The past decade has seen the rise of the Instagrammable food trend, where restaurants have altered menus to prioritize visual uniqueness—often at the expense of taste. In a competitive social media landscape, the question for restaurateurs has been how to stand out and generate audience engagement in the form of likes, comments, and shares.
Under the assumption that creating unique food items will help businesses stand out and garner more engagement on social media, the Instagrammable food trend has given birth to novelty items like unicorn lattes and poop cafés.

Food That Looks Great On Instagram

Since social media platforms use rank-ordering algorithms to prioritize and boost content, figuring out which foods garner more social media engagement will help restaurants and food content creators determine how to better amplify the reach of their online content.Conventional social media wisdom suggests that people will engage with social media content they deem entertaining, where “entertaining” is synonymous with unique, distinct, and atypical. In a food context, it has been assumed that entertaining means food that looks more unique, distinct, and atypical.

Instragrammable Food

While social media forecasters may suggest that unique foods are a trend, this logic contradicts some principles of evolutionary psychology. Humans evolved to quickly visually recognize foods, not just for what is edible, but also for what is calorie-dense.Since finding and eating edible food was crucial for survival when humans were hunter-gatherers, we may be hardwired to feel intrinsically good when we simply see the food we know we can eat.

The Brain Is Evolutionarily Programmed To Recognize Food

The average user spends over two hours a day on social media platforms, exposing themselves to hundreds of different posts in a single scrolling session.While rapidly processing content, the brain may instinctively feel more positively toward images that are more easily recognized as food. These positive feelings can then transfer to behaviours directed toward the post, thereby increasing the likelihood of the post receiving likes, comments, or shares.

The Power Of Social Media

Since people feel better when they see foods that are easily recognizable as food, normal-looking food tends to get more likes. On the other hand, unique foods tend to result in lower social media engagement because they are harder to recognize and classify as food.Despite food <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-42012732">industry bloggers</a> and <a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-trends-2022">social media trends</a> suggesting that people crave unique, eye-catching content, the most successful Instagrammable foods are the normal-looking ones that are more easily recognized as food.

Recognizing Normal, Edible Food

The Instagrammable food trend has given birth to novelty items like unicorn lattes and poop cafes. But is this actually effective?


Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

food

Food

mindfulness

Mindfulness

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Forget food porn. The latest Instagram trend is rooted in an ancient way of life

Apple is a collaborative company. They are organised like a start-up. They meet for three hours once a week and talk about everything they're doing. They don't have committees. One person is in charge of each division.  There is an incredible amount of teamwork at the top of the company, which filters down to great teamwork throughout the company.

The key to Apple's success

Teamwork is dependent on trusting the other people to come through with their part without watching over their shoulder. Apple is great at figuring out how to divide things up into great teams, and all work on the same thing, touch bases regularly and bring the product together.

Teamwork is dependent on trust

If you wanna hire great people and have them stay working for you, you have to let them make a lot of decisions and you have to be run by ideas, not hierarchy. The best ideas have to win, otherwise good people don't stay.

teamwork

Teamwork

videos

Videos

product

Product & Design

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

ragni

Steve Jobs talks about managing people

Some job applicants are fudging key details on their resumes. A new survey shows that job applicants are now also lying about their hobbies and language abilities to find favour with hiring managers. 14% of Americans admitted to including hobbies or interests they don't have. Among the most common fake pastimes are volunteering or charity work, running or staying fit, yoga, photography, painting, art, playing an instrument. One in eight Americans lied about their fluency in a foreign language.

