. He has more than 20 years of global marketing experience with IMG, adidas, the PGA, and Synergy. An IBM Futurist, TEDx speaker, and contributor to Forbes, he has written four books: Purple Goldfish, Green Goldfish, Golden Goldfish, and Blue Goldfish. Stan lives in the Containment Area for Relocated Yankees in Cary, NC with his wife Jennifer and two boys, Thomas and James. Connect with Stan 9 Inch Marketing Stan’s books Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Google+ Evan Carroll is an author, speaker, and experience architect at Evan Carroll & Associates. His career spans roles in user experience, marketing, and product management for leading agencies and technology companies such as IBM, Capstrat, and Channel Advisor. He’s the author of two technology books: Your Digital Afterlife and Blue Goldfish. A North Carolina native, Evan has a BS and MS from UNC Chapel Hill and lives in Raleigh. Connect with Evan Evan Carroll & Associates Evan’s books Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Related Content Customers That Stick® post, Don’t Forget the Connection in Interconnection 360Connext® post, Testing Digital Experiences: How You’re Doing More Harm than Good Episode 007: Communicating Internally, Stan Phelps, and The Audience Experience Episode 071: The Fan Experience Goes Digital Sponsor message: Give your team the customer service training they deserve Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com.   Take care of yourself and take care of your customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices