Category Archives: The Principle of External Reinforcement

How should you be the customers’ advocate and trusted advisor, so they make a decision “with” you instead of “about” you? Be your customers’ reference point and one of the centers of their universe. If they have to look beyond you for validation, you’ve lost the advantage and submitted yourself to an unforced error from your competitor. How can you embed yourself in their decision process – explicitly or implicitly – and help them along this journey?

The new principles of customer experience design


It’s pretty common now to think of user experience (website or mobile design) in terms of customer experience design (how customers experience your overall brand). The Omni Chanel trends have made this even more necessary in today’s world.   The way I think about it is that customers (on the right hand side) have both primary and secondary needs. Traditionally […]

Customer partnership is about going beyond advertising and offers


Recently, a reader of my book asked me about The Principle of External Reinforcement. Her point was that most organizations are now anyway helping people buy what they need. So what exactly is the purpose of this principle? First, if you are already doing that, then its awesome. It doesn’t really invalidate the principle, only helps support it, right? Second, and more […]

How to enhance customer engagement by reinforcing the choices our customers make


We all know that product or service reviews are helpful in positively influencing the propensity of customer to buy.  However, most research in this space has focused on the product and the moment of purchase. Lets evaluate some very important dimensions of customer engagement. If we put ourselves in our customers’ shoes, we realize that a product feature specific review is only partially […]