Overstating on a resume

Overstating your abilities or hobbies may not be a deal-breaker for some employers, but it is less ethical, which might be a red flag. <ul><li>You can spot a faker by setting up an interview and assessing his or her purported abilities. When someone is put on the spot, it often becomes clear if they are telling the truth.</li><li>Online background checks and reference checks are also helpful.</li></ul>

How to spot a faker

Some lied about their language proficiencies while others fibbed about doing yoga or their ability to play a musical instrument.

career

Career

humanresources

Human Resources

Job Applicants Are Lying About Random Interests on Their Resumes, Study Finds

<ul>
<li>Inspiration: Thinking big ideas and imagining what might be possible</li>
<li>Collaboration: Working together well with other people.</li>
<li>Craft: Applying skill to achieve high-quality results and always striving to do better.</li>
<li>Diligence: Doing the necessary grunt work and never resorting to shortcuts or half measures.</li>
<li>Decisiveness: Making tough choices and refusing to delay or procrastinate.</li>
<li>Taste: Developing a refined sense of judgment and finding the balance that produces a pleasing and integrated whole.</li>
<li>Empathy: Trying to see the world from other people’s perspectives.</li>
</ul>

The Seven Essential Elements Of The Apple Development 
Approach

In any complex effort, communicating a well-articulated vision for what you’re trying to do is the starting point for figuring out how to do it. And though coming up with such a vision is difficult, it’s unquestionably more difficult to complete the entire circuit, to come up with an idea, a plan to realize the idea, and then actualize the plan at a high standard, all without getting bogged down, changing direction entirely, or failing outright.

A Well Articulated Design Vision

Taste is developing a refined sense of judgment and finding the balance that produces a gratifying and integrated whole. The small-scale justifications must contribute to a scheme larger than themselves. The design responsibility expands to balancing the many individual refined-like responses against the other side of the taste equation, the attempt to create a pleasing and integrated whole.

The Value Of Good Taste In Holistic Design

Persist too long in making choices without justifying them, and an entire creative effort might wander aimlessly. The results might be the sum of wishy-washy half decisions. Developing the judgment to avoid this pitfall centers on the refined-like response, evaluating in an active way and finding the self-confidence to form opinions with your heart and head.
It’s not always easy to come to grips with objects or ideas and think about them until it’s possible to express why you like them or not, yet taking part in a healthy and productive creative process requires such reflective engagement.

Killing The Creative Effort

The appearance of a product should tell you what it is and how to use it. Objects should explain themselves.

When developing Safari, the Apple team quickly ran into speed and performance issues. Steve mandated that the browser be fast, so one member of the team (Don) directed that they implement a set of automated tests that would launch the browser and have it load a bunch of web pages in succession and report back a speed. Ken wrote the code for it and soon they had their “Page Load Test” (PLT) benchmark, which enabled their development process to ensure the product became “faster by never getting slower”.

Apple Stories: Safari

To make great work, one requires a combination of people and commitment. Creative selection and the seven essential elements were our most important product development ingredients, but it took committed people to breathe life into these concepts and transform them into a culture. The culture we created is inseparable from the products we created. In my experience, this manner of culture formation works best when the groups and teams remain small, when the interpersonal interactions are habitual and rich rather than occasional and fleeting.

A Committed Team

Collection of Top design frameworks adopted by world’s leading brands for product and user experience innovation

books

Books

problemsolving

Problem Solving

business

Business

communication

Communication

Design Frameworks

Ken Kocienda is a software engineer who, among other things, worked on “Project Purple”: Apple’s codename for the original iPhone. Ken writes about the process behind software creation at Apple—which he dubs "creative selection"—and how he thinks that process was a significant driver in how Apple came up with its world-class products.

* WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * An insider's account of Apple's creative process during the golden years of Steve Jobs. Hundreds of millions of people use Apple products every day; several thousand work on Apple's campus in Cupertino, California; but only a handful sit at the drawing board. Creative Selection recounts the life of one of the few who worked behind the scenes, a highly-respected software engineer who worked in the final years of the Steve Jobs era—the Golden Age of Apple. Ken Kocienda offers an inside look at Apple’s creative process. For fifteen years, he was on the ground floor of the company as a specialist, directly responsible for experimenting with novel user interface concepts and writing powerful, easy-to-use software for products including the iPhone, the iPad, and the Safari web browser. His stories explain the symbiotic relationship between software and product development for those who have never dreamed of programming a computer, and reveal what it was like to work on the cutting edge of technology at one of the world's most admired companies. Kocienda shares moments of struggle and success, crisis and collaboration, illuminating each with lessons learned over his Apple career. He introduces the essential elements of innovation—inspiration, collaboration, craft, diligence, decisiveness, taste, and empathy—and uses these as a lens through which to understand productive work culture. An insider's tale of creativity and innovation at Apple, Creative Selection shows readers how a small group of people developed an evolutionary design model, and how they used this methodology to make groundbreaking and intuitive software which countless millions use every day.

