Stop Copying Your Competitors: Do This Instead!
Most teams can identify friction in their customer experience. The challenge is convincing leadership to invest in fixing it. Digital leaders from Walmart, FanDuel, US Bank, and American Eagle have all faced that challenge. In this encore episode, hosts Chuck Moxley and Nick Paladino revisit key lessons on elevating frictionless experiences to the C-suite and reveal what separates ideas that get funded from those that don't.
Vijay Jayaraman from Walmart explains how teams use peak events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday to quantify the impact of customer experience issues before they become major business problems. Shawn Sheely from US Bank shares how his team reframed accessibility from a compliance requirement into a billion-dollar market opportunity, helping reduce onboarding costs by 70%.
Catherine Gignac from American Eagle offers a powerful perspective on designers as connectors, bringing together the work of dozens of stakeholders into a single customer experience.Scott Smith from FanDuel challenges a common assumption: stop obsessing over competitors. Your customers chose your brand for a reason. Instead of copying what others are doing, focus on understanding why your customers engage with you and what keeps them coming back.
You'll also hear practical insights on measuring friction, defining the "spine" of an experience, interpreting customer behavior data, and translating customer pain points into business outcomes that executives care about.
Key Actionable Takeaways:
- Quantify friction using peak seasonal periods to justify investment - A problem affecting 10,000 Walmart users today could impact millions on Black Friday; use known high-traffic events to correlate current issues with future revenue impact and demonstrate why fixing seemingly trivial problems matters now
- Reframe compliance as market opportunity not checkbox - US Bank saw accessibility as a billion-dollar market rather than legal requirement, reduced onboarding costs 70%, and opened entirely new customer channels by simplifying experiences for assistive technology users
- Prioritize customer voice over competitive benchmarking - Your customers chose you because your brand resonates with them specifically; copying competitor journeys misses the point because their customers are fundamentally different people with different needs and preferences
Want more tips and strategies about creating frictionless digital experiences?
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Dom Costa's LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/dominickcosta
Nick Paladino's LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/npaladino
Chuck Moxley's LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/chuck-moxley