computerscience

Computer Science

* WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * An insider's account of Apple's creative process during the golden years of Steve Jobs. Hundreds of millions of people use Apple products every day; several thousand work on Apple's campus in Cupertino, California; but only a handful sit at the drawing board. Creative Selection recounts the life of one of the few who worked behind the scenes, a highly-respected software engineer who worked in the final years of the Steve Jobs era—the Golden Age of Apple. Ken Kocienda offers an inside look at Apple’s creative process. For fifteen years, he was on the ground floor of the company as a specialist, directly responsible for experimenting with novel user interface concepts and writing powerful, easy-to-use software for products including the iPhone, the iPad, and the Safari web browser. His stories explain the symbiotic relationship between software and product development for those who have never dreamed of programming a computer, and reveal what it was like to work on the cutting edge of technology at one of the world's most admired companies. Kocienda shares moments of struggle and success, crisis and collaboration, illuminating each with lessons learned over his Apple career. He introduces the essential elements of innovation—inspiration, collaboration, craft, diligence, decisiveness, taste, and empathy—and uses these as a lens through which to understand productive work culture. An insider's tale of creativity and innovation at Apple, Creative Selection shows readers how a small group of people developed an evolutionary design model, and how they used this methodology to make groundbreaking and intuitive software which countless millions use every day.

Ken Kocienda

Creative Selection

When it comes to automation, the value proposition seems clear cut: it strengthens operations, slashes overhead costs, and supports bottom-line growth. There is, of course, a wrinkle: people fear change.
While many businesses are eager to automate as many processes as possible, a portion of Small And Midsize Businesses either lack the resources or the will to streamline simple tasks. Sometimes, there's even outright resistance—employees fear replacement, leaders fret over inflexible workflows, or traditionalists dread the drumbeat of new technology conquering their way of work.

Automation resistance

It's critical that processes are crafted, first and foremost, for humans. Change management should begin immediately when creating a new process; failing to plan all but guarantees resistance. This requires a deep and extensive understanding of where employees are. This may not be where you want them.
Tech-friendly workers are often out of touch with other employees. What might be second nature to you or me—using keyboard shortcuts, setting up inbox rules, or even enabling night mode—simply doesn't cross the minds of workers who are focused on completing the task they are paid to complete.

Meet stakeholders where they are, not where you want them to be

Professionals are overloaded with inputs. Emails, phone calls, incessant Slack pings—the fact is, most employees won't pay much attention to a process until it's forced upon them.
To get through effectively, you need to over-communicate. Then, you need to simplify your message. 
Zealous and clear messaging guarantees a baseline understanding of how new automations will help.

Communicate constantly, effectively, and annoyingly

As an internal champion of automation, you need allies. Across teams and departments, you'll find early adopters and advocates who eagerly embrace change. These employees will help you with a smooth transition.
Connecting with these influencers early in the automation process is crucial. Get their earnest feedback, highlight their contributions internally, and probe them on how effective a proposed change might actually be in the real world.

Secure buy-in from key influencers

Even though some of the backend steps won't ever be visible to end-users, it's still a good practice to keep your automations straightforward. 
After all, it's possible you'll need to train someone on maintaining these processes in the future, and intricate flows are more likely to break. Excessive complexity will only lead to more growing pains.

Don't overcomplicate things

It's easy to get lost in the excitement of building something new; to fixate on outcomes over impact; to lose sight of the humans that ultimately drive your company's culture and operations.
Change is never easy, so put yourself in the shoes of the people most affected by the changes you're making.

Empathize

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

How to overcome resistance to automation

We’re all huge narcissists and we all love the sound of our own name. Learn names and make use of them. Always use an individual’s name in a conversation. A classic from Dale Carnegie’s famous book How to Win Friends and Influence People, this tried-and-true technique is sure to increaseyour fan base.

Use a Person’s Name

As humans, we use social interaction as a tool for feedback, and we make a lot of conscious and subconscious choices based on how others engage with and respond to us.When someone offers a huge grin brimming with authenticity, happiness rubs off on its receivers. There have been many studies showing how mood, whether positive or negative, spreads between individuals. If your positive attitude brightens someone else’s day, that person will love you for it

Smile — With Feeling!

People will like you more if you listen to them. This starts with ignoring your Twitter feed while out to dinner with friends, but goes a lot further than that. You can show you’re listening to someone through body language (positioning your body to face someone and mirroring his or her stance), eye contact (giving plenty of it), and verbal confirmation(we’ll talk more about this next).

Listen (Not Just With Your Ears)

Most psychology books refer to this technique as “active listening.” Active listening revolves around demonstrating your listening skills by repeating segments of what an individual has said to you.It makes the other individual feel as though you really are paying attention. Plus, people love to hear their own words echoed back at them as it pats their egos a bit.

Use Verbal Confirmation

To really show someone you’ve been paying attention, try bringing up a topic that the person mentioned earlier. They don’t have to be big, life-changing events. In fact, sometimes it says more that you can recall and show interest in even the small happenings in another person’s life.

Conversation Recall: Prove You’re Paying Attention

As noted again by the famous self-improvement expert Dale Carnegie,individuals crave authentic appreciation. This is very different from emptyflattery, which most people are adept at detecting. No one likes a brown-nose, and most people don’t particularly love being pandered to. What people really want is sincere appreciation — to be recognized and appreciated for theirefforts.In addition to giving people sincere appreciation, it’s also important to be generous with your praise

Sincere Compliments and Plentiful Praise

People have delicate egos, and even a slight word of condemnation can wound someone’s pride. Of course correction will be necessary at times, but it should always have a purpose and be handled with care. If someone makes an error, don’t call that person out in front of a group. Be discreet, be delicate. Consider offering up a compliment sandwich — a deliciously effective strategy that involves dishing out praise before and after a criticism.

Handle Criticism With Tact

No one enjoys being bossed around. So what do you do when you need something done? The truth is that you can get the same result from asking a question as you can by giving an order. The outcome may be the same, but the individual’s feeling and attitude can vary greatly depending on your approach.

Avoid Issuing Orders — Ask Questions Instead

People like to see character and authenticity. Try to be confident but respectful. Some cooperation experts suggest stepping toward a person and bending slightly forward when you’re introduced, in a gesture of a bow. These kinds of gestures can go a long way toward making people think more highly of you.

Be a Real Person, Not a Robot

People love a good story, and great stories require sophisticated storytellers.Storytelling is an art form that requires an understanding of language and pacing. Master the fine oral tradition of storytelling and people will flock to you like you’re The Bard.

Become an Expert in Storytelling

It has been shown that very subtle physical touch makes individuals feel more connected to you. A great example is gently touching someone’s forearm (with your left hand) while shaking hands (with your right hand) — it’s a great way to finish up a conversation. Not everyone will feel comfortable with this strategy, and if it’s not for you, that’s fine.

Physical Touch

Asking someone for advice is, somewhat surprisingly, a great strategy for getting people to like you. Asking for advice shows that you value the other individual’s opinion and demonstrates respect. Everyone likes to feel needed and important. When you make someone feel better about himself or herself, that person will most certainly end up liking you for it.

Ask For Advice

One great example of situations in which it’s important to avoid clichés is in interviews. Rather than parroting the “nice to meet you”s at the conclusion of an interview, add some kind of variation to make you memorable, even in a tiny way. Try something like “I’ve really enjoyed talking with you today” or “It’s been a real pleasure learning more about [insert company].” You don’t have to reinvent the wheel — just be yourself.

Avoid the Clichés

Asking other people questions — about their lives, their interests, their passions — is a surefire way to get brownie points in their friendship books. People are egocentric — they love to talk about themselves. If you’re asking questions and getting people to talk about themselves, they’ll leave the conversation thinking you’re the coolest. Even if the conversation didn’t really give the other person a reason to like you, he or she will think better of you subconsciously just for indulging this or her ego.

Ask Questions

We all care about what others think of us and want to be liked (despite what rebellious 15-year-old you might have said). The basics of getting people to like you are obvious — be nice, be…

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

startup

Startups

14 Things That Will Make People Like You (Heck, Even Love You)

It is within anyone’s grasp to be the founder and culture creator of their own team.<ul><li>Take responsibility for your environment.</li><li>Choose to think of yourself as a founder.</li><li>Now act like one.</li><li>Trust Your employees.</li><li>Give your work meaning.</li></ul>

You are a Founder

If you give people freedom, they will amaze you.A group’s culture can be studied in three ways:<ol><li>By looking at its artefacts such as physical spaces and behaviours.</li><li>By surveying the beliefs and values espoused by group members.</li><li>By digging deeper into the underlying assumptions behind those values.</li></ol>Three defining aspects of good company culture:<ol><li>Mission</li><li>Transparency</li><li>Voice</li></ol>

Company Culture

Work rules for building a great culture:<ul><li>Think of your work as a calling with a mission that matters.</li><li>Give people slightly more trust, freedom and authority than you are comfortable giving. If you are not nervous, you haven’t given them enough.</li></ul>

Building a Great Culture

Hiring is the single most important people activity in any organization.If you recruit like everyone else, place ads, sift resumes, interview, then hire, you will get the same results as everyone else which are “average.” Work rules to hire differently:<ol><li>Hire slowly.</li><li>Given limited resources invest your HR dollars first in recruiting.</li><li>Only hire people that are better than you. (In at least one area)</li></ol>

The Rules Of Hiring

<ul><li>Get the best referrals by being excruciatingly specific in describing what you are looking for.</li><li>Make recruiting part of everyone’s job. Turn every employee into a recruiter by soliciting referrals.</li><li>Don’t be afraid to try crazy things to get the attention of the best people. To Hire Quality Candidates.</li><li>Ask your best-networked people to spend even more time sourcing great hires.</li><li>Be willing to experiment.</li></ul>

Finding exceptional candidates

<ul><li>General cognitive ability. Smart people that can learn and adapt to situations.</li><li>Leadership. Emergent leadership.</li><li>Enjoys fun, intellectual humility.</li><li>Role related knowledge(the least important attribute).</li><li>Uses ‘We’ rather than ‘I’.</li></ul>

Attributes Of A Good Candidate

<ul><li>Set a high bar for quality. Before you start, decide what attributes you want and decide as a group what great looks like. </li><li>A good rule of thumb: hire only people better than you.</li><li>Find your own candidates.</li><li>Assess candidates objectively. Include subordinates and peers in the interviews. Take good notes.</li><li>Give candidates a reason to join.</li></ul>

The Principles Of Quality Hiring

<ul><li>Eliminate status symbols.</li><li>Make decisions based on data, not managers’ opinions.</li><li>Find ways for people to shape their work and the company.</li><li>Expect a lot.</li></ul>Remember: The most talented and creative people cannot be forced to work.

Mass Empowerment

Intrinsic motivation is the key to growth, while extrinsic motivations can start to shut down the willingness and ability to learn.<ul><li>Improve performance by focusing on personal growth instead of ratings and rewards.</li><li>Avoid defensiveness and promote learning.</li><li>Set goals correctly and make them public.</li><li>Gather peer feedback.</li><li>Adopt a calibration process for evaluations.</li><li>Split reward conversations from development conversations.</li></ul>It is okay to pay two people in the same job completely different amounts. The power-law distribution should be based on performance.

Performance Management

<ul><li>Be a good coach.</li><li>Empower the team and do not micromanage.</li><li>Express interest and concern for team member success and personal well being.</li><li>Be very productive and results-oriented.</li><li>Be a good communicator, listen, share information.</li><li>Help the team with career development.</li><li>Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.</li><li>Have important technical skills that help advise the team.</li></ul>

Good Managerial Attributes

<ul><li>Engage in deliberate practice. Lessons in small digestible pieces with clear feedback.</li><li>Have your best people teach.</li><li>Invest only in courses you can prove to be effective in changing people’s behaviour.</li></ul>

Learn From Employees

<ul><li>Make life easier for employees.</li><li>Find ways to say yes.</li><li>The bad stuff in life happens rarely, be there when it does.</li><li>Recognize the difference between what is and what ought to be.</li><li>Run lots of small experiments.</li><li>Nudge, don’t shove.</li></ul>

Making Life Easy

<ul><li>Ask lots of questions.</li><li>Schedule regular one-on-one meetings with your manager.</li><li>Get to know your team.</li><li>Actively solicit feedback, don’t wait for it.</li><li>Accept the challenge. Take risks and don’t be afraid to fail.</li></ul>

The Newbies: Recommended actions for New joiners

<ol><li>Admit your mistake, be transparent about it.</li><li>Take counsel from all directions.</li><li>Fix whatever broke.</li><li>Find the moral in the mistake and teach it.</li></ol>

When Things Break

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER The Globe and Mail Top Leadership and Management BookForbes Top Creative Leadership Book From the visionary head of Google's innovative People Operations comes a groundbreaking inquiry into the philosophy of work-and a blueprint for attracting the most spectacular talent to your business and ensuring that they succeed. "We spend more time working than doing anything else in life. It's not right that the experience of work should be so demotivating and dehumanizing." So says Laszlo Bock, former head of People Operations at the company that transformed how the world interacts with knowledge. This insight is the heart of WORK RULES!, a compelling and surprisingly playful manifesto that offers lessons including: Take away managers' power over employees Learn from your best employees-and your worst Hire only people who are smarter than you are, no matter how long it takes to find them Pay unfairly (it's more fair!) Don't trust your gut: Use data to predict and shape the future Default to open-be transparent and welcome feedback If you're comfortable with the amount of freedom you've given your employees, you haven't gone far enough. Drawing on the latest research in behavioral economics and a profound grasp of human psychology, WORK RULES! also provides teaching examples from a range of industries-including lauded companies that happen to be hideous places to work and little-known companies that achieve spectacular results by valuing and listening to their employees. Bock takes us inside one of history's most explosively successful businesses to reveal why Google is consistently rated one of the best places to work in the world, distilling 15 years of intensive worker R&D into principles that are easy to put into action, whether you're a team of one or a team of thousands. WORK RULES! shows how to strike a balance between creativity and structure, leading to success you can measure in quality of life as well as market share. Read it to build a better company from within rather than from above; read it to reawaken your joy in what you do.

From the visionary head of Google's innovative People Operations comes a groundbreaking inquiry into the philosophy of work -- and a blueprint for attracting the most spectacular talent to your business and ensuring that they succeed. "We spend more time working than doing anything else in life. It's not right that the experience of work should be so demotivating and dehumanizing." So says Laszlo Bock, former head of People Operations at the company that transformed how the world interacts with knowledge. This insight is the heart of Work Rules!, a compelling and surprisingly playful manifesto that offers lessons including: <ul><li>Take away managers' power over employees </li><li>Learn from your best employees-and your worst </li><li>Hire only people who are smarter than you are, no matter how long it takes to find them </li><li>Pay unfairly (it's more fair!) </li><li>Don't trust your gut: Use data to predict and shape the future </li><li>Default to open-be transparent and welcome feedback </li><li>If you're comfortable with the amount of freedom you've given your employees, you haven't gone far enough.</li></ul> Drawing on the latest research in behavioral economics and a profound grasp of human psychology, Work Rules! also provides teaching examples from a range of industries-including lauded companies that happen to be hideous places to work and little-known companies that achieve spectacular results by valuing and listening to their employees. Bock takes us inside one of history's most explosively successful businesses to reveal why Google is consistently rated one of the best places to work in the world, distilling 15 years of intensive worker R&D into principles that are easy to put into action, whether you're a team of one or a team of thousands. Work Rules! shows how to strike a balance between creativity and structure, leading to success you can measure in quality of life as well as market share. Read it to build a better company from within rather than from above; read it to reawaken your joy in what you do.

Laszlo Bock

Work Rules!

Work Rules! - Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

<ul><li>Financial - refer to customer challenges about the amount they pay for a product or service.</li><li>Support - refers to the level of support a customer needs to complete their interaction with your business. The customer may need help on their way to purchasing a product.</li><li>Productivity - refers to challenges a customer faces in terms of their efficiency. In a B2B setting, clients may want to improve their internal processes and use your solutions. </li><li>Process pain points mean prospects have less favorable experiences on their way to the checkout.</li></ul>

Types of Customer Pain Points

Customer pain points lower the performance of products and services in the market. Customers feel more comfortable spending their money on a company they can trust. 92% of customers are more likely to buy a product after reading a trusted review. Pain points can be difficult to diagnose, as quantitative data does not always provide insights into a customer’s mind. By correctly fixing pain points, your business can improve sales and business practices. In probing customers, you can quickly uncover their sources of pain.

Why do customer pain points matter?

M<a href="https://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/market-research-an-essential-tool-for-business-success/">arket research</a> provides critical information about your market and business landscape. This information is useful when trying to position products or a brand in the market Don’t limit yourself to data just from the sales and marketing department. <a href="https://www.dialpad.com/blog/cross-team-collaboration/">Cross-team collaboration</a> is key, so get support and product involved to get a holistic view of your data. A company can analyze its customer journey to enhance customer experience and improve its conversion rate in a B2B or B2C setting. Analytics software can be invaluable for discovering patterns and trends that can positively impact a company.

Conduct market research and gather data

Engaged customers will provide feedback that can give a fresh perspective on the company and help improve customer satisfaction rates. Use short questionnaires and surveys to ask questions that will offer the most precise answers. With short but detailed questionnaires, a company can put itself in its customers’ shoes.  Feedback allows marketers to understand the customer experience and uncover ways to improve it. Reviews are another great way to gather feedback from your customers.

Gather customer feedback

A company must provide proactive customer service driven by <a href="https://www.dialpad.com/blog/call-center-kpis/">call center KPIs</a> designed to address customers’ problems accordingly. Outward-facing employees are a valuable source in identifying customer pain points because they speak with customers all day. Sales agents assess the likelihood of a prospective customer purchasing a product before they act and can uncover reasons as to why a customer would opt not to buy from a company.

Gather customer support and sales feedback

Researching similar companies enables you to uncover ways a competitor addresses customer pain points. Learn lessons from other successful businesses. You learn new tactics by comparing aspects of your company with other companies on the market Different companies offer varying solutions to problems. Broaden your perspective of the issues customers face in the market and make progress.

Research the competition

Customers need to feel secure, knowing that they are getting value for money with every purchase.  Conduct extensive market research to position products suitably in the market. Products should be of good quality and justify their prices. Be transparent about the price of your product. You can provide an overall price inclusive of taxes and delivery or give an invoice highlighting the cost breakdown. Avoid adding fees at checkout or making drastic price jumps on the product. Customers can feel secure when they purchase a high-quality product that will last.

Financial pain points

Use the best digital customer service solutions which utilize RPA technology to improve response times and streamline customer problems to the relevant agents. By quickly addressing customer challenges, whether ones as simple as <a href="https://www.dialpad.com/blog/dropped-calls/">dropped calls</a> during support or product complaints, you enhance the customer experience. Some customers require support on their way to checkout. Those customers may need an agent to speak with them or guide them through the sales process

Support pain points

A customer may look for more efficient ways to interact with a company. Make use of hybrid working to improve the sales process at any time of day. Use scheduling software to ensure there is always an agent available when a customer could need one. With hybrid working, some agents may operate from other geographic locations and in different time zones.

Productivity pain points

A sub-optimal website can confuse customers and make them bounce. A company that only operates for a limited number of hours can see sales drift to a competitor that runs all day. Use an omnichannel model to interact with customers on any platform, at any time. Shoppers that can engage with your brand on multiple devices and via several channels spend more money with a brand than shoppers that only use one. Ensure that each platform delivers a consistently positive experience and customers will appreciate it.

Process pain points

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

How to Use Customer Pain Points to Improve Sales and Business Practices

Packaging is an integral part of many businesses to show off products inside, protect them from damage, and give information about them. Managers need to know about the latest technology and innovations, such as the process of automation that can improve the packaging process and lead to better outcomes.

Packaging automation

Automation is when a machine takes over a human job. For example, in the past, people would package items in warehouses. Today, automation is more effective in these roles. <ul><li>There are several internet blogs, articles and videos that can walk you through the automation process.</li><li>There is also free guidance from industry professionals who have been working in your field of business.</li><li>Company websites also offer information.</li></ul>

Automation

<ul><li>There is less need for manual labour, allowing employers to save money on wages.</li><li>It promotes safety, such as repetitive stress injuries and back problems.</li><li>There are fewer errors and less wastage.</li><li>It releases up your staff. People can be upskilled and develop, such as learning how to use and maintain automation technology.</li><li>It increases productivity. Your overall output levels will increase, and people's time will be freed up to focus on your long-term business goals.</li><li>It streamlines your workflow and increases customer satisfaction.</li></ul>

Packaging automation benefits

The Benefits of Automating the Packaging Process - The European Business Review

The first requirement in most CS Ops positions is to establish a systemized way to capture your customer’s data.Whatever system you have is a central source of truth that everyone in the organization or company can utilize. As a CS Ops leader, your role will be understanding and organizing the revealed data. The next step is to use the data produced by the system to tell a story not only about your customers but also about your product and your company.

Systems and Data

The ability to distill data and make process recommendations will test the communication skills of even the most eloquent leaders.  <ul><li>Support is a part of the communication loop. Aligning with the Support team guides the resolution of major cases that keep customers satisfied. You also can report bugs to the Engineering team that may prove a more significant impediment in the future.</li><li>Feedback is a form of communication. Any customer data that can be delivered to the Product team aids in improving the product, which in turn creates a better customer experience and engagement.</li></ul>

As a CS Ops professional, you must be permanently poised to listen and learn from your customers and team. That includes reading people in every situation. You must be able to understand them through a compassionate perspective and act accordingly on the insight provided, even when you don’t have direct contact with customers.

The Asset of Listening

A CS Ops leader not only establishes team structure but also helps create a tier system for existing customers with a CS leader. <ul><li>The CS team structure has a lasting impact on your customer base. Sometimes, CSMs do not possess the skills or personality traits to be assigned to a particular segment. </li><li>A CS Ops manager must know the CS team well enough to help manage account assignments, workload balancing, and headcount forecasts when there is impending growth and scale.</li></ul>

Leadership

Passion is a critical word in the description of a CS Ops Professional. <ul><li>First, passion for being in the trenches. They must be willing to roll up their sleeves, dig into complex operations, and “get their hands dirty.” If you aren’t ready to do that, then this may not be the job for you. </li><li>You also must have a passion for designing processes that scale. But to create operational strategies and processes, you need to break down ambiguous problems into concrete, manageable components to identify optimal solutions.</li></ul>

Passion

Excellence in CS requires a great CS Ops leader. We'll tell you the 5 qualitlies you need to be the leader your CS team needs.